TREND RESEARCH is an exploratory design tool created to investigate contemporary ways of living in light of ongoing social changes and cultural transformations that shape housing patterns.
Through a structured box divided into four color-coded sets, each representing an emerging housing style (shared, wellness-focused, temporary, individual/basic), learners are guided to analyze the needs, habits, and aspirations that characterize both current and future domestic experiences.
Each set contains four cards – furniture, material, accessory, and a “wild card” – are designed to stimulate active reflection on design choices aligned with the selected lifestyle.
The tool has a pragmatic and project-oriented function, acting as an intermediate step between sensory introspection and the concrete definition of space. It integrates principles of environmental psychology, considering the interaction between individuals and the built environment, and promotes a dynamic vision of the home: no longer merely a functional container, but an identity landscape reflecting relationships, values, and desires.
In this way, TREND RESEARCH provides a solid foundation for developing intentional and targeted renovation interventions, capable of creating truly inclusive environments that respond to the deep needs of the people who inhabit them.
How the tool works
The TREND RESEARCH tool initiates a design exploration through the language of cards, guiding learners in a process of recognizing and selecting the elements that make up the living style closest to their vision of home.
The approach is not limited to a single operational method but opens up to customizable, accessible, and flexible paths, suitable for learners with cognitive, emotional, or communicative challenges.
Each learner is invited to interact freely with the card sets – furniture, material, accessory, and wild card – by selecting, pairing, annotating, or simply observing. The tone is inclusive: no technical preparation is required, only openness to listening and imagination. The choices made reveal needs, habits, and desires that often emerge intuitively but are highly meaningful.
Reflections can be expressed verbally, through prompting questions such as:
- Which object could you not exclude from this home?
- Which trend best represents you?
- What is needed for a person to feel protected or part of a community?
- How do you imagine care in this space?
Alternatively, reflections can be expressed creatively, with drawings, collages, keywords, or symbols, constructing small visual moodboards or symbolic maps. Even a single gesture – a chosen color, a cut-out shape, or a written word – can convey a powerful image of how we want to live.
The experience thus serves as a bridge between introspection and design, helping learners give shape to their own visions of living. The final step is not evaluative but reflective: what emerges can be shared or kept private, yet in every case represents a concrete trace from which conscious spatial design can start. TREND RESEARCH is particularly useful in educational, rehabilitative, or intergenerational contexts, where design becomes a tool to honor life stories, cultures, and diverse perspectives.
Visually expressing one’s choices is not merely an act of creativity; it is an act of design self-determination. From this can emerge an inclusive, authentic, and identity-rich space.
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Made with love by Wellhome team
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
