TREND REPORT 2025

Architectural strategies such as modular planning, reversible constructions and closed material cycles have long found their place in building practice – and are now increasingly being adopted by interior design. For interior designers, this opens up an expanded toolkit: spaces can no longer be conceived solely for current use, but as open systems that anticipate future change.

Materials that have so far been used primarily on an architectural scale are moving into focus: prefabricated timber modules that can be rebuilt several times without any loss of substance; solid timber or clay components that improve the indoor climate while also being capable of clean disassembly; reused bricks or natural stone whose patina adds aesthetic value; as well as bio-based composites that are finding new formats and applications in interiors. The deliberate visibility of joints – screws instead of adhesives, plug-in systems instead of sealing – not only facilitates later adaptation, but itself becomes an expression of design. Especially in densely urban contexts, where space is precious and usage constantly changing, interiors thus become flexible resources – strategically planned, materially conscious and executed with precision.

Shiyefengwu Shuncheng Store

In Kunming, Studio D’Arkwave applied these principles to create a versatile retail interior of just 108 square metres on the fifth floor of a market. Three central focal points – an abstracted map of Yunnan as a wall installation, a rotating display platform and a communal kitchen island – structure the space. Around them, modules for product presentation, pop-up stands and lounge areas are arranged, built from a repeatable “Brick + Wood” system. Bolted steel rods and nuts hold the components together, making them fully demountable and reconfigurable.

Light penetrates the interior through vertical joints, sight lines remain open, and the furnishings vary in height and position to allow subtle guidance of movement. Within just five weeks, a space was created that can adapt at any time to new programmes – from retail to exhibition to event venue.

MO de Movimiento

In Madrid, designer Lucas Muñoz Muñoz pursued a radically circular approach: a former industrial hall was transformed into a gastronomy and cultural venue without resorting to new materials. Almost everything – from chairs to the bar – consists of reused elements from the demolished structure or found objects. Even the climate architecture follows this logic: large terracotta volumes act as heat stores and passive cooling, combining material aesthetics with functional efficiency.

The spatial organisation remains open, with mobile and adaptable furnishings and installations. The visible ageing of materials is not concealed, but embraced as a design value. Here, the interior is not an end state but a process – a living space that continuously adapts.

 

To the projects:

Shiyefengwu Shuncheng Store, Studio D’Arkwave

MO de Movimiento, Lucas Muñoz Muñoz (Ehrenpreisträger „Interior Designer of the Year“)

 

This year’s ICONIC AWARDS clearly show how architectural projects with a firm commitment to context are increasingly placing local conditions – from built heritage and climate to building traditions – at the centre and developing independent, site-specific solutions from them.

While globalised architecture still relies primarily on steel, glass and concrete, these site-specific approaches impress with their considered engagement with location as well as their nuanced use of materials and building practices.

Especially in times of climate change and resource scarcity, this results in a wealth of design concepts for responsible, distinctive and future-proof building: for example, the wine cellar that follows the topography of the landscape, or the hotel that has been carefully planned around decades-old trees.

These projects underline the consistent commitment of architects and clients to engaging with place as the foundation for striking architectural designs. And in doing so, they go far beyond the familiar idea of the Genius Loci – towards an architecture that not only interprets place but actively continues its story.

Trifolium – a wine cellar conceived from the terrain

The “Trifolium” wine cellar in Goriška Brda, Slovenia, grows out of the landscape and becomes part of the vineyard. Lendarchitektur integrated the brittle flysch rock as a defining element. With minimal technology, raw materials and a compact floor plan, a production facility was created that embodies simplicity, respect for nature and craftsmanship. Through a vaulted pile system, the need for a conventional excavation was avoided, allowing the structure to blend gently into the terrain, mimicking the hill.
The clover-shaped floor plan follows the contours of the site and divides the functions into clear chambers. Exposed concrete and Corten steel form a durable ensemble that appears as raw and grounded as the wine itself. The building process remains visible, and the production sequence is legible in the architecture. Generous openings connect interior and landscape, nature and culture. Trifolium demonstrates how restraint, material authenticity and contextual awareness can become sources of strength.

Jingyang Camphor Court – a hotel as part of the living heritage

In Jingdezhen, China, the “Jingyang Camphor Court” hotel complex has been integrated into a former porcelain factory and the existing old-growth trees. Vector Architects’ idea was to preserve the existing buildings and revitalise them with new functions. From the outset, the preservation of the decades-old camphor trees was paramount. Building volumes, courtyard geometries and roof forms were planned to ensure the trees remained untouched.
A two-storey timber cloister frames the treetops and creates an intimate ensemble reminiscent of traditional courtyard houses. Existing brick structures have been retained and complemented by new volumes clad in warm terracotta bricks, exposed concrete and recycled materials that reference Jingdezhen’s porcelain and industrial heritage. Interstitial spaces, courtyards and verandas weave together with the historic fabric, forming a social structure emerging directly from the site.

