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The Blueprint
ASID released its first 2026 Trends Outlook focused on design in a changing world.
An aging population is pushing accessible design into the mainstream.
Wellness, technology, and sustainability are reshaping residential interiors.
Designers are balancing durability, flexibility, and personalization amid uncertainty.
WASHINGTON — Big changes in the way Americans live in their homes are prompting interior designers to address issues like the needs of an aging population, technology and wellness, while also juggling economic uncertainty, climate change and other outside influences.
The American Society of Interior Design addressed how these movements will affect design and other trends in its first report in a series, “2026 Trends Outlook: Designing for a World in Transition,” available to ASID members.
The report centered on four megatrends: trade, technology, climate and workforce. With the trade segment, for example, the economic volatility happening worldwide is trickling down to everything people do, affecting logistics, manufacturing, labor markets and more, said Khoi Vo, ASID’s president, during an online press presentation about the report. Rapidly changing technology, climate change and a multi-generational workforce are all converging to reshape design.
These “compounding disruptions” will play out more and more, said Vo, and it can be “uncomfortable and unnerving.” However, “It’s never been a more important time for design and designers. With disruption comes change, and with change comes innovation.”
Designers once had the luxury of dealing with one thing at a time, said Vo. Now everything is coming together, “becoming one bigger challenge.” Designers have become “genius magicians,” he said.
The 2026 report focused on the aging population. By mid-century, the number of adults over the age of 80 is expected to triple, reshaping housing, work, health care and community design.
Designing for an aging population is not niche anymore, it’s becoming mainstream. Designs for this demographic should be functional and beautiful, said Adrian Galvan, an ASID Allied practitioner and owner of Designology, who was one of the presentation’s speakers.
“Grab bars are a standard now, we just put them in,” he said. “I still have to have those tough conversations, ‘Maybe you don’t want that freestanding tub, it’s kind of hard to get in and out.’ But once we talk about that process, then people realize, ‘You’re right, it’s going to be harder for me to get into this later.’” He also incorporates other elements like zero thresholds, soft corners and “things that are easy to use for all stages of life.”
Another trend is that people choose to infuse their personality into their homes rather than worry about resale value. “It’s so important that your home is a reflection and an expression of you and extension of your personality,” said Galvan. He also sees clients inspired by travel. “I can’t tell you how many times people say, ‘I stayed at this Airbnb in France,’” and tell him they loved a color or something else they saw there.
Wellness has moved beyond being an aesthetic to a performance metric. Galvan is seeing this particularly in bathrooms. “You start and end the day in the same spot,” he said, and clients are asking for steam rooms, cold plunges and red-light therapy. He’s also introducing more natural light through sky lights and windows.
Vo said ASID is working with the International WELL Building Institute on developing a wellness certificate for residential design. Homeowners now want to know how furnishings are made and their carbon footprint, he said, as well as about levels of indoor air quality and light. It’s an opportunity to educate the client and other stakeholders, he added.
The presentation also touched on how spaces are asked to do more — but quietly, through things like hidden tech — while being durable and flexible. Galvan gets so many requests for performance fabrics, he said. “Cleanliness is so important since COVID.” Pieces must also be durable, almost with a commercial grade frame, but lightweight enough to move around a room, if necessary, he added.
