
Interior design of the future
By Jan S. Gephardt
I drew most of this material from a post on my own blog, published in 2016. But as far as I can tell, my points about the interior design of the future–at least, as portrayed in movies and on TV–remain valid.
When I was deciding how to depict life on Rana Station, one question I needed to answer was, “what do Ranan homes look like?” I’m a visual person, and I write for people with good imaginations. I want to be able to “see” what I’m writing about.
What will interiors of the future look like? I decided to do an unscientific survey of movies and TV, to see how others have envisioned the future of interior design.
Blindingly white, or very dark. And cold.
It appears that in the future very few of us will live in normal lighting. If we are very wealthy or on a particular kind of spaceship, our homes are likely to be mostly white.


If we are poor and live on the wretched Earth, or on a different kind of spaceship, our homes will be dark and tiny.


Inexplicable wall . . . ornaments?
It appears we will not care about the dust collected by 3D wall textures. We also won’t have paintings (as an artist, this bums me out) or photos of loved ones on display, because there won’t be room for them.


Architectural features of unusual shape
Stupid, ordinary rectangular windows, doors, and rooms will fade away. Perhaps from their sheer mundane, boring nature. Why cling to the past? Embrace the triangular door! Or the . . . octagonal room?


Uncomfortable chairs
Couches and chairs will have no arms. There will be no throw pillows or afghans. There also will be no recliners, no chintz, and absolutely no lovingly-restored antiques.


It also apparently won’t matter how many hundreds of years we are from now: the Future Design Ghods have decreed that once these design principles have gone into effect, we will henceforth always have to live in cold, dark, cold bright-white, or oddly-shaped interiors, with illogical openings and uncomfortable furniture. Interior design of the future is fun and functional!
Here’s to the future! Happy New Year!
IMAGE CREDITS: Many of the photos I retrieved for this blog post came from Flavorwire. They include the two white interiors, The House Atreides frigate interior, the Battlestar Galactica interior, and the red chairs of 2001: a Space Odyssey fame. I also owe thanks for the two Blade Runner images to Bladezone, to the Memory-Alpha Wiki for the Star Trek: Insurrection still, to Ben Procter for the Prometheus visualization, and to Moviefone for the Elysium concept.