Ferrocarril de Cuernavaca 780 – densification with respect for context
The Ferrocarril de Cuernavaca 780 high-rise in Mexico City demonstrates how architecture can respond to complex surroundings without losing its character. On a long-disused plot, HEMAA created a precisely calibrated building while deliberately leaving space to extend the neighbouring park. The context is thus not only acknowledged but actively enhanced. The tower adopts the classic skyscraper typology of base, shaft and crown. Materials such as steel and glass reference the industrial surroundings. Inside, a robot-assisted parking system enables efficient use of space, while the ground floor’s café and shops activate the public realm. The project sees itself as part of an urban transformation: from a former railway site has emerged a lively neighbourhood. It draws on the site’s history while creating a flexible, energy-efficient building capable of fostering a new identity.

Fink Restaurant & Suites – timeless architecture with soul

In the heart of Brixen’s old town, the 600-year-old townhouse “Fink” was renovated by Asaggio Architekten with the utmost respect for its historical substance. Exposed stone walls and arches form the foundation of a reduced and finely tuned design that does not overform the building’s character but instead brings it deliberately to the fore. Here, “contextual architecture” appears as a sensitive dialogue with the existing structure: the architecture not only formally integrates history but also makes it spatially tangible. The combination of simple formal language, natural materials and sustainable thinking has created a coherent overall ensemble deeply rooted in the local context. As a house with a family history, “Fink” also sees itself as a place of memory and mindfulness – both in its architecture and in its monastically inspired culinary concept. Past and present enter into a quiet, respectful harmony.

 

Exemplary Projects:

Trifolium, Klaura | Horvath Lendarchitektur ZT GmbH

Jingyang Camphor Court, Vector Architects

Fink Restaurant & Suites, Asaggio Architekten

Brick has been making a remarkable comeback for some time – not as a nostalgic reference, but as a conscious, material statement. In today’s planning culture, the choice of material is gaining increasing strategic importance – it is assessed holistically across its entire life cycle: from raw material extraction and local availability to the energy required for production, through to durability, recyclability, and reintegration into the material cycle. In this context, brick asserts itself as one of the most robust yet versatile materials – not despite, but precisely because of its traditional production methods and centuries-old application in monolithic masonry.

New projects show how brick shapes both urban skylines and rural building culture, as well as richly varied interior designs: Externally, it structures façades with tectonic clarity and a surface that gains character over time. Internally, the material unfolds its impact primarily as an identity-forming element; its natural texture and archaic appearance offer spatial depth and character, while also convincing through indoor climate and acoustic qualities: As a vapour-permeable material, brick regulates humidity, contributes to thermal mass, and, with its textured surface, enhances acoustic damping – particularly in pared-back spatial concepts with a high proportion of mineral surfaces.

With properties such as high thermal storage capacity, load-bearing strength, weather resistance, and fire resistance, brick is once again moving to the forefront of (interior) architectural attention. Yet the “brick revival” is not an uncritical return to familiar construction methods. Its production through energy-intensive firing, the extensive landscape disruption caused by clay extraction, and its heavy transport weight make brick a topic of debate and drive developments such as recycled brick or CO₂-reduced geopolymer-based alternatives.

Brick in interior design: Modularity and circular design

Two outstanding projects honoured at this year’s ICONIC AWARDS impressively demonstrate how flexibly and atmospherically this traditional building material can be used indoors.

In the SHIYEFENGWU store by Tuo + Urban Wave (China), brick becomes a modular interior design element. Shelves, podiums, and partitions are made from “brick/wood” modules whose components can be repositioned and height-adjusted. Perforated bricks are deliberately used, their lighter weight making them particularly suitable for flexible interior applications. Additional horizontal cavities within the brick modules increase transparency and visually break up the materiality – creating a translucent spatial effect. Visible connections lend the ensemble an industrial-craft aesthetic.

Spanish designer Lucas Muñoz Muñoz, named “Interior Designer of the Year” at this year’s ICONIC AWARDS, also uses brick purposefully as a reused design element – for example, in the restaurant MO de Movimiento in Madrid. All bricks there come from the existing building and have been reinterpreted as wall cladding, seating, or room dividers. Instead of being concealed, the brick remains in its raw form. His use of brick encapsulates Muñoz’s design philosophy: an approach that builds on the existing, allows transformation, and operates in a circular manner.

Cultural identity and climate regulation through reused bricks – the “Hui Space” in Hohhot

In “Hui Space” in Hohhot, China, brick takes centre stage – both functionally and culturally. Designed in 2023 by Zhang Pengju, the community centre combines local building traditions with sustainable construction methods. Not a single brick was newly fired – all bricks were salvaged from demolished local buildings and reused on-site. They form the load-bearing structure and regulate the indoor climate through heat storage and moisture exchange. Supplemented by fly ash insulation, the result is a resource-efficient, durable building that proves: brick continually reasserts itself as a contemporary building material.

