Kitchen Design Think Tank

Diamonds sparkle, they have a strange effect on people.   They have the ability to reflect light in a hypnotic way making us fall in love and part with large amounts of our hard earned cash.   The investment in a diamond is never questioned and is seen as a public expression of our love for another human being and as an expression of our position in society.   Buying a kitchen is the same. This kitchen design by New Zealand designer Mal Corboy is beautiful; it captures the power of light and uses the reflective qualities of glass and stainless steel to create a powerful visual experience for the viewer. The design exudes a quality and richness that makes you fall in love.   And you should love your kitchen, as it will accompany you though life’s ups and downs, presenting itself as a familiar backdrop to your home live and as outward expression of who you actually are. Buying a kitchen without integrated ambient lighting is like buying a car without a painted finish.      You just don’

A celebration of abstract colour by Lago!   Brilliant! Functional Art!

Stainless steel always looks efficient and clinical, the type of finish you go with if you are going to work your kitchen hard.   There is no space for wimpy wood veneers here as this kitchen exists to make things happen! However, an interesting side effect of stainless steel is that it is extremely beautiful.   The reflective qualities allow light to be catapulted in every direction making the material interesting and attractive. The freestanding legs used on this island gives the impression that NASA had drawn the blueprints for the concept.  If NASA were designing a lunar module they wouldn’t use wenge veneer or high gloss, foil wrapped panels!  Back to the drawing board boys!!

England, a country of grassy meadows filled with dancing buttercups, blue skies and stone built walls that traverse the lush countryside connecting us to the deep ancestry of our forefathers.   And an English kitchen is a Chalon kitchen. Walk   down the stairs and enter this room on a summers morning, birds are singing and there is a smell of fresh tea in the air.   Open your sliding sash windows to let the smell of freshly cut hay enter your nostrils, and you know that you are home.   This is England, and this is what the Chalon experience is all about!! Timeless and extremely fashionable these framed and colourfully distressed designs reach beyond the room that we call the kitchen.   They are a timeless reminder of the unparalleled craftsmanship our very society has been built on! The Mogul Approves.

In the beginning we needed to cook; now we need a kitchen that is self aware! And we are well on the way to getting one! Electric doors and drawers are now a standard design feature in Europe with many cool contemporary designs breaking free from the shackles that define the kitchen as an inanimate object. Welcome to the world of “kitchen consciousness”! This range of incredibly stylish taps (faucets) by Brizo has been integrated with SmartTouch technology, the next step on the journey to kitchen voice recognition! Cool, fashionable, technologically advanced and super functional – top marks Brizo!

Forget that this is a cutting edge design by Ernestomeda and what do you see?   Do you expect to see someone wearing a white coat entering the space and placing an X-ray film on the wall?   Or do you see a design that is experimenting with light and design expectations? It must be the later!   Using translucent Corian and back lighting this concept explores how the very items we normally try to conceal behind kitchen doors can become the medium for artistic expression.   The placement of items within the cabinetry will change the effect and in an extreme way this could be conceived as a personal expression of diet and personal habits!   This design can actually be seen as a functional canvas onto which the user paints a picture of their home life.  It feels very personal, like looking into someones underwear drawer, but maybe that's the point! More and more designers are experimenting with light and translucent materials in kitchen design as it adds a versatile and controllable

Visiting your kitchen should be something to look forward to.   After all it is a material but functional expression of who you are and what you like.   From certain angles the mirrored panels incorporated into this design allows the artistic preferences of the user to resonate throughout the space.   These artistic preferences have developed over the seasoning of your personality and have been spawned though relationships and intimate conversations. Fitting then, that your domestic inner sanctum should pulsate with your aura; giving out strong comforting signals that you are indeed home.   This kitchen is beautiful, understated but chic, cosmopolitan enough to make a social statement without the need to brag! Welcome home – Kitchen Design is Changing!

