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Tech and Creativity: Kitchen as a playground of innovation
October 5, 2022
While technology revolutionises function, creative elements from a designer will be the final arbiter of modern kitchen spaces.
Time was when architects and interior designers started using CAD software. Much water has flowed down the river of advanced technology since then. CAD, or computer-aided design, were supposed to be hi-tech at work. Together science, art and technology are combined to create kitchens that are eco-friendly, healthier and sleeker.
Design is banking heavily on technology or at least is influenced by technological advancements in a great measure. In fact, as technology advances, its applications are also generating new trends in socialising, entertaining at home, cooking and food habits. The kitchen thus becomes central to this change.
Designers are now more aware of this and remain abreast of the trends. A certain level of familiarity with technology becomes vital to the designers of today.
The working kitchen, especially in apartments, is never divorced from the pressures of a show kitchen. Photo Courtesy: Christian Mackie on Unsplash
Tomorrow’s ideas
Future kitchen technologies will include handprint scanners that will act like personal nutritionists, sharing important information such as body fat ration, heart rate and cholesterol levels. Holographic projections will offer more varied forms of socialising – they will replace cookbooks and serve as guides in the kitchen. Sensor controls will determine who is using the kitchen to the home owner in another part of the house or city. Kitchen walls will turn multipurpose, allowing green gardens that will become the ultimate kitchen gardens of the future. In fact, all of this is happening already in reality. It calls for the designer to brush up on skills to decipher what design, appliance and space can do together.
However, understanding the play of materials and surfaces remains the basic postulate of design as far as appearances to a great extent and utility, to quite an extent. This is because while learning their craft, designers are now exposed to many more technological advances which help them to gain first-hand knowledge of the use and context of materials in the environment.
The best of technology can only create a piece of equipment or a facility. Photo Courtesy: Bilal Mansuri on Unsplash
Avenir Light is a clean and stylish font favored by designers. It's easy on the eyes and a great go to font for titles, paragraphs & more. Avenir Light is a clean and stylish font favored by designers. It's easy on the eyes and a great go to font for titles, paragraphs & more.
Today’s facts
In many circles, kitchens are still classified as either contemporary or traditional. However, knowledgeable designers are not so strict with these definitions, and quite a few choose to mix these classic styles to create more individual and personalised spaces. Blending contemporary stainless-steel appliances with traditional wood cabinetry creates interesting mosaics in spaces. This intermixing of genres creates a unique identity. For example, blending traditional black-glass cooktops into granite and stainless-steel countertops offers an entirely new look.
The introduction of glass and ceramic cooktops opens the possibility of constant wear but there are other technologies that assist in managing that drawback in simple ways. Some induction cooktops incorporate white LED lights into its surface. They therefore not only offer a sleek and modern look but also indicate active and hot surfaces by encircling them in bright light. Knobs, despite their popularity, are losing the vote to touch screens in high-end kitchen equipment.
Trusted and contemporary modular and mobile units are also opening up to more adaptable designs. An island workstation might be the interesting centre of a kitchen but now it also comes with lockable wheels, thereby enabling mobility and ensuring spatial adaptability in the kitchen space. In fact, such ‘small islands’ can even be moved to other serving areas of the house, creating an amazing opportunity for entertaining guests.
Kitchen walls will turn multipurpose, allowing green gardens that will become the ultimate kitchen gardens of the future. Photo Courtesy: Steven Ungermann on Unsplash
Dwindling commercial-home kitchen divide
The need to understand technological benefits is important but equally significant is understanding how the technology works. The so-called ‘commercial’ or ‘professional’ kitchen was once the preserve of restaurants, high-end hotels or larger canteens. Now kitchens benefit from equipment that was once the domain of culinary professionals. The high-end benefits of high-end equipment from high-end kitchens are now seeping into residential kitchens as well. Slight alterations in existing designs were all that led to soft-close and push-to-open door mechanisms.
Not yet in India, but in the West, the steamer oven is gaining importance. It helps with healthier cooking. It facilitates healthier eating by cooking a wider range of dishes that require rice, fish or chicken to be lightly prepared rather than deep-fried or roasted. Instant hot water faucets are the answer to cutting down boiling water over a ‘hot plate’. In fact, flexible hose taps come in handy to clean greasy pans.
An ordinary function like that of a drawer has been enhanced by an innovation called the prism-based fitting system which allows for a more flexible approach to utensil storage.
Blending contemporary stainless-steel appliances with traditional wood cabinetry creates interesting mosaic in spaces. Photo Courtesy: Jason Briscoe on Unsplash
Blending tech and talent
Designers constantly come across client demands for the ‘working’ kitchen and the ‘show kitchen’. A working kitchen is a family place, for everyday use hence its steely and tough design is still quite acceptable but the ‘show’ kitchen has a sleeker and more designer look essentially. The utilisation of space remains the key to facilitate the kitchen’s lifestyle role.
The working kitchen, especially in apartments, is never divorced from the pressures of a show kitchen. Since the living room and kitchen are so often fused in city apartments, the kitchen area telescopes seamlessly into the living space. This is making kitchen elements 'softer’ as design innovates to blend the two gently. The two spaces, though different exist cheek by jowl in most modern homes. Therefore they have to blend in many ways. No wonder it is common to see a ‘cabinet or shelf that accommodates books in one area and tea, sugar and snack boxes in another- all within the kitchen.
The best of technology can only create a piece of equipment or a facility. In other words, only coupling it with designer spaces is the final word of its ultimate effectivity. How design meets the eye is the real test of all technological innovation.
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