It is surely the room in the house that is designed most to the millimeter. A domestic puzzle with essential functions: water area, cooking, surfaces for preparing food, kitchenware containers, appliances... Operational and spatial efficiency, precision fitting. But also, a creative space that appeals to gastronomic pleasure, to that foodie culture that has contributed to its openness towards the dining room and the living room being fully accepted. On this journey, his physiognomy becomes increasingly sophisticated and also free, with unprecedented relationships. And from the essentials, it pursues the same elegance of the most elegant of living rooms.
Recent designs boast compact yet flexible sets. Although the most obvious thing at first glance are the generous color baths they boast. A whole range of cozy shades such as terracotta, light brown, grayish green, dense blue. Also the claimed pink, which demands to detach itself from stereotypes, in gradations that range from bubblegum to light muted and beige notes. Monochrome proposals in the kitchen generate enveloping environments. Although projects that combine various tones are also proposed. And many other noble materials such as wood and stones.
In its union with the dining room and the living room, the kitchen is covered with details. Like the handles with a functional and decorative vocation, replicated in furniture and containers intended for the living area, giving unity to the entire set. And it is nourished by cultural references. In his Jeometrica collection, designer Luca Nichetto explains that he was inspired by the work of three leading names in the world of design and art. In the architect Gio Ponti and his work on organized walls, the “Sculpture for a Large Wall” by Ellsworth Kelly and in Donald Judd, exponent of minimalism, focusing on his three-dimensional structures, arranged in space as modules that repeat in simple sequences or in geometric progression.
Modularity is one of the keys in the composition of most kitchens. The Ilo Milo has also been designed to be reconfigured at any time and adapt to new spaces and user needs. Created by the young designer Ntaiana Charalampous, from the Dedàleo studio, it revolves around an island made up of seven stainless steel elements, in two heights, although it can be started with fewer modules and expanded.
The customization extends to the colorful fronts of the containers, designed as separate pieces of the structure, easily removable, to renew with other colors and finishes. The concept of recycling and sustainability is highlighted in the countertops made as contemporary terrazzo, with fragments and waste of aluminum, glass and marble. This effort by Charalampous to create a design with a real impact on the lives of users has earned the Special Award at the latest German Design Awards.
Much of the success of islands and peninsulas in the kitchen lies in avoiding that solitary face to the wall and opening a view towards the domestic landscape. In addition to encouraging gatherings around to cook or chat. In its development, the island countertop extends into a table for informal meals. Or propose the table as an attached perpendicular element. Likewise, large shelving units are already part of the kitchen, like filters in an open-plan room. So the kitchen design expands its domains to other elements that did not previously concern it, providing impeccable combined finishes.
The kitchen is transformed along with our uses, customs and evolution. The Dutch firm The Cookery questions the proportion of the sink, which it has converted into a stylized bucket. It proposes an elongated format, with access from both sides of the island, at a time when the dishwasher solves washing tasks. It also establishes new heights of 95 and 100 cm as they are considered more ergonomic with the current size. They emphasize that their kitchen follows the philosophy of car design, as a high-end mass product with multiple options, where each element is optimized down to the last detail.
Among the iconic compact designs that pioneer innovation is the Minikitchen by Joe Colombo, which has a Compasso d'Oro Career Award. “I have in mind something that could be useful in 40 or 50 years, when the world of work is nomadic and furniture has to adapt to the world of the future,” commented the visionary Colombo when he designed it in the 1960s. century for Boffi. It is a monobloc unit that contains the cooking and storage functions in one cubic meter on four wheels.
