Technology – the new order of the day. From the minute you wake up, up until you sleep at night, you are either hooked on social media, your television screen or listening to an audio device and this is how technology is ingrained in our daily lives. Life is not as we know it anymore, the world is changing fast with technology at the forefront and we are just playing catch up.

Interior design is embracing this revolution in so many interesting ways. Hardware and software companies are churning out more and more gadgets that are designed to make our homes more connected and smarter. Everything from digital drawing and rendering, to construction documents and building are becoming easier to do with better results. The tedious, time consuming process of manual sketching has become replaced by the ease of digital drawings. Technology is increasing efficiency and collaboration for interior designers. But it doesn’t end there. Technology is set to play a huge part in interior design in the near future and here are some trends that we currently on to.

Smart Homes

From balancing ambient light indoors with just a hand motion, or giving Alexa a voice command or controlling the temperature in your child’s room from 1000miles away just with the touch of a button on your smart device, our lives are smarter and easier because of technology. It gets better when all of these devices are connected. This brings us to the concept of IoT:

Internet of Things (IoT) in the context of interior design can simply be described as the idea of having all your devices in your home or office connected to the internet, collecting and sharing data without any human interference. Deloitte explains it better here:

The Internet of Things (IoT) has ushered in an age of connectivity, one that enables objects to function in new, expanded ways. IoT technology allows objects to communicate with each other continuously, forming large, interconnected systems capable of creating, communicating, aggregating, analyzing, and acting on data. This, in turn, opens up a world of opportunity for connected objects that can better serve customers’ individual needs and gather data to drive the development of more tailored services.”

Data gathered from these IoT-devices will be used to create more useful gadgets that are suitable to people’s lifestyle making smart interiors built seamlessly into the structure of homes.

Whether you have played a home design game or actually used it to design your home, technology has brought design to your fingertips. Applications like Houzz and Design Home are two of the design power houses that are commonly used by design enthusiasts. Houzz serves as a pool of interior design inspiration where users can find ideas for their next projects and immediately shop directly for products the exact furniture or accessory as seen in the inspiration and get professional contractors within their community to help install the new furniture all in one app. Convenient? Voila!

Okay, maybe that is not your thing and you would rather play a virtual reality game that is more engaging and can let you be creative, then Design Home’s got you covered. These are just two examples that we are familiar with but they are a whole lot more design apps that make the interior design very accessible.

Still in its nascent stage in this part of the world, three dimensional printing is an efficient way for rapid prototyping and building accurate design models. In advanced countries, designers use this 3D printers to build full scale representation of their work. One of the perks of 3D printing is that it is quick and cheaper alternative to building things in the usual way. For instance, in Dubai Emirates Towers, a 3D printed single-storey building serves as an office where people actually work. It took 19 days to build, assemble and open to the general public. It would have taken about 6months to build the regular brick and mortar office and would also have been more expensive.

There’s so much that cutting-edge innovation can do for our homes and offices and our lives in general. Technology is playing a huge role in transforming the design world and if we continue on this path of innovation, there would be no limit to what can be achieved.

It’s really going to be a wonderful future, can you tell?

Photo credit: Government of Dubai, Schaubsrote, Hearstapps