As global urbanization accelerates at a rapid pace, living spaces in contemporary cities and the projected cities of the future grow ever smaller. To anticipate these changes, product design firm AXOR has partnered with The Future Laboratory, a leading international consulting firm for future trends, for the development of their project 'Compact Luxury.' Aimed at uncovering the major influences of urbanization and adapting luxury spaces for these anticipated global changes, the Compact Luxury project identifies trends in contemporary living and projects a future for compact design.
Through this project, AXOR aims to bring architects and interior designers into conversation to gain new ideas, insights, and inspiration for a new meaning of luxury, adapted to the ever-shifting urban environment. According to the United Nations, by 2050, two in three people will inhabit a megacity—a growing challenge imperative for architecture and design to address.
Already, living spaces are shrinking as outside stresses grow, fueling the demand for an ever-higher quality of life inside the home. A private oasis amid the bustle of the city, the home is expected to offer areas not only for socializing and entertaining, but for restoring one’s sense of well-being. Focus is shifting to personal spaces of retreat and revitalization, such as the bathroom.
"What can architects and interior designers do not just to optimize these spaces but to enhance them? To infuse them with character, meaning, and soul? To deliver on the very personal perception of what luxury is for each and everybody? These are the questions we are exploring with this project," Anke Sohn, Head of AXOR Brand Marketing, explains.
While the solutions for these questions are many, one thing is clear: The new urban luxury will not be measured only in square meters. According to AXOR, it will be conveyed by archetypal designs that endure, and will be reflected in the quality of one’s private time, the satisfaction in performing one’s personal rituals, and the sense of well-being that ensues. In their Compact Luxury Report, which can be downloaded online, the brand unpacks three major trends driving the new notion of Compact Luxury:
- Liberated Living: how a boundary-less mindset is emerging among consumers, driven by a desire for flexibility.
- Immaterial Affluence: how consumers are forgoing traditional markers of wealth, embracing increasingly immaterial forms of luxury instead.
- Conscious Wellbeing: how consumer concern around urban living is driving a desire for spaces that support individual and collective wellbeing.
Their products are designed to meet these criteria for the development of luxurious homes, bathrooms, and kitchens. Already, several projects exemplifying the tenets of Compact Luxury have been designed, including this compact Japanese house and this renovated New York City apartment complex. Developed in collaboration with world-renowned designers—Philippe Starck, Antonio Citterio, Jean-Marie Massaud, and Barber Osgerby among them—the firm's products include faucets, showers, and accessories, all produced to the highest standards of quality. Through its designs and services, AXOR proclaims to inspire and enable architects, interior designers, and the design-savvy public to help shape water-related spaces that reflect the unique personality of the user. Part of the Hansgrohe Group, AXOR is a brand dedicated to developing distinctive products manufactured with excellence.