Why Japandi Is the Style Everyone Wants in 2026
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Japandi has been quietly rising for nearly a decade, but heading into 2026, its appeal has shifted from preference to necessity. People aren’t just seeking beautiful interiors anymore; they’re craving environments that calm their nervous system. Giovanni Medina Marenco, Design Director at 1508 London, has seen that shift firsthand through his work at the Mandarin Oriental Residences, Beverly Hills, a project created in collaboration with landscape architect Enzo Enea and now considered a blueprint for Japandi’s next chapter.
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“People are searching for calm… the home has become a place to reset,” Medina Marenco explains, noting that Japandi resonates now because it merges minimalism with warmth. When visitors walk into the residences and see natural light spilling across pale woods and stone, he says, “you immediately feel yourself exhale.” That instinctive release, the physical softening of the shoulders, is exactly what people crave.
Integrating Nature: Japandi’s Architectural Collaboration
At the Mandarin Oriental Residences, the landscape is not a backdrop. Its structure. It functions as a structural counterpart to the interiors. Enea’s philosophy begins with what he describes as a “creative intertwining of the soul of the house with its surroundings,” a principle that deeply influenced the interiors.
Medina Marenco expands on that idea, noting that nature functioned as a co-author throughout the design process. “The landscape wasn’t just a backdrop, but it became part of the architecture,” he says. Floor-to-ceiling windows were treated as framing devices, “they frame the palms and hills the way you’d frame art,” turning views into compositional elements.
He points to the living rooms, where the horizon line becomes part of the palette, and to quieter moments: the bonsai garden vignette along the arrival sequence, or the seamless shift where terrace stone meets interior flooring. These touches, he notes, create a sense of continuity, “the home feels like it’s breathing with Beverly Hills.”
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Japandi vs. Minimalism: The Shift to Soulful Simplicity
Minimalism has had its missteps, often reducing design to something cold or sterile. Medina Marenco says the difference comes down to sensory and emotional experience rather than form alone. He describes Japandi as “simplicity with soul,” wood grain you can actually feel under your fingertips, curves that soften a room’s energy, finishes that look shaped by hand rather than machine. “Minimalism removes. Japandi refines,” he adds.
And throughout the residences, those refinements appear in quiet but deliberate ways: an open-grain timber shelf, a stone surface with natural movement, a sculptural chair that reads as both furniture and art. It’s minimalism, but not sterile. A distinction Japandi insists on.
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Biophilic Design Elevated: The Grounding Power of Nature
Japandi’s evolution has run parallel to the rise of biophilic design, and Medina Marenco believes the two are now inseparable. “Both begin with a respect for nature’s ability to restore us,” he says, noting that Japandi brings the discipline while biophilia brings the grounding. In the residences, that synergy could appear in the way natural light floods a living room or the way a garden view might appear unexpectedly in transitional spaces.
He points to the way the residences use shifting natural light to define a room’s character throughout the day, or the way garden views appear at unexpected angles, softening transitions and making movement through the home feel intuitive. Together, these elements create “homes that feel centered and deeply human.” Medina Marenco notes that’s what residents respond to most... not the beauty, but the sense of being held by the environment.
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The Emotional Impact: Why Curves Create a Calm Home
Curves have long been part of Japanese and Scandinavian design languages, but in Japandi interiors, they serve an emotional purpose. Hard edges create alertness; soft edges create ease. “Curves soften a room and soften us,” says Medina Marenco. Organic shapes guide the eye gently, creating a flow that feels unforced rather than staged. At the Mandarin Oriental Residences, rounded sofas, sculptural tables, and tactile textiles play a quiet but powerful role in shaping the emotional temperature of each room.”Curves soften a room and soften us,” he says as organic forms guide the eye in ways that feel natural rather than choreographed.
Rounded sofas, sculptural tables, and tactile textiles influence the energy of the space without calling attention to themselves. Natural materials deepen the effect. Linen, timber, and stone anchor the rooms with grounded warmth. These materials, he adds, “don’t shout.... they settle you,” a line that distills the entire Japandi ethos.
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Longevity is Luxury: Japandi’s Sustainable Ethos
While sustainability is often positioned as a design feature, Japandi handles it differently. It’s embedded through honesty of materials, and not used as a marketing message. For Medina Marenco, longevity always outranks trend. “We focused on materials that hold their integrity over time,” he says — woods with visible grain, stones with natural variation, fabrics that age gracefully. True sustainability, he notes, is “embedded in durability, authenticity, and respect for natural materials.” In his view, “a home designed to endure becomes sustainable by nature.”
Japandi sees longevity not as an eco-message, but as a form of luxury.
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How to Implement Japandi: Intentionality Over Extreme Minimalism
Despite its clean lines, Japandi does not demand extreme minimalism. The style thrives on meaningful personal elements, not empty surfaces. “Japandi isn’t about less, it’s about meaning,” Medina Marenco says. Keep what resonates; let objects breathe. Layer soft neutrals so the room feels warm instead of sparse. Bring in handcrafted details or natural textures that echo your own sensibility.
Even in the residences’ open-plan layouts, the spaces never feel bare. And that is deliberate. “Every piece earns its place,” he says, a philosophy that turns restraint into comfort.
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The Future of Japandi: Sculptural, Sensorial, and Purpose-Driven
Japandi’s next iteration is already visible at the Mandarin Oriental Residences. Medina Marenco sees the style shifting into something richer and more sensorial: deeper timbers, organic stone, integrated garden moments, and a more intentional balance of Eastern and Western philosophies.
He describes the future as “a lifestyle rooted in serenity, warmth, and tactile richness,” one reflected in the bonsai thresholds, sculptural stone bathtub, softened joinery, and gentle curves found throughout the project. It signals a move toward what he calls “quiet luxury with purpose.” Ultimately, Japandi’s evolution feels inevitable: warmer, more grounded, more sculptural, and more deeply connected to nature.
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