Design Forecast 2023: A+ Product Awards Winners Reveal Emerging Interior Trends

The Final Entry Deadline for Architizer's 2025 A+Product Awards is Friday, January 24. Get your brand in front of the AEC industry’s most renowned designers by submitting today.

As architects and designers, the products we incorporate into our projects aid us in expressing our vision and creating functional, considered environments. However, they also demonstrate to the world what type of designer we are. Understanding the values, strategies and practices of the companies we collaborate with is crucial and should never be disregarded. Architizer takes great pride in hosting the +A Product awards each year to help architects and designers everywhere make well-educated and varied choices when specifying for their projects.

This year the A+ Product award winners came in all shapes and sizes from designers and manufacturers worldwide, yet, among the favorites, we discovered many common themes. To help you understand the emerging trends for 2023, we’ve highlighted the top trends that will influence architecture and design proposals into the coming year and beyond.

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Evolving Heritage

Finding inspiration in the design techniques, ideas and creators of the past helps to protect history and celebrate our broad heritage. Many designers choose to adopt the practices of the past by finding ways to evolve them and align them with the fashions and styles we see today, often to retain a historical significance while appealing to a new modern marketplace.

The Tecalli stool by Muebles De Concreto is designed to express Mexican heritage in a simplistic and minimalist form. By analyzing Quetzalcatl, the feathered serpent deity, the designers have used concrete to form the abstract stool — rather, they let the stool form itself. Shifting through many transformations during the modeling process, the stool is unique, changing and changeless. The simple stool’s modernity and ancient inspiration amplify the unquestionable duality that lies at the heart of design.

As with The Tecalli stool, Brasilia Collection for Minotti was inspired by Brazil in the 1950s and Pracinhas by Lia Siqueira for Etel Design captures the essence of heritage with its timeless form.

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Handmade Identity

More than ever, clients and consumers seek individuality for their homes and businesses. Uniqueness is a valuable commodity and as designers, incorporating bespoke and handmade elements to our projects brings an elevated layer of personalization and a sense of individual identity. Additionally, selecting handmade items ultimately helps to retain craftsmanship and builds demand for skilled workers across industries that have been in sharp decline for many years.

The Villa Lagoon Neyland design tile is a beautiful example of handmade ceramics. The encaustic cement tiles are layered with a rich finish with fully customizable colorways. The thick, hand-poured color coatings wear exceptionally well and can be combined into up to eight different patterns using the same tile design. These tiles can be subtle and intricate or bold and vibrant. Either way, they are undoubtedly a stand-out feature piece.

The handwoven Panama Rug by Armadillo, which is inspired by the golden beaches of San Blas and the mottled green canvas of the Chagres rainforest alongside Infused Facade System by BELT, which is hand-painted showcase how handmade items bring uniqueness to a project.

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Ore Inspired

Over the last year or so, we have witnessed the decline of copper-colored products — something many people thought would never happen. Nevertheless, while bright polished copper may be out, oxidized metal tones seem to be popping up everywhere. Verdigris, antique blacks and rust tones are becoming increasingly popular for their indication toward natural materials and processes.

Alchemy Lux by Ceramiche Caesar is a contemporary luxury porcelain tile that takes its design aesthetic from the beauty of metal. The tiles are opulent and dynamic with rich shades, diverse chromatic variations, and both matt and polished finishes. Newtro Ceramic Mosaic Tile by Emser Tile has also released a new range incorporating patina metal shades. At the same time, Passage Collection Rug by TSAR Carpets uses mineral tones within its liner pattern.

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Collections for Continuity

A stand-out trend from applicants to this year’s A+ Product awards was submissions of collections. Designers and manufacturers are creating families of products that all work harmoniously. A demand for sets of items suggests clients and consumers are searching for continuity in their projects, opting for items with the same visual language.

