Kitchen Design Think Tank

Walls can leave an abrupt and permanent impact upon a living space, the type of restrictive influence that can be expensive to reverse and can deliver an un-compromising legacy for future design! By creating separation between architecture and kitchen new possibilities begin to emerge!   The kitchen can be used as an approachable, multi functional buffer, providing spatial definition in an open plan setting that maximises storage and leaves sightlines free from obvious obstruction. To embrace change is to consider new possibilities – so imagine the missed opportunity here if this kitchen had been placed against a wall! The modern kitchen can now be defined as an island and this design showcases its potential!

This design teeters on a counterweighted equilibrium causing the viewer to question if this is kitchen or art!   Functional performance is enhanced through levitation with storage being restricted to an ergonomically efficient hot zone.   Variance of height and depth are used to provide aesthetic interest and contrasting colours and patterns provide an avenue for artistic flair. A text book example of contemporary kitchen design by Valcucine!   Love it!

Kitchen design is a play with shapes; a medium for delivering functionality while satisfying artistic curiosity.   This design has defied its architectural incarcerator, delivering a standalone design presence amid restrictive surroundings.   By manipulating only one of the 3 dimensional planes this design stands out from the crowd.   In this instance variable height is used to create interest and increase functional performance. The island is elevated allowing the floor to become un-masked; the removal of low level cabinetry also allows items to be stored within an ergonomically efficient hot zone. The elevated, table area allows this design to morph between states of use providing the user with the flexibility of casual dining and the aesthetic interest of a transforming shelf.   Consider how the feature looks when the table is retracted and not in use!   The cantilevered shelf hovers, causing shadows to manipulate the white surfaces and the layering effect is ampli

Even the simplicity of contemporary design can benefit from aesthetic layering.   Layers can provide definition and interest to a design and help the viewer appreciate how simplicity can be derived from complex thought! Here we see how a simple step in the work surface and deliver multiple contrasts of material, texture, colour and form.   Offsetting the feature creates definition along three planes and introduces some asymmetrical styling to the design.   The elevated placement of the cleaning zone may also deliver enhanced ergonomic performance. This idea is simple but effective and The Mogul loves it!

The aesthetic simplicity of this design helps to camouflage an impatient yearning to be noticed.   The black, super sheen doors absorb their surroundings by reflection and blur the boundaries between kitchen and architecture.   Only the kitchen worktop provides definition presenting an angular anomaly that defies convection and provokes a slight tilting of the head! This angular feature is thrust to the fore with the help of a basic monochrome colour scheme but it is the same choices of colour and finish that help to conceal an anthropometric miscalculation! A slight gradient allows the base unit doors to lean against the wall.   It could be argued that having the units deeper at the bottom adds aesthetic interest and allows artistic flair to be satisfied but it may eventually be a pain, increasing functional reach distances and causing stresses on the lower back!

To ignore the accepted rules of design can be risky but then again risk can deliver its rewards!   This design defies both convention and gravity but in doing so reshapes our expectations! Check out the half bowl worktop cut in the sink area – has a kitchen design super hero signed their work!?   Brilliant!

Exaggerated lines, colours and features make this a deceptive design!   Strong feature colours are used to attract attention away from the benign, architecturally absorbed cabinetry!   The effect is to camouflage the functional identity of the furniture and create some artistic impact! The unique foot well in the floor allows for an interesting subterranean dining experience but it may prove tiresome to those serving the food!!  

The power of kitchen design has lain dormant, entombed in an architectural catacomb that has restricted its development and regurgitated a legacy of design submissiveness! Recently released the kitchen is beginning to wreak its revenge, absorbing its surroundings and rendering furniture and accessories obsolete!   This magnetic vortex of design influence is helping to reshape how we live and how home life is designed. If you think that your living space is missing something it most likely is!   A kitchen!

In order for kitchen design to keep pace with the evolution of human existence we must consider new ideas and innovations.   By rejecting the surrounding architecture as the divine design influencer kitchen designers are free to explore diverse shapes and forms which allow the kitchen to perform its primary functional role but also encourages new interior design and social trends. This kitchen is a play with shapes, a simple combination of forms which helps to maximise functional performance while delivering aesthetic desire in a compressed form.   By Including a book shelf this free standing design even manages to consider how it can replace traditional living room furniture.   It’s reassuring to know that even though our living spaces and kitchens are becoming more compressed designers can still find room for the ever essential wine cooler!!   Cheers!!

Can you define where the kitchen stops and the architecture begins?   This design uses a seamless embrace to create a contemporary architectural unity that is disguised amid pastel colours and warming textures!   The sequencing of layers creates drama within the design right from plinth to ceiling level allowing the designers to explore texture, colour, form and light to maximum effect. The scale of the room is impressive and The Mogul is convinced that the brief suggested that the entire house should become the kitchen reducing the need or desire to visit any other room.   The architecture has been absorbed by the kitchen and has been granted a vital role in delivering the Holy Grail of kitchen design;   A kitchen that is both contemporary and safe, providing a wow for now and design longevity into the future. This design also displays a trend for 2012!   Polished chrome detailing mixed with wood veneer and paint!   Hats off here because this kitchen is divine!!