Brick as a bridge between old and new – cultural venue in Flix by Camps Felip Arquitecturia
In Flix, Spain, the practice Camps Felip Arquitecturia transformed a former warehouse into a contemporary cultural venue – with brick as the unifying element between past and present. The historic brick façade has been preserved, while inside, the material is used in diverse ways: as flooring, wall cladding, and load-bearing structure. A double-skin wall system discreetly conceals technical services behind a brick layer. Its thermal properties also improve the building’s energy performance.

The projects honoured at this year’s ICONIC AWARDS make it clear: brick is far more than just a building material – it unites cultural continuity with functional intelligence, creating an atmospheric presence that shapes both interior and exterior spaces alike.

 

 

To the winning projects:

SHIYEFENGWU Store, Tuo + Urban Wave

Flix, Camps Felip Arquitecturia

Hui Space, Inner Mongolian Grand Architecture Design Co., Ltd.

 

The memory of architecture consists of the traces of its creation and use, which can be read from the building itself. It appears as a historically grown fabric in which function and meaning, layered materials, spatial structures, atmospheres and accumulated knowledge are interwoven. Through cultural reuse, this fabric gains a new dimension: spaces that once served specific logics of power or production are transformed into places that, with open and future-oriented programmes, enable social participation. Architects around the world are engaging in an in-depth examination of historical substance in order to recognise and rethink the narratives inscribed in façades, spaces, proportions and patina.

Several of this year’s ICONIC AWARDS winners demonstrate how working with the existing fabric can become a living canvas that not only makes an important contribution to sustainable handling of the built environment, but also intelligently links collective memory with social openness.

The Pyramid of Tirana – from political monument to open meeting place

The Pyramid of Tirana has been transformed by MVRDV architects into a vibrant cultural centre. Originally built as an authoritarian monument, it later served, among other things, as a conference venue, office building and, during the Kosovo war, as NATO headquarters. After years of decline, a referendum secured its preservation – with the clear goal of creating an open space for learning and encounter for young people.

Today, the Pyramid is a freely accessible cultural park and education centre, opened after its complete redesign in 2023. MVRDV retained the original concrete flanks and supplemented them with surrounding stairways. Numerous colourful, cuboid boxes are positioned in and around the Pyramid, providing spaces for events and educational programmes. Their seemingly random arrangement breaks through the building’s former monolithic brutality. Newly built stairways allow visitors to climb the Pyramid – something that had been practised illegally for decades. By combining a respectful preservation of the existing structure with the addition of new spaces and an opening to the public realm, the architects created a place that makes history visible while also serving as a lively hub for cultural exchange.

Hagen-Haus – Old walls, a new tone

The Hagen Haus in Nendeln, a neoclassical residential and outbuilding ensemble dating from 1837, has been transformed by Cukrowicz Nachbaur Architekten into a vibrant cultural venue. The listed structures – consisting of a residence, barn, washhouse and shooting hut – have been carefully repurposed as an international music academy. The former residential wing now houses student and practice rooms, while the attic serves as a loft for professors. The barn has been converted into a chamber music hall. A new single-storey courtyard building complements the ensemble as a foyer with communal and service spaces, functionally interweaving the various structures. Adjustable wooden louvres replace the historic cladding, mediating between old and new, while differentiated garden areas link the building to the surrounding landscape and create open transitions. The carefully coordinated use of materials and forms ensures atmospheric coherence – a place that today contributes to cultural vitality in a rural context as an international music academy.

Flix Cultural Centre – Industry meets cultural resonance

In Flix (Tarragona), a historic agricultural cooperative has been carefully converted into a contemporary cultural centre. The new use serves the principle of sensitive adaptation, preserving the identity of the existing structure: the original empty hall with its characteristic naves remains intact and forms the spatial core of a multifunctional building. A clear, homogeneous materiality – above all ceramic adobe – pervades the interior architecture, reinforcing the unique character of the central space. With the new spatial organisation, Camps Felip Arquitectura created maximum flexibility: public functions such as bar and sanitary facilities were deliberately placed in one of the side naves, leaving the main nave largely free – ideal for events and diverse cultural uses. Access and exit routes were carefully considered in the planning. The main entrance was preserved, and additional technical access points and a third exit were functionally integrated. The result is a lively space that fuses historic heritage with contemporary needs through minimalist finesse.

 

 

To the winning projects:

The Pyramide of Tirana, MVRDV

Hagen‑Haus, Cukrowicz Nachbaur Architekten

Flix, Camps Felip Arquitectura