Biotopia
Creating sumptuous, luxurious and comforting interiors
BIOTOPIA is a consumer trend with an increasingly common feature... it’s a trans-seasonal look.
At first glance it might not seem as if BIOTOPIA would have wide-appeal, but wait until you reach the end of this article before making judgement... you might be very surprised.
A few people have begun to mention their ‘Eco Guilt’ and musing about their ‘Eco Anxiety’ ... the former generally being more about the ways in which their personal consumerism and lifestyle directly affect the environment and their Guilt about contributing negatively.
Eco Anxiety is seemingly a genuine simmering anxiety that no matter what efforts and changes they are personally making, climate change is beyond their control – as one person the enormity of the problem is overwhelming.
Aesthetically the BIOTOPIA trend is a portal into a parallel world where humankind has pressed ‘Reset’... the ecological damage we’ve caused is undone and we start afresh... a Utopian story.
A self-fulfilling fantasy, it’s a part engineered reality, part imagined place of lushness and fantastical nature, part Virtual Reality , mesmerizing, dazzling as it shifts and simulates.
Designers envision an idealised impression of our existence on Earth (or far-future existence on another planet) where digital becomes physical & Nature rules. In this world we’re surrounded by exaggerated scales of ecological structures, textures and patterns.
Above we can see BIOTOPIA’s main design characteristics in terms of style, shape, materials & mood: It’s fantastical, it’s glamorous and it’s captivating.
It is the work of Designers and Manufacturers aiming to create a balance between natural & artificial and who are mindful of their environmental responsibilities; focussing on cleaner, healthier, more efficient processes, materials and products … it’s called Smart Nature.
Rana Lamp By Warmly Decor
Mark Dorf
The influences are oceanic and botanical.
Nature fascinates; enticing our attention and awe.
Botanical organisms inspire product textures, surface effects, material innovation and shapes; from sea anemone-like clustered feature lighting to colour shifting surface effects and jellyfish tentacle fringing. We also see glimmers of deep space influences; the pull to go further and discover more. Other worldly lighting, forms and swirling liquid metal effects are all delighting.
The trend’s colour palette merges infinitely deep purples, blues and greens. The purples have a satin sheen, the sea fog is a matte finish and the green oasis a metallic. Blues have the potential to equal the current attention placed on greens because water, the seas & Oceans continue as a focus and visual backdrop for campaigners, filmmakers and creatives.
This new focus on Blue is driven by our focus being placed on the world’s oceans through film, documentary and photography. Blue can provide a moody, enveloping atmosphere that is much more sophisticated than simply appearing nautical. Biotopia’s look is dominated by a broad spectrum of jungle greens.
The images above shows the biotopia patterns and they are mainly divided into 2 styles
One style is depicted by Inky bleeding, watery florals, bleached out florals, cyanotype florals and the resist techniques including Shibori tie-dye. The second style is found in Sea Life patterns such as corals, anemones, sea urchins and Seagrass stripes. Stripes vibrating as if transmitting messages; Swirling liquid glazes in blues & greens; Shifting patterns of Aurora light; Thermochromic tonal prints; Foliage organised into dense, spiralling patterns; Free flowing deep green sea surface gradients; Tie-dye & Shibori techniques deliver watery pattern effects.
There is also a really fun list of materials and surface finishes & effects to add into your experimentation with pattern! Dynamic surface effects that appear animated – shifting & transitioning, moving, merging, blurring and then coming into focus again. Liquid metal and coloured enamels are swirled together; Controlled bubble glass. Biodegradable synthetic materials; Materials made from waste plastics and food are used as solutions for sustainable materials as we work towards a cleaner future. ‘Grown’ materials bring the worlds of Science & Nature together; Eco-Techno textiles.
The BIOTOPIA trend can be used to create very sumptuous, luxurious and comforting interiors.
At night gardens and rooms can be transformed via bio-luminescent qualities. An aesthetic that will most certainly influence many interior and garden designers
It is a lighting style that helps develop an intriguing, alluring sense of luminosity in gardens and provides for fascinating night-time radiance that will be hugely desirable. Although most lights shown in these images are warm white, you can also expect pinks, blues and purples to be more popular as they will better represent the AVATAR look. As the photos above show, we can see that even in the garden we can also see how beautiful the BIOTOPIA look can be. The very dense planting style is part of a ‘movement’ created by some gardeners, toward embracing a greater sense & look of wildness in residential gardens. A crucial and hugely important motivation to this ‘meadow’ style’s agenda is to attract, help and support wildlife. And in line with this is a trend toward organic environmentally friendly gardening practices in relation to pest control, the use of chemicals and organic feeds.