As we close the chapter on 2024, a review of ArchDaily's extensive database projects highlights a few standout interior design trends that defined the year. Among these is the use of stainless steel, often paired with concrete and shades of grey, creating interiors with a refined, industrial elegance. This article delves into the increasing prominence of stainless steel as an interior element, exploring its applications, pairings, and growing appeal despite lingering perceptions of its cold, industrial nature.
Mastering Precision: The Rise of Stainless Steel in Contemporary Design
Stainless steel has long been associated with a sharp, rigid, and utilitarian aesthetic, often viewed as less luxurious than materials like marble or exotic stone, especially in regions like Asia, where opulent textures are highly prized. However, this perception is gradually shifting. Established retail brands and premium kitchen manufacturers have started to embrace stainless steel more apparently, showcasing its distinct advantages: durability, resistance to wear and tear, and the precise, clean lines it offers. Additionally, when paired with a sanded and matte finish, its ability to subtly reflect light enhances interiors by creating indirect illumination, lending a sense of sophistication often overlooked.
The rise in the popularity of stainless steel can also be attributed to its inherent challenges and the craftsmanship required to work with it. Unlike natural stone or wood, which allows for on-site adjustments such as cutting and sanding, stainless steel offers minimal room for error. The material's rigidity means it exposes even the slightest misalignment or surface irregularity, making flawless execution crucial. In a sense, this material makes it significantly more difficult for builders to cut corners in the process of making. This exacting nature has elevated stainless steel as a material that signals design and construction precision.
Much like architectural glass, stainless steel demands foresight in design and meticulous planning in construction. Its sharp, laser-precise edges and alignments, when executed correctly, elevate a project, offering a visual language of technical expertise and high-caliber craftsmanship. Designers who successfully incorporate stainless steel into their projects demonstrate a mastery of sequencing and detail, pushing the material beyond its industrial roots into the realm of modern luxury.
Crafting Fluidity: Stainless Steel in Organic Forms
Typically perceived as cold, rigid, and sharp-edged, stainless steel takes on a new identity in the projects highlighted below. It challenges these stereotypes to create a hybrid aesthetic—balancing its characteristic precision with an organic softness. Through advanced manufacturing techniques, stainless steel tubes are bent into intricate forms, transforming them into display shelves, decorative elements, and spatial features. In the MKR Store in Seville, stainless steel dominates the space, unifying the interior with a striking vertical spiral staircase and precisely bent plates, exemplifying technical rigor and meticulous craftsmanship.
Beyond pushing the boundaries of stainless steel's physical properties, as seen in the literal bending of steel plates, the Sandy Liang Store reinterprets the material in innovative ways. Here, stainless steel tubes are shaped into flowing, organic forms, while stainless steel mesh introduces an atypical dimension to the material. This mesh serves as a semi-transparent screen, playing with light, texture, and sound to create a softer, more dynamic presence. Used as wall decor, flexible space dividers, and mesh partitions, the material defines spaces while maintaining openness and imbuing the interior with an airy volume. These creative applications showcase stainless steel's versatility and potential for enhancing user experiences in unexpected and imaginative ways.
Sandy Liang Store / Almost Studio
Milla Nova Boutique Store / balbek bureau
MKR Store in Seville / Guillermo Vázquez Consuegra
Illuminating Interiors and The Reflective Potential of Stainless Steel
One of stainless steel's most underrated qualities is its ability to diffuse and reflect light. Depending on the specified finish, designers can manipulate the material to control the uniformity, brightness, and clarity of the reflected light (or image). This allows for a range of effects, from a softly diffused moiré finish to a sharp, crisp reflection subtly dimmed for a refined visual impact.
In the design examples below, stainless steel is not just a supporting element but a defining feature, used extensively across architectural surfaces such as walls, floors, and other expansive areas. Unlike projects where the material is employed sparingly in accents, these designs leverage stainless steel as a cohesive, space-defining element. Its reflective properties are skillfully utilized to enhance interior illumination, creating moiré-like reflections or, as in the andwander GINZA SIX Store, a dimmed-mirror effect on the floors. Stainless steel's resistance to abrasion and wear makes it particularly well-suited for large-scale applications, including high-traffic areas, where concerns about uneven wear often discourage using more delicate or exotic materials. By carefully specifying the finish, designers can integrate stainless steel seamlessly into the lighting strategy, ensuring it complements and elevates the overall interior design.
NINYAS Restaurant / Ignacio Urquiza + apda Ana Paula de Alba
andwander GINZA SIX Store / Jo Nagasaka + Schemata Architects
Brunstranda Service Building / Vatn Architecture + Jørgen Tandberg Arkitekt MNAL
Ton Corner Coffee Shop / TON Architects
Beyond Gray: Stainless Steel and its Textural Harmony
One of the most popular ways to incorporate stainless steel into interior design is within spaces that embrace a neutral, often monochromatic palette. In such projects, the focus shifts from bold colors to the interplay of textures, creating depth and richness. A muted color scheme serves as the perfect canvas for designers to juxtapose, highlight, and experiment with diverse textures. Stainless steel, with its versatile finishes, complements other gray-toned materials such as microcement, concrete, and stone, adding a distinct layer of visual and tactile interest.
Within this restrained palette, stainless steel's reflective properties act almost like a secondary medium of light, introducing dynamic visual elements that can resemble the shimmering quality of water reflections. For instance, in the Stravinskij Salon, stainless steel with a moiré-mirror finish is paired with gray leather, stone, tiles, and white paint, creating a captivating interplay of materials. Within this highly controlled and sterile material palette, each material contributes a unique quality: stone and tile add texture, white paint provides crisp clarity, gray leather introduces softness, and sandblasted stainless steel adds a luminous depth that amplifies the overall spatial experience. This ability to harmonize and enhance other materials within a gray-toned interior has established stainless steel as one of the standout trends in ArchDaily's 2024 project database.
Haus aa / guudpin design
Phuffle Restaurant and Café / Too.architects
JHW Store / Atelier TAO+C
Stravinskij Salon / Seear-Budd Ross
This article is part of an ArchDaily series that explores features of interior architecture, from our own database of projects. Every month, we will highlight how architects and designers are utilizing new elements, new characteristics and new signatures in interior spaces around the world. As always, at ArchDaily, we highly appreciate the input of our readers. If you think we should mention specific ideas, please submit your suggestions.
