Residential furniture retailer IKEA and IDEO, a global design firm, along with a group of 50 students from Ingvar Kamprad Design Centre at Lund University in Sweden and the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, took a stab at what the kitchen of the future will look by 2025 by designing and developing Concept Kitchen 2025, which was on display in April for attendees at the Milan Furniture Fair.
According to IDEO, the goal was to not only conceptualize the future of the kitchen but what it would feel like to cook, eat and socialize in that space in the not so distant future. Many considerations influenced the design including the idea that living spaces will become increasingly smaller as more people move into large cities and urban spaces, the impact of technology in all aspects of our lives and the evolution of grocery delivery services. Also, climate change and its impact on food availability, cost and waste were key considerations.
The concept kitchen is composed of four main areas: The Modern Pantry, The Table for Living, The Mindful Sink and The Thoughtful Disposal. Features of the pantry include open shelving and RFID packaging stickers that work with induction-cooling technology embedded on the shelves to keep those packages at the right temperature. The table is a true inspiration combining a camera and projector positioned above it and induction coils beneath its surface for cooking. Place an item on the table and the camera records it, pulls up a recipe and projects it on the table along with cooking instructions. The sink is a pivoting basin to encourage water consumption and the disposal allows the user to sort the waste, which is then crushed, vacuum-packed and labled for pick up.
IKEA’s kitchen and dining range manager Gerry Dufresne describes the kitchen as “a tangible communication of what the behaviors of the future will be.” For more details about the project, visit conceptkitchen2025.com.
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