"Trends 2025 & Universal Design" workshop held at the Balsan showroom
On April 9, 2025, the Balsan showroom in Paris hosted the ‘Trends2025 & Universal Design’ workshop for a discussion on the design of more inclusive spaces and the challenges of tomorrow. Balsan gave the floor to three renowned experts:
- Phil Pond, trend specialist at Scarlet Opus, an agency specializing in trend prediction;
- Frédéricke Sauvageot, Director of Quality of Life at Work of Real Estate and Workspaces at ORANGE
- Lucy Gauthier, entrepreneur, inclusion designer and founder of DUNE - Design Universel and LULLABY.
The objective: to collectively question the concept of universal design in the conception of creative projects.
The 3 Balsan trends deciphered
Sources of inspiration for the Balsan teams, our 3 trends for 2025 were presented. They aim to provide our architects and designers with creative solutions in line with the concept of universal design.
- Re-imagine, focused on creativity reinvented by changes in society;
- Re-source, for a return to basics;
- Re-solve, to encourage collaborative work and bring people together.
Zoom in on the concept of universal design
Lucy Gauthier, an inclusion designer, describes universal design as a process aimed at making objects and spaces accessible to all, combining innovation and aesthetics. Adopting an inclusive design approach today, it’s a being a precursor to future market involvement, developing new creative practices and, above all, contributing to changing attitudes and the spread of universal design in society.
What role can textile flooring play?
Textile floors represent a real opportunity to start thinking about the design of universal projects. They can be used to demarcate spaces, create visual and sensory zones for finding one's way around, and control different soundscapes. Textile floors make spaces more inclusive by playing with proportions, colours are distributed to create signage, and textures are used to find one's way around.
Joining this universal design approach means anticipating tomorrow's societal changes, their future influence on the world of design and helping to build an even more inclusive world.
