The techno style, which emerged in the 1980s, is a merger of new technologies and the interior.
The techno style in interiors appeared at a time when new technologies and information processes invaded everyday life and changed people’s ideas about living space. The techno style combines the great possibilities of architecture, modern innovations and the special atmosphere of lighting design.
The ideas of the techno style are closely intertwined with solutions in the styles of minimalism and hi-tech.
The techno interior and exterior are closely fused with new achievements in film and television, information technology and computer modelling. A device of external structures taken beyond the building envelope is used: a metal frame painted a bright colour resembles the outlines of technical structures — high-voltage lines, cranes, ship rigging.
Techno architecture becomes soaring and transparent. The walls of buildings, curving along a complex curve, are assembled from sheets of reflective glass; multi-storey buildings by day seem to “dissolve” into the air, and in the evening they glow from within with the cells of offices and apartments.
In techno-style buildings, utilities are taken outside the glass walls, and all the ventilation and water pipes and electric cables often also have different colouring, which serves as a characteristic techno decor.
TECHNO STYLE — interior features
Techno-style interiors match the architecture: by the designers’ intent, they create a feeling of a man-made catastrophe of the interior, in which a piece of irregularly shaped brick wall with protruding reinforcement wedges into glass and metal.
Residential techno interiors are associated with objects from repair hangars and factory workshops, railway stations and warehouses. Typical of the techno style are exposed floor beams with lighting fixtures, spiral staircases, mezzanine platforms, and heavy metal doors with rivets.
Materials for decorative wall finishing in the techno interior are chosen with a rough texture to emphasize the technological character of the living space.
TECHNO INTERIOR — furniture
Techno-style furniture resembles locker-room equipment — steel cabinets imitating safes, but with stylish perforated door panels. Cabinets in the form of metal containers stacked on top of each other are very popular.
Corrugated and perforated metal sheets are widely used in techno-style furniture, in open shelves, partitions and other elements. Chairs of bent tubes or sheet metal, stools resembling a lunar rover — all of this is techno.
Tripod-type supports are often used in furniture, and rollers are attached to furniture legs. Glass coffee tables on folding legs or on the same rollers are an important element of the furniture of this interior style.
The main materials of the furniture are glass, metal in various versions, coloured plastic and very little wood.
Upholstered furniture is also present in the techno interior, since sitting on a sofa is still more comfortable than on a metal chair. Most often, low armchairs and sofas with deep seats are used; metal legs and armrests are a must. Sofas and armchairs have synthetic removable covers equipped with pockets for a remote control, newspapers and various accessories. Popular colours for upholstered furniture are metallic, grey, dirty russet, burgundy or khaki.
You can complement the techno interior with armchairs, chairs and stools of coloured plastic or a shapeless pouffe resembling a sack abandoned in a warehouse.
TECHNO STYLE — colour and light
An important element of the techno style in the interior is the variety of lighting fixtures and equipment. Home lamps and floor lamps with their exposed fittings resemble professional equipment with long wires, tripods and hinges.
Floor and table lamps rotate and transform easily, stretching and folding at the most various angles in a fanciful way. The magic of light is widely used in interior design, at times acquiring a philosophical meaning: it fills the space now with a mysterious flicker, now with glints of light reflected from glass and metal.
The elongated matte glass bulbs of techno-style lamps resemble the skyscrapers of megacities; metal ceiling chandeliers consisting of metal plates divide the light, creating original lighting of the interior space.
TECHNO INTERIOR in a modern metropolis
The general impression of “disorder” is also an element of the techno style; at the same time, the visible chaos, created on the basis of a clearly constructed design project, creates a certain harmony and consistency.
The techno style is an interior with a special psychology of life. Such interiors are much loved by people who are young in age or in the state of their soul. It is a kind of denial of perfect order and traditional measured cosiness.
In the interior design of residential premises, the techno style is used infrequently, but in the setting of basements, hangars and abandoned premises — which are often chosen for nightclubs, cinemas and bars — the young generation feels very free and uninhibited.
