Colour Material & Finishes - Key Trends
As part of Aircraft Interiors International magazine’s annual 'Material Trends' feature, JPA Design’s CMF Lead Designer Alessia Giardino provided expert insight into where CMF (Clour Material and Finish) will travel in the coming years.
Exciting developments in fabrics and finishes over recent years have been met with great interest in a number of sectors, including automotive interiors, furniture, consumer electronics and sportswear concepts. The sensory and homey qualities of textiles help to ease the interaction with technology into our everyday lives.
Tactile, soft and approachable is the Google Daydream VR system (See above, image credit; Google) that, along with other tech products, dominated this year’s CES and Milan Design Week events. By bringing such ‘textured’ tech into lifestyle, Google and similar companies are embracing and elevating this growing trend.
Similarly Volvo has embraced fabric in its new 360c autonomous vehicle concept. Tapping into the trend of extending living space and style into the car, the result has been to recreate a domestic environment by using very tactile and emotional media. Whether woven in dark or light shades, twisted or melange yarns, deep or muted tones, the textile is layered onto other natural rich textures, such as leather and wood, and within a monochromatic palette, suggesting a calm and homogeneous look and feel.
Similarly in aviation, fabric is now expanding beyond its traditional application as simply a seat cover and stretching into the space around the passenger, particularly in the premium cabin. Textiles will increasingly be used on lateral walls for passengers to comfortably lean against, or to integrate tech features, without being intrusive for the users. This approach answers the double need for a space that feels more domestic and human, as well as having functional qualities such as sound absorbancy.
Leather is seen used in tonal combination with fabric for crafted upholstery, or to entirely define a product shape, like a lamp. This emphasizes the softness approach to make hardware products soft and human for the user.
Looking to the future, we see multinational businesses embracing sustainability, placing it at the heart of their business ethos and innovation strategies. Natural dyes, and renewable and recycled fibers, provide an additional quality and deeper story. Sustainably produced materials and novel techniques constitute a powerful and ambitious trend.
A unique 3D-printed flooring with terrazzo infill offers environmentally friendly production and a long-lasting quality. The first floor of this type will be implemented in Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, an excellent example of meaningful material thinking that will undoubtedly influence aircraft cabin interiors of the future.
This text is reproduced from the origional article - please see here for the full magazine:https://www.ukimediaevents.com/publication/3e2db9a8/62
