The Austerity Chic Interior, Gen Z, and Millennials' Domestic Dream

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Issue Vol. 5 No. 2 (2022)
Published Jul 30, 2022
Section Articles
Article downloads 730
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7454/in.v5i2.216
Submitted : Mar 14, 2022 | Accepted : Jul 1, 2022
Urtzi Grau Magana
University of Technology Sydney, Australia
urtzi.grau@uts.edu.au
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1906-1615
Guillermo Fernández-Abascal
University of Sydney, Australia
guillermo.fernandez-abascal@sydney.edu.au
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0334-3290

Abstract

This paper reviews domestic spaces completed in the last ten years to address the following research questions: How do Australian Gen Z and millennials in Sydney, who are currently shaping their future life, imagine their home? What are the domestic values and hopes of two generations that had their coming of age in the Information Era, and who naturally embrace digital technology and social media? What do size, scale, material, and technical innovation mean for a climate-conscious group of people that have lived through COVID-19 confinement, an endless real estate bubble, and recurrent economic crises? Grouped in five categories—sharing life, managing climate, naturalised interiors, reusing new materials, and austerity chic—the analysis of the study cases outlines these generations' emerging architectural interests. The five categories also inform a proposal for an interior constructed with fragments of the study cases that illustrates the paper’s conclusions and imagines a possible domestic space for Gen Z and millennials. 

Keywords: shared domestic life, interior climate, naturalised interiors, domestic materials, austerity chic

Article Details

How to Cite
Magana, U. G., & Fernández-Abascal, G. (2022). The Austerity Chic Interior, Gen Z, and Millennials’ Domestic Dream. Interiority, 5(2), 137–154. https://doi.org/10.7454/in.v5i2.216
Author Biographies

Urtzi Grau Magana, University of Technology Sydney, Australia

Urtzi Grau Magana is an architect, academic, senior lecturer in the School of Architecture at University of Technology Sydney, and founding partner of the office GFA and Fake Industries. His research explores the role of architecture in responding to critical challenges impacting the Indo-Pacific region, including climate justice, immigration, land rights, and extractive economics

Guillermo Fernández-Abascal, University of Sydney, Australia

Guillermo Fernández-Abascal is an architect, a practice fellow at the University of Sydney, and founding partner of the offices GFA2 and GFA. Based in Sydney, Australia, and Santander, Spain, his recent work destabilises the dichotomy of research vs buildings and includes diagrams, stories, exhibitions, films, prototypes, housing, and public buildings across the globe. His recent projects include the books Learning to Live Together: Cars, Humans, and Kerbs in Solidarity, and Regional Bureaucracy, the exhibition Better Together: Stories of Contemporary Documents, the research project The Future of Living, the building for the Enaire Foundation in Santander, and the masterplan for the Machine Khana in Kabul, Afghanistan.

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