HOME – Multifunctional, healthy and economical innovations in the kitchen

Our expectations of the home as a place of work, rest and play have evolved as family dynamics shift, new needs arise and technology advances. In this series of blog posts, we take a deep dive into the home and discover the products at the forefront of innovation. Up first, the kitchen.

The kitchen is the heart of the home – a natural gathering place for family and friends – but our desire to do more in the kitchen, turning it into a multi-functional space, is putting new demands on architects, interior designers and manufacturers of appliances and kitchen tools. In this post, we share some of the interesting trends we’ve seen in Health, Fitness, Food, and Connectivity, and how they have been, or will be, applied to the kitchen.

Examples of innovation changing the kitchen.

Image credit, clockwise left to right: Home Farming Appliance from bostontechindustrynews.com, Niwa smartphone-controlled growing system, Hydroponic gardening, The Biosphere Farm from Philips, eva indoor homefarmer from tuvie.com, Indoor farm from indoor.ag, Design farm kitchen from mettecreates.com.

Home Farming – Economical, Fresh & Nutritious
Urbanisation, spiralling food costs, and concerns about the provenance and safety of food will make ‘urban agriculture’ a trend to watch out for, with people turning to hyper-local sourcing and grass-roots living, creating demand for tools and appliances that enable them to get closer to food in its natural state.

Image credit, clockwise left to right: Himalayan salt block from atthemeadow.com, Egg Master from glenindia.com, NutriPro Cold Press Juicer from Amazon, L’Equipe Food Dehydrator from healthappliances.co.za, Spiralizer from Hemsley + Hemsley.

Healthy kitchen Tools
Demand for healthy ‘fitness’ foods opens the door for kitchen tools that help retain foods natural texture, aroma, flavour and nutritional value after cooking.

Image credit, clockwise left to right: Toncelli’s Prisma smart kitchen from ubergizmo.com, Smart Water bottle sensor, LG Smart ThinQ Kitchen Android app and concept hands-on video from recombu.com, Sansaire Sous Vide Circulator from kickstarter.com, Smarter coffee Maker from technews21.com, Whirpool interactive splashback, iGrill Smart cooking thermometer from thenestway.com.

Smart & Connected – Convenient & Time Saving
The Internet-of-Things has come to the kitchen, with appliances updating our weekly shop, ‘talking’ to each other and us. The Smartphone has become the ‘home control hub’; from appliance control apps to automated scheduling, we can control the kitchen wherever we are.

Image credit, clockwise left to right: Multitextured, customisable modular kitchen workbench from chopandchangeseries.com, Zyliss foldable grater from PDD, Paseco S.I.A.M. Induction Cooker from architecturendesign.net, Frestec personalised refrigerators from PDD, Compact cooker from minutebuzz.com.

Micro Kitchen – Multifunctional, Compact, Personal, Multi-textured
Increased urbanisation, growing populations and rise in single person households means that modern living is becoming more compact, with space at a premium. Easy-to-use, multifunctional tools and appliances that improve quality of life in space –squeezed kitchens will become even more desirable.

More…

HOME – Humanisation of pets
HOME – The changing landscape of UK’s urban garden