- February 18, 2021
- Florence Von Pelet
If we try to put a positive spin on the past year, and we think we all need to do that, it would be that many of us have developed a much greater appreciation for the importance of a good home. By good home, we mean in terms of how we interact as partners, friends or families and also how our homes are designed and used.
Economic studies have identified real-estate and constructions booms of epic proportions and several trends have clearly defined our new priorities: Larger outdoor spaces that help us bring the indoors out; larger homes, where possible, to offer work- and study-from-home solutions; flex-spaces to accommodate multi-use requirements; large capacity or multiple appliances (including countertop appliances, we promise another blog about this) and finally TECH. More TECH. And still more TECH.
Home entertainment, home security, home automation and seamless connectivity as we move from work to play and back again. Homeowners may ask for certain features either by name or by expressing a desire for certain elements like wellness spaces, safety or sophisticated entertainment options so things don’t get so boring whilst confined to our homes and immediate families. The pressure is now on the designer to show up equipped with a bag of solutions that may not have been part of a design proposal in prior years and, even if the design professional makes the smart choice to work with technology experts or integrators right from the start, it’s still important to know what’s even possible – after all, it’s the design pros project and they need to remain in control of their project at all times.
To help our communities of influencers and design pros sift through the wealth of products and solutions on the tech side of home design but also to shed light onto any and all technical aspects of design, we’ve created Design Uncut, a series of webcasts that take the form of workshops, brand presentations (Brand Talks), product presentations (POPS) or that bring us and our audience into the studios and workplaces or artisans & makers.
For KBIS Virtual, the focus was entirely on Smarthome with the 4 sessions you’ll find below. Check them out and if you have questions, please join us to continue the conversation online at @Modenus or in our Kitchen + Bath Industry Group on Facebook .
Smarthome Ecosystem – Sponsored by Control 4.
Kicking off this Design Uncut 4-pack, we take a look at ways to connect smarthome devices into one intelligent system and, no one better to lead that conversation than Control4. Special guests Gordon van Zuiden of cyberManor and Emily Clark of Clark & Co Homes
Beautiful Tech – Sponsored by Crestron
We all know that tech makes our lives easier, more exciting and safer but can it also be attractive? Take a look at this conversation and showroom tour with Crestron .
Taking Life Outdoors
We’ve spent decades talking about “Bringing the Outdoors In” but now, we’re taking the Indoors Outside with innovations in AV and shading options. Special guests Adam Tremble of Acoustic Evolution and Ryan Gustafson of Screen Innovations
The 5th Room
Perhaps our favorite topic in design-land these days is thinking about things to use that spare bedroom and the forgotten bonus room for. Add some acoustics element and an intelligent lighting scheme and your space does what you need it to do when you need it to do it. Special guests JP Bedell of Delivered Lumens and George Walter of Rayva