Historically the kitchen played second fiddle to the architecture with kitchen designers finding their avenues of self expression restricted by steel and concrete.   But increasingly the kitchen designer is being invited into the limelight by the architect and the client and providing architectural definition within their designs.   This kitchen illustrates the point perfectly as the bulk framing around this design showcase how future architects may only be required to present the client with a cavernous space so that the “newly appreciated” kitchen designer can work a little magic, giving the client a highly versatile piece of functional artwork.    Having internal structures created in this way also means that the inner space is more flexible and more easily adaptable to the changing personal and demographical circumstances within the home over the years to come. We are entering the age of multi-discipline respect and communication, the age of the architectural kitchen designer.

Your new kitchen art installation – the modern kitchen sideboard by Antoine and Manuel!   LOVE IT

This is an exemplary example of how to create a classical look with a modern twist.   This kitchen by Design Republic is beautiful and uses soft colours and traditional lines to provide the cautious client with comfort and reassurance.   There is nothing dangerous in this design and it evokes a feeling of calm right down to the artistic and personal pattern that has been backlit through the translucent Corian worktop.   The Mogul loves this one because it is a traditional kitchen that has been led into the 21 st Century by the power of light and modern materials.   Great Job!

The architect and builder have provided you with a space, how are you going to define the space?   Do you decide to create an intricate array of cabinetry that covers every inch of available wall space and is linked by a spaghetti junction of pelmets and other elaborate dust collectors, or do you decide to make an understated statement of style. The Mogul read somewhere once that the kitchen is an island with a backdrop of artistic self expression, and this is true, but the kitchen of tomorrow is also a shape shifting modular masterpiece that has the ability to interact with its user.   The Mogul appreciates the power of shape shifting kitchens and this example from Linea Quattro is no exception.   Sitting in a standby position this kitchen offers uninterrupted earthy colours that empower a stereotypical vision of contemporary living.   Consisting of only two elements this kitchen lays dormant, ready to be awakened by human functional requirement.   An array of sliding panels allows

White kitchens have a funny way of indicating what type of person you are.   Looking at this image most people will initially think that this space is beautiful, portraying an iconic lifestyle that is closer to the runways of Milan than the houses “normal“ people live in!   Some people will run with this initial thought without any further need to question it, with a quiet aspiration driving their ambitions to own a kitchen like this.   Others however will then begin to think of reasons not to like it; with property resale, upkeep and lifestyle being cited as reasons not to buy....oh yea and possibly price. The Mogul feels that these simple observations into the physiological processes of the kitchen buyer indicate that kitchen design is a fashionable statement of class and social status!   Maybe this is one of the reasons why contemporary kitchen design is not available to everyone...only those who can afford it!   However, clever design and use of materials can make this type of kitc

The quicker the industry realises that the kitchen of tomorrow is an island with a background of artistic self expression....the better!

The Mogul loves the integration here!   The Architecture is just hugging this kitchen which is incredibly stylish in its own right. The units above the cooking and cleaning area just hang in space and this feature illustrates that there are real kitchen pod tendencies here.   The tall unit integration with the architectural wrap really works well because of the detachment from the exterior architecture of the building. The Mogul Approves!

Kitchens are becoming more delicate and feminine with a bashful charm making some models appear venerable and submissive.   There is a tendency for designers to conceal the kitchen within the surrounding walls making it invisible; the kitchen is being taught some manners and now only speaks when it is spoken to! But silence and mystery can be very powerful.   Slender worktops, handless doors, transforming elements and appropriately placed appliances convey a smouldering persuasiveness that means you want to get to know the creation lurking within your home.   There is a desire to expose the beauty that the nasty designer has tried to hide and there is a need to lay your hands on the forbidden elements within the drawers!! The exterior softness portrayed in many modern designs is only superficial and just like the modern woman, these new kitchens are articulate, able to do the job and in some instances radiate a powerful dominance! The modern kitchen is now a genderless space with manuf

Petra by TM Italia - Epitomizes The Moguls design ethos – sit back and enjoy the ride! See it at Grand Designs Live 2011!

Exuding an age old quality that has transcended the generations since the beginning of time this island looks as though it could be loaded up, two by two with animals galore and set sail into a flood of biblical proportions.   This is a timeless design that sits fantastically well within bland but expansive surroundings, adding warmth and texture to the architectural space. But this ark has been supercharged with an industrial style extraction system, and a tap that is powerful enough on the style front and creates enough water transfer, to make sure that this baby doesn’t go down, no matter what size the squall! This design represents a great mix of traditional safety and contemporary minimalism.   Looks great and The Mogul approves!

