STUDIO AAPT
Spotlight
December 2023
6 Trends for 2024
1
Directions Magazine by Design Hotels: A New Hedonism issue, launched in 2023
DESTINATION AUTHORS
Travel brands are already using AI across the customer journey to enhance personalised customer service, improve app experiences, and craft highly individualised itineraries by harnessing extensive online reviews and content.
However, with consumers relying more on AI-powered tools for trip planning, travel and hospitality brands must establish themselves as content authorities with a distinctive perspective. This not only elevates them as go-to destination authors across multiple channels, but it also fuels the algorithms, reinforcing their relevance in this changing travel landscape.
2
Atelier du Pont’s office was conceived as a ‘living structure’ that will evolve with the times
PROFOUND FLEXIBILITY
As the demand for city centre office space declines due to hybrid working patterns and outbound migration, real estate developers must deliver profound flexibility in their outset design, refurbishment, construction, and leasing strategies. Mixed-use initiatives that expand usage beyond traditional tenants will be increasingly important.
New developments – like Atelier du Pont’s wood-based office in Paris and HAUS 1 in Berlin – use adaptable structures and low-impact materials that can be easily re-used and reassembled for inevitable fresh needs in the future. Architect-designed OmniRoom by Mute is ‘modular to its core’ providing 13 universal office design modules that fit together like a jigsaw without any construction, for ever-evolving work environments.
3
Mistaken Orders, Tokyo, employs staff with dementia to increase visibility and empathy of Japan’s aging population
RENEWED KINDNESS
In November, the WHO designated loneliness as a top public health concern. With the number of people over 65 projected to surpass those under 15 in the WHO European Region by 2024, cities are facing increased pressure to adjust their built environments, housing, and social spaces to help residents live better and age healthier for years to come.
Innovative community-based concepts are emerging to encourage social interaction, alleviate loneliness, and nurture empathy in urban neighbourhoods. Whether it's reframing dementia with humour or visualising moments of kindness shared by guests, these initiatives are actively shaping more connected and compassionate local communities.
STUDIO AAPT is a London-based consultancy with a global network.
We help businesses better understand consumers, culture and change.
4
Art Fund visualises the impact of art on brainwaves in real-time for museum visitors
BRAIN CULTIVATION
While ‘brain care’ continues to be a booming wellness frontier, a growing body of research is investigating the positive effect of awe and art on our physical and mental wellbeing, fostering empathy especially among children.
With mindfulness firmly in the mainstream, actively cultivating our brains through art and culture becomes the natural progression. Museums are helping visitors nourish their brains through exposure to art, promoting and even visualising how artworks affect our brains and emotions.
5
Alexander McQueen accentuates its brand storytelling codes through its debut candle collection
LITTLE LUXURIES
From homeware and quiet luxury fragrances to dining experiences and playlists, luxury brands are continuing to extend into accessible verticals, to reach consumers who are moving away from larger investment purchases due to widely publicised price increases, even in resale.
But despite the challenging economic climate, there’s appetite to buy into luxury brands with ‘aspirational add-on buys’ as the ‘lipstick index’ evolves into smaller luxuries in the wider lifestyle category. This trend remains pivotal for the resilience of luxury brands, particularly as they anticipate continued market uncertainty and challenges in 2024.
6
LECAP light ABV wine is low alcohol but otherwise a traditional rosé for ‘leisurely days, and long, long nights’
BEYOND NATURAL
According to research from Ipsos, 62% of US consumers look for products that are as natural as possible. However, pushback against the ubiquitous ‘natty wines’ with ‘better for you’ claims potentially signal rejection of premium-positioned, natural wines that virtue-signal through aesthetic cues and language without the credentials to back up them up.
Are we looking towards a new era for natural wine, with small producers opting for transparency, a focus on regenerative viticulture – or a more light-hearted approach altogether?