Profile by Landscape Forms is minimalistic in design and form. The lighting module takes the recognizable profile of an I-beam column and reimagines it throughout the category of lighting. Landscape Form has introduced area lights, accent lights, column lights, footlights, and a trio of bollards into the collection, which gives Profile aesthetic and performance versatility. This versatility, along with Profiles modularity and scalability, addresses the programming range for public spaces and provides and uninterrupted design scheme.

Take-Out also by Landscape Forms and Riza by Davis Furniture, each won in their respective categories with their collection products.

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Space Saving Multifunction

We often hear the word adaptability when discussing layout and spatial function. With our evolving lifestyles having as much flexibility as possible has become a fundamental requirement for many people. This is no different for product design. People are searching for and buying items with more than one function, particularly in the kitchen industry. Such products satisfy the trend for clean lines and minimalism that continues to persist.

36 Induction Cooktop with Integrated Ventilation by Fisher & Paykel steps away from the traditional bulky, often unattractive overhead extraction unit and integrates it flawlessly into the cooktop. The environmentally friendly induction hob is incredibly powerful, with multiple cooking zones, touchscreen controls and nine fan speeds. The hob is an elegant and multifunctional kitchen appliance.

Dacor’s 30-Inch Combination Wall Oven with Steam is enabled to support searing, boiling, air frying, and conventional oven cooking, and it can all be programmed and monitored via a smartphone. Brig Lounge Seating by Nienkamper is a fantastic multifunctional seating product that is best utilized in workplace environments.

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Stylish Silence

As multipurpose spaces become commonplace in our daily lives, the way these spaces work successfully for various people’s needs results in many challenges surrounding balancing sound. This year, acoustic products took center stage in multiple categories, with many nominees bringing forth their latest technologies for sound dampening stylishly.

Sparkle Acoustic Lighting Collection by Feltouch is a wonderful example of trend-driven acoustic solutions. This expertly crafted product is a multi-pronged workplace solution designed to illuminate an open office environment with direct and indirect lighting distributions while additionally providing acoustic sound absorption.

The Air Baffle is made in partnership with Nike Grind, a global sustainability program that recycles end-of-life shoes into new products. Designed by renowned product designer Michael DiTullo, the acoustic ceiling panel is inspired by, and actually lends its window shape from, the iconic Air Max and its bubble. Each Air Baffle recycles about 100 shoes and over 100 plastic water bottles. A single installation of this baffle can save up to 2,000 shoes and 2,350 water bottles from landfills.

Feltouch, Luxxbox, BuzziSpace and Arktura each took top spots with their acoustic products; Vertigo Acoustic Wall Panels and Lighting, Hemii, Buzzichip and SoftSpan® + SoundBar®.

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Everyday Well-Being

Personal well-being is the subject of a tremendous amount of research conducted by millions of product designers worldwide. With the industry of feeling good making billions of dollars every single day, that isn’t about to change. However, increasingly design for well-being has been evolving, with designers moving away from designing additional products for our collections and choosing to focus on integrating moments for well-being into our daily lives. By redesigning the everyday products, we already interact with, designers aim to invigorate, relax and recenter us when the surrounding world might be a little chaotic.

The Statement Showering Collection re-envisions showering at the most basic level and brings a range of unique shapes and an array of sizes to the shower, breathing new life into well-loved standards and marrying the latest in technology with enduring craftsmanship. An oblong shower head results in more enveloping water coverage for the whole body. Impressive, immersive spray experiences offered within the collection include a Deep Massage spray composed of twisting jets to knead sore muscles and a Cloud spray system to swathe the body in a warm mist. Other spray options include a Full Coverage Rain and a dense, broad Sweep. Each setting endeavors to create a luxurious sense of well-being each day.

Additionally, Natural Edge Garden by Garden on the Wall and White Tulip Freestanding Washbasin, designed by Philippe Starck for Duravit, both use their form and function to bring a sense of well-being to everyday life.

The Final Entry Deadline for Architizer's 2025 A+Product Awards is Friday, January 24. Get your brand in front of the AEC industry’s most renowned designers by submitting today.