It is only a matter of time until that lift up panel becomes a fully interactive, LCD, touch control home entertainment system...That's what The Mogul would do anyway!  WATCH AND COOK!

Here is an interesting idea; why not have your kitchen integrated into the ceiling.   This design by David Oelschlägel + Henrike Louisa Binder from Germany utilizes the space above head height as storage.    The bucket lights have been designed to have storage space included, useful for small consumable and non-consumable items that would normally be stored in base units.   Once you have finished using the bucket to retrieve the required items you simply pull it down a few centimeters and it goes back up to its original position. This idea is certainly more concept than mainstream but it does highlight the fact that there is a lot of un-used space above head height, normally allocated for lighting fixtures.  In the future, if living space becomes more limited we may have to consider using this space in a transforming fashion in order to make our living environments more comfortable.   However, there is also the possibility that doing this will create a claustrophobic environment

Understated functional beauty; apart from the gold units to the left of the image which are a decadent expression of social standing! Notice too how the units are formatted below the cooking zone!   Linear simplicity is being corrupted in order to create interesting functional spaces!   Brilliant!

This image is great and illustrates some of the most common trends within kitchen design at the moment.   Asymmetrical positioning of appliances, varying worktop depths, contrasting wood grained doors against a monochrome backdrop, streamline tall units that are conducive to architectural integration and a free floating island bridge that has been fitted with a stylish cooking zone! The Mogul loves how all of the physical connections to the hobs have been concealed within the worktop...This is made possible by mitre jointing finer pieces of the chosen material and creating a void within a deeper work surface, this sounds easy but it takes real planning to get it right!   This is a growing and more dominant feature for 2011! In this example though The Mogul would have placed the ovens behind the hob area as this would have created a more concentrated cooking zone without impacting the aesthetics.

Earthy colours, island bridge, asymmetrical design in an open plan setting with living space integration and semi recessed ovens. Welcome to kitchen design 2011 style!

This streamline design is enhanced by integrating the “American Style” fridge freezer into the architecture, by using an extremely beautiful and highly functional Gutmann Futura downdraft extraction system and subduing the desire to clutter the walls with cabinetry! Oh look, the ovens are free floating!   They sit like asymmetrical counterweights balancing the design.   This adds interest and celebrates the beauty of the ovens.   Looking at this picture it appears that the kitchen is actually designed to be an island...it just so happens that the architect decided to place a wall half way along!     It is always assumed that the kitchen must be designed around the architecture but there are a growing number of individuals who believe that the kitchen is so important that the architecture should be designed around the kitchen!   No matter how you look at it though you will always find parameters to every design and imaginative communication will always be the key to a successful projec

If you are struggling with the complexity of kitchen design then why not stop to consider that simplicity is “a style savour”. The ideas illustrated here are showing signs of becoming really popular and mainstream, with designers choosing to use the physical shape of an appliance or other obscure functional elements as part of the design story.   It is like contemporary art for kitchens!   Actually...picture this.   Take this design and place it in the Tate Gallery, call it “Sanitised Butchery” and you will find people nominating it for the Turner Prize!   That is how close kitchen design actually is to art! There are no written rules; let us celebrate that someone was inspired enough to design that stainless steel plumbing kit and let us use that idea to enhance a simple design.   Fascinating!

You can expect to see more and more of this in 2011, but to be honest it may take until 2012 before this type of thing really takes off!   This kitchen design by Grattarola shows how the human imagination can manipulate the eye, to trick the brain into following the most obvious visible contours of a design, leaving the actual functional elements of the kitchen disguised...or at least less obvious! 3D kitchen art is moving from the realms of concept to the mainstream arena.   And its about time too, as for too long the simplicity of making flat kitchen doors has created an economic reason for churning them out.    This concept creates some real interest for the viewer, light and shadow just drip from every raised element, inviting you to look and investigate the design further.   This idea works brilliantly in a room that gets lots of natural light and it would also be a lighting designers dream.     This idea is so simple and yet so effective and it could be argued that it is a l