The new desire for luxury – international furniture trends 2006

Increased global competition has the effect that companies who want to survive in the international market have to make innovation and high-quality design their highest priorities. This pressure continuously raises the design quality – not only in the high price segment, but ultimately also in the overall market.

Consumers have recognised this development and are focusing on quality and prominent brands again. They carefully weigh up what to spend money on and rather invest in a high-quality design piece than cheaply produced mass-products.

This trend reversal and its positive effect on the economy has already become apparent in some industries: the S-Class has further strengthened its position as the best-selling luxury sedan in the world in the past month; the Finish mobile phone market leader Nokia managed to increase its turnover by a cool twenty-eight percent in the first quarter, and Apple recorded a 34 percent increase in turnover and a profit increase of 41 percent.

Besides financial success, the mentioned examples have above all one thing in common: they are successful thanks to leading technology and highest design quality - a characteristic which plays an increasingly important role particularly in our age of globalisation.

The new desire for luxury and individuality is also becoming noticeable in the field of furniture design. Design has become an essential economic factor; therefore the industry is optimistic about its future.

Luxury is a feeling, an attitude towards life which everyone defines individually. Where some see exclusiveness in the opulence of forms, others prefer the complete opposite: the reduction of design to the essentials. Thus, the trend towards new luxury in the field of furniture design expresses itself in two opposed styles, the tendency towards baroque opulence on the one hand and functional purism on the other hand.

In our trend galleries we present current examples of both trends:


» Trend gallery “Baroque ’n’ Roll – opulent sensuousness”

» Trend gallery “Less – pure functionalism”