High-tech is popular not only among those who love tech activities, like programming or playing on a CasinoChan login website, but also among people who aren’t into tech. The reason is that this style prioritizes technology in the interior, which makes life easier.
The most important thing is the presence of a “smart home” system – the electronic “stuffing” in the apartment, which allows you to link to a tablet or phone all or almost all elements in the house (from meters, electric stove, video surveillance and climate control system to the kettle, music center or automatic watering of flowers). With such a system, you can remotely check whether you have turned off the iron, fed the cat, or watered your favorite ficus.
Smart homes also make life easier when you’re at home. For example, the windows are fitted with expensive electrochromic glass (their ability to transmit light changes with electricity) – and you can dim the windows or improve the level of light by clapping your hands.
High-tech is similar to minimalism: interiors in this style are emphatically pragmatic. All the “traditional” decorations (figurines, pads, carpets, ornaments) are excluded here – and those that are there, must strictly adhere to the concept. So, instead of “real” paintings, video art can be projected onto the walls with projectors or photos of complex industrial objects can be hung: constructions and engineering structures in high-tech are regarded as special ornaments.
In such interiors, furniture or stairs are often made of glass – which isn’t convenient in terms of life, but it looks cool.
How High-tech Appeared
This style was invented in the 1960s by English architects of Archigram Group: they transferred the ideas of science fiction and pop art to construction, design and architecture. Besides them, high-tech was actively developed by the poet, designer and architect Richard Fuller, known as the inventor of mesh geodesic domes. And one of the first high-tech projects was the building of the Pompidou Center in Paris.
The ideologists of high-tech in the interior characterized the style as anti-historical (that is why any old objects and antiques are inappropriate here), pragmatic and technological.
Unlike the loft interiors, these technological elements cannot look too brutal, and even more so can not be old: they should outwardly translate the idea of new technologies. For example, touch screens can be used as switches.
Who Will Like This Style
To feel comfortable in such a room, it’s important that you are generally close to the idea of “design for design’s sake” and the aesthetics of spaceships.
The high-tech style also requires maintaining perfect order and fanatical attention to detail. For example, if you have not thought in advance where to store kitchen towels, and decided that you will just buy hooks for them later – it will ruin the whole image of the “space” kitchen.
The high-tech style makes no sense without a smart home system – so it is important that you are inspired by the idea of a kettle that boils on command from your phone, or a voice-controlled air conditioner. And you’d be willing to pay for it all.
What Kind of Rooms Are Suitable for High-tech
Flats should be spacious: if it’s an apartment, then from 200 square meters, but it’s desirable to pick this style for the entire house.
High-tech doesn’t contradict the architecture of the building: for example, such an interior can be implemented in a modern “glass” with panoramic windows, but not in the house in the neoclassical style or historic building.
Colors
The basis of the high-tech style is a sterile white color. It’s complemented by the glitter of metal, black accents, and matte gray (color of concrete). Bright accents are appropriate, but they should be introduced delicately – the colors should remain clean, uncluttered.
Furniture
It should be modern, with clear and simple lines, mostly rectangular shapes. However, in high-tech, complex bionic forms are also welcome – for example, chairs made of plastic “streamlined” design or unusual glass tables.
LED lighting around the perimeter is often used to create the effect of a “floating” bed or a “space” cabinet.
Storage systems should be built-in – and either merge with the walls, or have a deliberately “high-tech” design (with glossy glass and brass, with glossy facades of streamlined shape).
Upholstered furniture is mostly leather (natural or artificial); textile armchairs or sofas are exclusively monochrome, without prints, with floral or ornamental motifs.
Decor
The decor in the high-tech interior is a minimum, and that is carefully thought out – from color, size, shape to its specific place in the space. These can be vases of unusual shapes, metal figurines, geometric floor clocks, frameless black and white photographs, modern graphic abstractions, posters with industrial objects, accessories in the style of steampunk, large frameless mirrors. Also an aquarium with exotic fish and a minimalist electric fireplace would fit perfectly into the space.
Lighting
The combination of light and shadow is the second most important decoration in the high-tech interior. The light should come from everywhere: from the ceiling, walls, furniture, floor. It must be reflected from the surfaces, refracted and change the geometry of the space. Therefore, a centered source of lighting isn’t suitable, and there is no place for a luxury chandelier in a high-tech interior.
String and halogen fixtures, accent spotlights and spotlights, LED strips, chrome-plated floor lamps with frosted glass lamps, built-in and pendant lamps will cope with the task.
Summary
After all, a smart home system is important for a high-tech renovation: everything should be remotely controlled. From the Internet, electricity or security, to curtain rods, curtains that open and close, music, regulation of light and shade of windows.
Such interiors are characterized by a clean color scheme – sterile white, black, metallic and chrome accents. If any other colors appear, they are introduced very laconically – and they are bright, clean, and open.
Complex polymers, acrylics, and plastics are used in finishes. Bionic forms are popular – such furniture looks as if it’s from a spaceship from science fiction movies.