Having the extraction system suspended from the cabinetry provides this kitchen with some real architectural independence; it also creates a functional bridge uniting the cooking zones in two separate locations.   The tall oven housing is singled out from amongst consumable storage and presents an inverted cantilever to facilitate the needs of the hob!   This feature creates a “wrap around” effect, a soothing embrace that has the power to cocoon and envelop the kitchen user in functionality and precession engineering.   Add to this the elegant combination of walnut and stainless steel which has been detailed to enhance the physical form of the design and you have got a kitchen that will exceed expectations.

This latest offering from Johnny Grey studios ignites the imagination and represents how kitchen design has developed since being released from its architectural confines. There is a shameless contradiction to this design that empowers the viewer to question how something so futuristic can be accompanied by Georgian framed windows.   But that’s the point!   This is cross over piece, an example of how the right designer mixed with the right client can create something that remoulds expectations, allowing functional requirement to overflow into artistic medium! The springboard island is the centre piece and defines the entire design; it has a looming presence which exudes the strength of steel with metal rivet detailing, more commonly found in a 19 th century shipyard adding heritage to the design.   But this glance into the past is overshadowed by the stellar ambience created by this kitchen.   Any potential user will certainly feel in control as though they are steering a motley

This design certainly encourages a second glance as the eye tries to decipher logic within the chaos!   But look past the aesthetic and instead try to grasp the inspiration!   This concept is abstract, asymmetrical, layered and artistic; it also appears to be intimately integrated into the architecture – or is that the other way around!   This is an example of methodical confusion driven by the human need to be artistically extroverted!   In a functional kind of way! The Mogul thinks that the fitters would have loved this one !  

Smooth infinite edges are impressive and soft geometry is certainly more approachable but here we see how cutting corners can potentially remove preparation space! This design oozes a space odyssey vibe and The Mogul loves the attempt to punctuate the design with an island that can only be described as a hovering dot of functional opportunity! Really different!   Top marks!

The temperature is certainly rising in this kitchen with a melting pot of styles being fused together to create a contemporary culinary centrepiece with Scandinavian overtones!   Being adventurous is artistic but integrating a stainless steel bridging element into this environment can certainly be considered creative!   All artistic installations will be subjectively judged this one just happens to be functional, so kick off your opinionated slippers and allow your toes to feel the quality of that carpet!  

In order to captivate and delight an audience a theatre must have two working elements; a front of house and a back stage.   The front of house is organised, deliberate and confidently projects a professional and artistic ambience to those in attendance.   Backstage can be busier, more chaotic and is the engine room for success. This kitchen by Mal Corby is complex because it understands its user!   Designed for a professional Chef this kitchen provides versatility and performance in two separate zones.   Front of house presents a mouth watering array of colour, texture and light.   The monolithic island is designed to allow sociability to flourish and yet it can be argued that the lack of stools make the design a little more artistic.   Light is embraced, nurtured and celebrated within the design adding definition to the island and providing some interesting secondary features, with glossy panels reflecting the light beyond its physical reality!  X marks the spot! Peeping out from

This is sublime!   Large free hanging cabinetry is presented against a contrasting and textured backdrop.   Having the ovens suspended from the central units makes it look as though the functionality has been centrifuged, forced from the cabinetry only to gather at an anthropometrically efficient height! There is a sympathetic synergy between kitchen and architecture and the inclusion of low level cabinetry along the back wall dilutes to appearance of the kitchen.   Add to this the fantastic open selves that embrace two sides of the island and this design certainly ticks a lot of boxes! The Mogul approves!

This design is refined and balanced showcasing a considered amount of asymmetrical styling and including the now mandatory open shelf space to allow it to be considered commercially on trend! But no matter how beautiful or socially aspirational this kitchen appears to be it would still provoke some negative reactions every time the cook realised they had forgotten something from the consumables zone! Sometimes it is important to remember that humans are not as efficient as they think they are; that is why creating a functional methodology for each and every kitchen design is essential.   Allowing the kitchen itself to interrupt workflow patterns and functional efficiency can weaken the strength of a design and it can only be left to personal judgement to ascertain if the aesthetics are powerful enough to forgive this potential functional weakness!

Modern kitchen design is now “traditionally” linear, angular and determinedly simple!   But in the quest for development, advancement and design diversity we occasionally see conceptual mutations, a line of change that attempts to become a commercial trend. But however simple the change it is important not to underestimate the complexity of understanding that inspires the designer to move their pencil in an unsolicited manner! By removing the angular punctuations caused by vertical and horizontal planes meeting the eye is invited to infinitely follow the shape of this kitchen. The cascading appearance used on the gables changes of mood of this design making it more feminine and gentle, allowing it to flow instead of rigidly making a statement.   The soft geometry is also more approachable but when used in this way can arguably restrict the potential functional reach of the worktop. Love it!