Much has already been said about the development and growing importance of the kitchen within the home – both in terms of its central physical location and in terms of the investment in design, technology, ergonomics and materials. A current look at this space shows that not only has this trend not changed, it is continuing to develop. The kitchen, the beating heart of the home, keeps renewing and updating itself all the time. This is the time to check what is happening in the field and what innovations it offers, both functionally and in design.
The kitchen is where traditional, natural and basic activity takes place in the home – cooking and eating. As such, it must take basic and functional needs into account, meet the demands of daily life, and satisfy the longing to reconnect with traditional handcraft, togetherness and family. At the same time, constantly keeping up with the modern, technological world is part of life today, so the contemporary kitchen operates in the tension between opposites, expressed in almost every area.
Materials and colors
The use of traditional materials such as oak and walnut combined with exotic woods, stainless steel, Caesarstone, natural stone and aluminum continues, but it is combined with other materials such as Corian, bamboo, glass, printed glass, natural stone and various types of lacquer finishes.
Corian has completed its entry into the home kitchen and, thanks to its functional advantages and clean look, has become a widely used material. Corian makes it possible to create a uniform surface that includes the worktop and the sink with no visible joints; it is water-resistant, easy to clean and can be renewed, and whereas in the past it was characterized by white, today it is offered in a wide range of colors and patterns.
Glass has also established its place and become common, both as a material for doors and lift-up cabinets and as a material for worktops and wall cladding. Whether clear, frosted, colored, printed or etched, glass is common in the home kitchen, usually combined with other, “warmer” materials that soften its presence.
Contemporary colors are usually soft, restrained and understated – wood tones of all kinds combined with cream, white and gray. However, where color is present it includes shades such as eggplant purple, olive green, mustard and various smoky tones.
Structure
Since the introduction of the “island” into the kitchen, the most significant change its presence has led to is the move to tall cabinets, often up to the ceiling, without a separating worktop. This trend continues, sharpening the division of the space between storage functions and work areas.
In this context, it is interesting to note that in luxury kitchens the approach of hiding various parts of the kitchen using sliding doors (electric or mechanical), moving worktops and other refinements is also becoming established, making it possible to downplay its role as an activity and work area and turn it, when needed, into a purely representative space.
Lighting
One of the important trends in kitchens, which is becoming a standard, is lighting. While in the past it was customary for the kitchen to be lit by a central fixture creating diffuse light in the space, recently the approach has developed that this space also requires different types of lighting, focused and diffuse, to provide a functional and not only aesthetic answer to daily activity. Therefore, the central fixture is combined with various lighting elements such as:
Orientation lighting for kitchen cabinets and drawers, which can turn on automatically when they are opened.
Light strips installed under the upper cabinet units to illuminate the worktop.
Light-transmitting surfaces with integrated lighting.
Lighting integrated into floor tiles.
Lighting integrated into the island unit, both for task lighting and for decorative purposes.
These combinations are based mainly on LED fixtures, which are economical and “green” and even allow color combinations that add visual interest.
LOW TECH alongside HIGH TECH
The trend of contrasts is expressed in several ways. One of them is the combination of distinctly LOW TECH items, such as traditional stand-alone cast-iron ovens, semi-industrial accessories and items, materials such as brass and solid wood, and rough, exposed hardware. These are often combined with minimalist, clean design and sophisticated equipment, and do not contradict the fact that these are kitchens that are the last word in technology and meet the needs and demands of contemporary gourmet cooking and entertaining – they live side by side and even complement each other.
The smart kitchen
The kitchen, as the center of activity in the home, is seeing the entry of items that traditionally belong to other rooms, such as thin adjustable and built-in screens, docking stations for charging electronic devices and playing music, advanced multimedia devices, laptops, internet connections and more. The smart kitchen is more electronic and connected to various content worlds – connections to iPod, DVD, radio, television and so on. In some kitchens, these systems come as an integral part of the kitchen, with units that provide these installations in advance as well as a special place for discs, the remote, the mouse and the keyboard.
Continuing this trend, there are also advanced LCD screens installed inside glass or mirror surfaces, which make the screen blend into the surface and reappear when it is turned on.
The smart kitchen, full of sophisticated electronic devices, also illustrates a revolution in traditional accessories, which today are more and more sophisticated: electronic faucets that work with sensors and are combined with LED lighting and controllers that regulate water temperature and pressure, electric sinks with heating surfaces for drying dishes, advanced range hoods, self-cleaning ovens and more.
The smart and pampering trend doesn’t end there. Advanced electric hardware now makes it possible to turn the whole kitchen into a system that can open up as well as fold into itself: touch drawers that close with a light touch, electric sliding doors, electric surfaces that rise and lower to cover the sink, faucets that retract into the worktop, an island that turns into a seating area and more.
The “green” trend
Awareness of the sustainable, “green” approach does not skip the world of kitchens either. Manufacturers and customers who share this approach are leading a line that creates real change. Kitchen companies, like companies in other fields, take pride in their ability to manufacture while reducing the use of non-renewable natural resources and energy, up to production based entirely on solar energy. At the same time, the use of natural and recycled materials is also finding its place in the kitchen.
Awareness of the subject increases demand for products bearing various “green” certifications, such as energy consumption ratings for electrical appliances, and for various recycling and saving systems, such as water and waste recycling.
Handles
As in other areas, here too two opposite trends can be seen. On the one hand, a clean look achieved by using completely hidden integrated handles, and on the other, especially decorative and dominant handles, such as handles set with crystals. It is not unusual, by the way, to find a combination of both trends in one kitchen.
Hardware
You cannot talk about the contemporary kitchen without mentioning hardware. What was once hidden and of no interest to the average customer has over time become one of the most important elements of kitchen cabinets. Quality hardware provides convenience, accessibility and ergonomics – things that are most important when it comes, ultimately, to a space used for storage and work.
Contemporary hardware offers an almost endless variety of drawers with improved load capacity, quality extension, soft-close, transparent bottoms and more. A huge selection of unique accessories can be fitted to these drawers, such as cutlery trays, bottle holders, fixing units to prevent dishes from moving, divided units for storing boxes, special units for storing cleaning materials and trash bins, spice storage units and more. Lift-up cabinets (opening upward) are also becoming more and more common in the kitchen and make it possible to leave the door wide open while working.
The alternative kitchen
Alongside generously sized, fixed kitchens, approaches and ideas are developing that seek to create a kitchen space that meets more economical needs, which can be expressed in the small spaces characteristic of the dense urban reality of most of us. In this spirit, industrial designer Alon Razgour developed a unit called “the mobile kitchen” – a unit that can be moved, shifted and adapted modularly to varied and changing needs in the kitchen. In addition, all the shelves and units in the mobile kitchen can be moved on rails from side to side and up and down, adapting the kitchen’s structure to a specific activity each time anew.
Among the mobile parts are planters for growing herbs, a cookbook stand, a dish rack, a paper towel holder and a special place for a picture. In this kitchen there are no cabinets, and all the items are visible and accessible. Food for thought.