Episode 36: The Top 10 priorities for our Homes in 2022 - Jane Blakeborough - Research Director at Trend-Monitor Artwork

The Quiet Mark Podcast

Welcome to The Quiet Mark Podcast. Hosted by Simon Gosling CMO at Quiet Mark, the global award programme associated with the UK Noise Abatement Society, this series uniquely explores the vital role acoustics will play in the future of global living, building and product design sharing conversations with thought-leading designers, architects, and sound experts. The World Health Organization (WHO) recognises environmental noise as the 2nd largest environmental health risk in Western Europe after air quality. Noise contributes to a range of physical and mental health problems, disturbed sleep, affects people’s hearing, communication and learning. And, in our smart-phone era, noise isn’t only about the big sounds of planes, traffic and construction sites, smaller sounds like someone FaceTiming on the bus or playing music loudly through their tinny headphones can cause stress, annoyance and impacts our mental health. During this time of Lockdown our world is much quieter than usual, every sound is more noticeable, quietness has never seemed more important or front of mind, where could this take us and how will we live, build, and work after this profound period of change? To help navigate the world-changes around us, these exclusive insights into pioneering projects and visions, explore the future on the other side of the crisis.

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The Quiet Mark Podcast

Episode 36: The Top 10 priorities for our Homes in 2022 - Jane Blakeborough - Research Director at Trend-Monitor

February 04, 2022 • Quiet Mark

There is little doubt that the lockdown months have forced many of us to reassess our homes and how we live in them. As we head into 2022 with a certain amount of relief, we look at the impact of Covid-19 on our behaviours and highlight how the pandemic has driven the new priorities we now have for our homes.

In this episode Trend-Monitor Founder & Research Director, Jane Blakeborough shares with our Hist, Simon Gosling, some of the Top 10 priorities consumers now have for their homes, as highlighted in their Post-COVID Trend Map for the UK Home Improvement Sector.

Trend-Monitor is a leading insight resource for the UK home improvement industry, providing targeted consumer and market insights and trend analysis for major brands, multiple retailers, trade associations and the trade press for over 16 years.

Alongside 'Easily Sustainable Homes', and 'Clean Air at Home', the Top 10 priorities also includes 'Quiet Homes', saying:

Noise is very much an invisible pollutant as many layers of sound can build up over time. Whereas previously we may have been able to ignore these layers of sound, working from home, and in particular when on Zoom or in virtual meetings, has made us extra sensitive to the amount of noise we have going on around us in our homes.

Spending more time at home during lockdown has emphasised the detrimental effect of being constantly surrounded by noise from domestic appliances, technology and poor acoustics. This in turn is impacting on our mental health and energy levels.

Quiet Mark, the international consumer champion award programme associated with the UK Noise Abatement Society charity, is seeing an increased interest in products that ensure that acoustic design is as important as visual design.

You can download the Trend Monitor report, in full, here: https://trend-monitor.co.uk/

https://www.quietmark.com/podcast

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Simon Gosling

Host