At the start of 2020, the commercial flooring landscape for the year was predicted to be very different from what it is now. Like many industries, the pandemic had a huge impact on the biggest trends of this year.

As we near the end of this rather turbulent year, full of changes, ups and downs and uncertainty, one thing is for sure, new habits are being formed, and a new normal is emerging, not least in our active lives.

The rise of the ‘contactless society’ was already accelerating before the coronavirus became commonplace, but COVID-19 has provided an opportunity to rethink how we live, move and meet, says Paul Smith, Head of Specification Sales at Häfele.

Gilles Darmon, Director of KLAFS at Guncast, shares his dos and don’ts of sauna installation – from the areas typically overlooked by clients and designers, to common pitfalls pre-installation.

The Estrel – Germany’s biggest hotel – is in the centre of Berlin. With 1125 rooms and suites, four restaurants, three bars, a summer garden with its own landing pier, a state-of-the-art wellness area and gym, this property offers its guests every luxury.

It probably doesn’t come as a huge surprise that whilst we’ve had to change the way we live our lives this year, our habits and comforts have changed in tandem. Escaping from the everyday for a weekend at an opulent hotel or idyllic farmhouse abruptly came to an end, and we had to seek those luxuries from our own homes.

Tastes remain eclectic as we move towards the New Year, and requests for understated and extravagant patterns remain in-demand simultaneously.

Lighting Designer Nicola Schellander looks at how lighting can transform a home into a highly desirable living space.

When lockdown began in March 2020, the impact on our day-to-day lives was immediate and profound. Liberties that we had previously taken for granted were curtailed, and the way we use our homes and the technologies within were brought quickly into focus. In this article, Chris Knight, Managing Director at CEDIA Member of Excellence, Perfect Integration, looks at a few key smart home technologies and explains what changes the pandemic has made to their relevance.

In this article, Benji Lewis, International Interior Designer and Founder of Zoom That Room, explores how we’re adjusting to the recent changes in our professional and work lives, and explains how he took his business onto a mostly virtual platform to advise and guide clients to make the most of work-from-home setups.