2025 Is The Year Of The ‘Happy’ Home

As we head into the halfway point of the 2020s, we stand at a fascinating crossroads, with seemingly contradictory forces: technology vs humanity, digital vs physical, and dare I say… youth vs experience, all at play. The successful protagonists in the property arena will be those who can navigate these dualities, creating living environments that resonate on both emotional and practical levels. Crafting a happy home is fundamental to who we are as human beings. “We shape our dwellings, and afterwards our dwellings shape us,” as Winston Churchill wisely foretold.

The evolution of AI is undoubtedly reshaping how we think about property design and build. But the faster technology moves, the likelihood is, we'll see a countertrend emerge: a return to handcrafted, human-centred home creation. Property developers in particular, are focusing on reassessing the intersection between wellbeing and the built environment, with a substantive survey by The Royal Institute of Architects (RIBA), championing the cause that home design needs to take a more nuanced approach beyond merely return on investment (ROI), if a workable blueprint for happier, healthier, multi-generational living is to be achieved.

One keynote take-away from the research findings, is “visual complexity,” in essence, recognising the power of uncluttered space and proportional architecture to elicit conviviality and calm. Designs should exude a sense of serenity, as though the planet itself had taken a deep, contented breath. Think Frank Lloyd Wright, who believed in designing in harmony with humanity with his purist colours and patterns in timber, glass, steel, and stone. It’s a symmetry – ‘fractal’ repeated elements – that ensures all parts of the building from the smallest detail to the overall form, speak the same language

Minimalism has been a dominant design theme for many years, but in 2025, this trend will 10x itself and blend the simplicity of minimalism with the boldness of maximalism. So, we are still embracing the clean lines and white space of ‘less’ with more expressive and unexpected elements. Vibey colours, tactility, composition and stimulation are set to influence nesting choices for interior colour schemes, furnishings, accessories and fabrics such as new age materials like bamboo, with the emphasis on natural and organic. Scent is a further ambiance enhancer (the sense of smell is linked to the amygdala, the area of the brain that governs emotion) – only now its power is being deployed to demarcate different living zones – cue a waft of sage or mint in the home office to promote mental acuity or orange blossom in the bedroom to foster serenity and slumber.

You’ll likely be reading a lot in the coming year too, about “building for inheritability” - the construction industry gold standard: design well, with the right materials, the first time, is the way forward. Who wouldn’t agree that the impact of keeping apace the latest fad is unsustainable and poor environmental stewardship?

Finally, those whose homes are collectives of their “consciousness” are also on the right track to creating their happy place. The poetics of space, the rhythms of our steps through the rooms of our house, are touch-point expressions of our ‘well’ being. The altering, the noticing, the pondering over why we have things in certain places, is all time well spent. As we embrace a brand-new year, there’s no time like the present to reflect and reappraise.

Wishing you a happy, healthy and vibrant 2025.