Multi-functionality, versatility, transformability, sustainability and digitisation are the main trends that have been seen in the home environment over the last few years. But with this year’s health emergency these processes of transformation have speeded up considerably towards the new idea of an “extended home”, where the boundaries between indoors and outdoors are increasingly fluid, where the real and virtual worlds are interchangeable and everything is within easy reach. And where home decor and furnishing items make all the difference, because they are the main protagonists of this change.

While on the one hand we can no longer do without spaces set up for remote working, on the other there is still as a strong demand for spaces suitable for the family to come together in. How do we reconcile such apparently opposing needs? How do we make living spaces flexible and versatile and above all how do we adapt them to the increasingly digital and nomadic lifestyles we are now living while safeguarding our private lives (and our privacy), in a way that is also consistent with sustainability?

To take things one step at a time, you can start by reconfiguring a room depending on the time of day: all you need to do is surround yourself with “nomadic” objects and complements, ones that will transform and adapt to sudden changes of use. One interesting response here is the Desine project, which received an Honourable Mention at the Compasso d’Oro 2020. It is a collection of versatile, lightweight, multi-functional collection of complements and objects: “the objects that animate our daily landscapes,” as the presentation says, “are never just tools or pieces of equipment that serve a practical purpose. They are behaviour activators, a means of communication, the instruments of our gestuality …”.

The main thing is to make the best possible use of every square metre of the home, and have a desk that can become a dining table, an easy chair that can also serve as a work chair, or even a rechargeable table lamp that can be moved to the terrace for dinner with friends. Or else each room can be made unique through the careful choice of a fragrance, fabrics suitable also for outdoor use and a palette of natural, warm and welcoming colours.

Because “we need objects and – when they are made to last – they outlive us, and become filled with traces of past relationships. In order for them to withstand the passage of time they need to carry out basic, useful functions; but they also need to have clear forms that transcend passing fashions.”