A Truly Designer Kitchen
May 7, 2024
Anurag Yadav
Muted and stark, the Reform Kitchen by Sigurd Larsen underlines his keen sense of seamlessly blending minimalist design and efficient functionality.
Sigurd Larsen is a Berlin-based Danish architect working in the fields of architecture and furniture design. His award-winning design studio was founded in 2009, and he recently completed several single-family houses in both Denmark and New York, and a series of loft rooms at the Michelberger hotel in Berlin. His furniture is available in stores and galleries around the world. Sigurd Larsen’s work combines the aesthetics of high-quality materials with a strong focus on function in design.
It was precisely these beliefs that inspired his design for the company Reform, with a kitchen that aesthetically combines function and emotion. His keynotes in the design are simplicity, beauty and logic.
Reform itself was born out of a frustration with the status quo when its founder Christensen teamed up with Michael Andersen and set out to create a mid-range, modular kitchen rooted in contemporary Scandinavian aesthetics. By collaborating with leading designers like Sigurd Larsen, the company set out to add more edge to their array of kitchen design. As a kitchen provides a setting for the daily creativity seen in cooking, playing and celebrating, Sigurd Larsen has designed surfaces that efficiently tolerate constant use.
"To make the design acceptable to a wider variety of users, the Reform kitchen design comes in three different models. However, in all of them, the fronts are made out of a post plate in various materials with a 2 mm aluminium plate folded around it."
Sigurd Larsen
Founder, Sigurd Larsen - Design & Architecture
His kitchen design is made of thin layers of aluminium that have been shaped by simply cutting, folding and assembling in a way that creates a straightforward and flexible system. The simple, clean lines that are created by the way of working with the material form a quiet setting in a room full of activity. The folds provide a clean and clear expression that combines with a surface powder coating to form a product that is pleasant to touch.
Every element that goes to make the kitchen is well thought out and deliberate yet combines fine design, sturdiness and ease of use.
Drawer fronts, doors and handles
To make the design acceptable to a wider variety of users, Larsen’s kitchen design comes in three different models. However, in all of them, the fronts are made out of a post plate in various materials with a 2 mm aluminium plate folded around it.
The first model is a powder-coated aluminium front in the colour anthracite with a 16 mm black MDF post plate. The second model is a powder-coated aluminium front in white with a 15 mm post plate in birch plywood that has been treated with white wax. The two kitchen designs that are powder coated are painted with a special coating ‘Structura,’ which gives the surface a rougher texture.
The third kitchen design is a raw, round brushed aluminium version with a post plate in 16 mm grey MDF. The raw aluminium, over the years and with use, changes colour and oxidizes a bit, providing a slightly darker glow.
The second model is a powder-coated aluminium front in white with a 15 mm post plate in birch plywood that has been treated with white wax. Photo Courtesy: Reform
Countertop and cover panels
The countertop can be custom-selected but the designer recommends a 5 mm solid stainless steel countertop for the raw and anthracite-painted aluminium fronts. For the white kitchen fronts, Larsen recommends a 20 mm plywood countertop in linoleum in a Smokey blue colour.
The entire design is open for minor tweaking as far as colours are concerned with the limited selection available for choice. The designer however recommends that the cover panels, additions and plinths be in the same material as the surface of the fronts – the raw aluminium or the colour-coated aluminium in either anthracite or white though the available colours cannot be changed.
His choice of colour for the kitchen design was based on his own kitchen in his own 90 sq m apartment in the hip Kreuzberg district of Berlin. He chose the colour anthracite as the darker colour adds some contrast to the oak floor and oak countertop. His kitchen isn’t that big, but there is plenty of light and instead of choosing white doors that would blend with the white wall, Sigurd Larsen's new kitchen has now taken on a completely different presence.
A kitchen actually functions as one of the biggest pieces of furniture in a home. With the rise of open floor plans, the need for a better-looking kitchen becomes paramount, especially when entertaining. The Reform kitchen, designed by Larsen, seems to accomplish just that.
[The article was first published in the July – September 2018 issue of Kitchen Ideas magazine.]