New trends offer opportunities for affordable prices

However, if we regard these factors as opportunities, we can discover emerging trends that can affect the way designers create products, including residences.

If we evaluate the 15-20-per-cent hike in land and construction material prices, which definitely have an impact on property prices, against average salary increases of 6-7 per cent, we can clearly see that the ability of consumers to purchase property has been compromised. Therefore, we have to think of ways to design residences that are still within the reach of consumers. 

There is a range of methods to create affordably priced homes, from reducing construction material quality to shrinking unit sizes. The latter in particular is something that we have witnessed in the market given the prevalence of smaller condominium sizes these days. In the past, a price tag of Bt5 million would have yielded a 45-square-metre unit, but today, a newly built property with the same price tag in the same vicinity would only yield 30sqm. 

As offering smaller units continues to be the leading trend across every type of residential property in the city, designers have to focus on maximising functionality and improving the layout of these cosier spaces. Designers no longer have the luxury of including unused spaces in homes, and even furniture has to be designed to serve multiple functions. Over time, people will begin to adjust to this new lifestyle.

Besides these inevitable physical changes of our residential spaces, emotional changes and needs have to also be addressed. Due to intense competition and increasingly rapid changes that people have to contend with daily, more people are seeking a private space and private time for themselves. 

We can often see this at many popular cafés and various dessert outlets where the seating areas in hidden corners and niches are the most popular and are invariably occupied first. This reflects our subconscious need to be removed from the hustle and bustle around us by carving out a private space and time for ourselves. That is why residential designs today also have to fulfil this need because every family member also wants to have his personal space.

In an urban landscape dominated by structures of cement, sand and various man-made materials, people will inevitably yearn for nature. This can be seen from homeowners’ demands to find a small spot in their backyard to plant trees, or to bring smaller plants into their homes. 

This need then presents an opportunity for designers to find new ways of linking nature outside each house with interior spaces, and design balconies or interior spaces within each condominium so trees can be planted without disturbing neighbouring units, besides landscaping communal green spaces so residents can have easy access to nature. 

All of the changes discussed here are trends that have occurred and are still evolving, much the same way molten lava from a volcano eruption continues to shift. These constantly evolving trends are also affected by rapid changes in various types of technology and the wide variety of lifestyles in urban populations today. Designers have to closely observe these evolutionary patterns to create new and novel ideas, as well as to improve upon existing ideas so that they are even more effective than ever. 

Let’s discuss this further next month!