2025 is well and truly underway – and with it, we’re seeing an array of emerging styles and new developments in architecture and interior design. Overall, this year we can increasingly expect to see projects incorporating more sustainable and socially responsible practices in terms of material use, safety and wellness.
As Michelle Ogundehin of architecture magazine Dezeen highlights, trends arise because they satisfy a need – so as consumers and designers, rather than blindly (and wastefully) following them for the sake of staying in fashion we should take personal responsibility for making choices that truly align with our values and needs. This requires a degree of self-reflection.
The trends we set this year and beyond should resonate with the zeitgeist of sustainability, responsibility, and consideration for those around us. Thoughtful decisions, mindful design choices, and sustainable practices never go out of style – in fact, they consistently resurface on trend lists year after year.
With all that in mind, let’s see what’s “in” as 2025 gets into full flow.
We’ve been talking about biophilic design in architecture for quite a while now, and 2025 looks to be the year that this growing trend will truly take off, with industry insiders including Architizer and Format recently citing it as the next big thing. In a nutshell, biophilic design refers to making use of organic materials and features, which can aid sustainability while promoting a stronger relationship with nature. Needless to say, using wood as a building material plays a big part, alongside other natural materials, shapes and phenomena.
For instance, naturally curved and flowing forms can create a sense of ease and aid with traffic flow in buildings while also offering a unique visual appeal, as seen on a large scale in the recent developments of the Tervismaja 2 health center in Ülemiste, Estonia and the entrance of Lisbon’s modern art museum, Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian in Portugal.
Safety and security are important elements of architecture that will never lose their importance; with building designs becoming ever more specialized and expressive, it’s crucial that we always keep one eye on this essential aspect of building design. This year, we are seeing a strong movement towards maximizing available space by repurposing existing spaces and constructing taller buildings. Alongside ever more stringent regulations being implemented all over the world, this is making fire-retardant building materials a key topic for this year.
Fire protection allows wood to be used in large-scale buildings, for both structural and aesthetic purposes, enabling increasingly ambitious projects to get off the ground without compromising on style, quality or sustainability.
One trend making waves in 2025 is the use of silver accents, particularly in interior design, where they create an elegant contrast to warm minimalism. But silver tones aren’t just for interiors – subtle silvery hues can also enhance exterior spaces. A natural way to achieve this effect is by allowing wood to weather over time, gradually developing a beautiful, aged patina.
However, for those who prefer the look from day one, Vivid Silvered offers a range of pre-grayed cladding options that closely mimic naturally weathered wood. These boards are treated with environmentally friendly, water-based paints that have been tested in even the harshest climates. Over time, the coating gradually wears away, revealing the wood beneath as it naturally transitions to gray. This provides a seamless way to incorporate silvery hues into exterior designs in an organic and biophilic manner – blending architecture with nature.
Regeneration is coming in big in 2025, with architects reconsidering the way spaces are used and adapting their designs to be suitable for new contexts. Adaptive reuse and repurposing are terms that come up a lot when examining architectural trends for this year, with Wallpaper* Magazine’s Architecture and Environment Director Ellie Stathaki saying “there’s been a need across projects to reset, refresh, renew, rebalance…addressing our connection with nature, addressing the way we live in cities”. This trend also plays into the ongoing movement towards incorporating more sustainable materials and practices into renovation projects, which presents opportunities to replace previously used synthetic materials that are less healthy and environmentally friendly with natural, more carbon-neutral ones such as wood and stone, as well as bringing in biophilic features as mentioned above.
In 1960s
Now
A unique project in the Borrby village on Vormsi island, Estonia, perfectly illustrates this idea. A soviet-era technical observation post building was given a completely new life by arcitects Ants Rajando and Lembit Tork. Now, it features a striking exterior clad in Thermory Vivid coated cladding, seamlessly blending durability with a modern aesthetic.
Last but not least, a trend we can expect to see in 2025 is architects fully embracing contrast in design. For example, mixed use developments are becoming especially common in public buildings, where adaptability adds significant value. Spaces designed with versatility in mind can serve a broad spectrum of the community and seamlessly accommodate different functions over time with little to no additional modification. We’re also seeing plenty of contrast in terms of mixing textures, with wood being a prime example of a resource that works well alongside other materials like metal, glass and stone. Additionally, different wood profiles can be combined to create depth and visual interest.