Kitchen Futures is a series of posts over the past few weeks, taking a glimpse into the future of home cooking through five trends spanning from short term to long term. Our fourth post in the series focuses on how the sustainable kitchen of the future may take shape, from sleek and sophisticated surfaces to efficiency reflected in form as well as function.
As consumer expectations rise and responsibility becomes more balanced, the future of sustainable environments has never been more important…
The art of cooking and the act of eating has evolved greatly over time from nourishment, to excess, to healthy, to convivial, to experimental – it’s in a constant state of transition.
But as the world resources continue to be put under scrutiny, consumers and manufacturers alike will be turning their attention to how these environmental issues and movement towards sustainable living will shape the future of home cooking.
Future sustainable cooking will command a balance in responsibility between consumers and brand/manufacturers. Consumers will expect engaging, easy, seamless and adaptable means to suit their multi-faceted lives. But, equally brands and manufacturers will place some of the responsibility back into the hands of consumers; asking them to embrace new products, systems and behaviours around home cooking, by acting responsibly and consciously through device enablement.
Featured and above image credits: PDD
‘Nose-to-tail’ approach from source to resource…
Think…
Source – focus on design, materials and manufacture; creating products with the least amount of negative impact on the environment. Local production, recyclable and sustainable materials (from developed to developing markets).
Passive systems – more efficiency and less waste in the home becomes truly ambient from cooking to cooling appliances (energy, water, sound, switching energy systems).
Active systems – enabling consumers through integrated and seamless behaviours or actions (home recycling, composting, second life products).
Resource – home-grown and digital foraging systems; ingredients found from your natural surrounds doesn’t mean you have to live in the country. Vertical indoor gardens, digital systems for sourcing seasonal & local produce, recipes based on real-time findings.
Image credit:
01 > Microbial Home Probe – domestic ecosystem project by Philips Design
04 > Crudité of carrots, beet roots, cucumber, kohlrabi – from Noma restaurant, image source: Very Good Food
05 > Concrete kitchen 10 – Induction hob, from Steininger
Directions to consider when translating this trend:
- Efficiency reflected in form as well as function
- Stripped of excess, only the essential – less equals more design
- Visual balance – coming together of environment and lifestyle
- Smart systems creating new behaviours and new kitchen layouts
- Focus on harmony between form, material and manufacturing
- Being green doesn’t mean green – colours inspired by nature’s mid and dark tones
- Texture contrast – rough, matt, smooth, metallic
- Colour palette extended through textural play – blacks, greys, with copper accents
Our fifth and final post in the Kitchen Futures series will fast forward in time to understand how technology will shape the way people cook and interact in the home kitchen; imagine smart surfaces, new forms of control and ambient digital conversations.
Read more from this series:
