“While Designing a Kitchen, I Need to Feel the Space Talking to me; If Not, I Must Wait for Some Inspiration.”
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“While Designing a Kitchen, I Need to Feel the Space Talking to me; If Not, I Must Wait for Some Inspiration.”
January 11, 2025
Nadir Cassamo owns Leiken, a distribution company for kitchen and furniture products with its own showrooms in Portugal and a presence in Angola, the UK and Mozambique. At a deeper level, he remains a designer who also not just showcases and markets a product, but also has the know-how and training.
Nadir Cassamo, born and bred in Lisbon, is an intuitive designer. Based in the picturesque Algarve region, where his company Leikin has just set up a new showroom, he insists that designing a kitchen is like a research project and needs the same energy, dedication and involvement.
As late as less than almost two decades back, when he focused on Portugal’s kitchen scene, he realised that customers, in general, were not buying kitchens in a systematic manner but were relying more on bits and pieces of design, selecting cabinets for appliances and placing hot and wet areas almost at random. With his background in the interior design market, the contrasts were notoriously glaring.
Form, function, and ergonomics lead to a good design. Photo Courtesy: Leiken
Nadir’s eye for design was keen, even as a teen, when he dabbled as a sales assistant at one of Lisbon’s major furniture showrooms. Ensconced in the aura of design, his talent was noticed, and he got his first real commitment to design a residence when he was barely 16 – that too, with hardly any formal education in the subject!
After his graduation from Universidade Nova de Lisboa, he worked at Roche Bobois, the design studio, for a while and co-owned De Divina Porportione - an eclectic interior design showroom in one of the most prestigious areas of Lisbon, the Chiado. This showroom was even showcased by Architectural Digest.
Today, Nadir runs his own design company and showroom, Leiken, which is one of the country’s leading lifestyle showrooms, focused on kitchen space. This is where he directs his energies, talent and attention.
In a tete-a-tete with Kitchen Ideas, he reveals his ideologies on kitchen design.
Materials and mechanisms can be mixed well, and art orientation can be added along with a warm feeling of love for the house for the perfectly designed kitchen. Photo Courtesy: Leiken
How important is design and functionality for the kitchen interiors?
For a long time, design and functionality were not such a huge concern for end consumers, despite them splurging on expensive equipment and appliances. Indeed, much has changed lately, but the fundamentals for a good design remain. The honest and committed designer has to provide clients with not what they want but what they need. ‘Wanting’ is a vague aspiration; it has to be defined and conveyed succinctly to the client that ‘liking’ certain aspects are merely a guideline for a beginning.
I am aware that at first glance this idea seems rather cocky. But, the truth is that 99 percent of the customers come with pre-conceived ideas regarding their dream kitchen, extensively influenced by media and the latest trends.
It is vital to consider dividing the space into food storage, cooling/fridge, preparation and cooking areas, plating area and washing up/dirty area and general storage. Photo Courtesy: Leiken
Some designers tend to copy designs from lifestyle magazines. What is your take on this?
Fashion trends play an important role in the final look of a kitchen as desired by clients, but it comes into play in the final stage of kitchen planning.
I usually tell my clients that I am here to sort out a problem or give shape to their dream, but invariably they come to us initially with a solution. To put it crudely, sometimes they want an aspirin for cancer.
While training my commercial and design team, this is always the first aspect I draw their attention to. If we follow the ‘Yes Sir’ road, the majority of the time, we will fail to do justice to our assignment. In other words, it is important to focus on the customers’ needs instead of their wants.
In recent decades, the kitchen gained importance in house design. This is due to the sociological changes in modern society. Following the latest trends, people are more aware of proper food needs. Not just a chore, cooking has always been an art, and recently it is becoming a fashion that more people want to engage in. Molecular gastronomy and the precision required for the preparation of a lot of recipes have brought focus on the quality of the tools one uses. Fine house-dining caterers and private chefs are now an active part of planning and designing upper-class kitchens. A chef requires functionality on the unit’s modulation layout, preparation and cooking areas exactly according to his needs.
Planning and bringing the accessories and flow systems accordingly to the customer’s daily routine is primary to the design. Photo Courtesy: Leiken
How does planning a kitchen for a residence differ from that for a larger establishment?
Home kitchens are fast resembling industrial kitchens. The needs are similar; the scale might be different. In fact, designing for a residence has more issues since it must feel like a home kitchen to enable the owners to engage in small and private functions, and entertain guests and family members while showing off their cooking abilities.
When you move from the middle- to the high-class kitchen, it gets even more demanding. Families tend to interact more in the kitchen as a main house living concept. The budget and space are smaller, but the kitchen has to become a place of excellence. Thus, the inputs and projects of a kitchen designer gain significant social responsibility.
Natural lighting ensures a calm meal and comfortable communication amongst family members. Photo Courtesy: Leiken
How important is it for a designer to study the food habits and user profile of the client for whom he is designing the kitchen?
Every construction affects the way we as humans feel and interact; the way we plan, design, light and decorate a kitchen will have a significant impact on the lives of those who will use it.
Let’s take the example of an upper- or even middle-class family -- a working couple with two primary school kids. In the morning, the mother prepares breakfast, packs the children’s lunch boxes, and gets them ready for school. They won’t really have the time to sit down together as a family and have breakfast or even move to a separate dining space.
If the kitchen is well planned, they will be able to enjoy their breakfast in the kitchen in a relaxed environment, even in the midst of preparing the lunch boxes.
The kitchen design for this family would have to take into consideration their daily routine needs; a breakfast area in such a way that when sitting, they would be able to abstract from morning preparation tasks.
In the evening, if the mother prepares dinner while the children are doing their schoolwork, it is most reasonable for the children to be in the kitchen for supervision by their mother. The benefit of this small planning for the children’s development would be indisputable. The designer must assure that he creates an area of double function, easy access and free obstruction position - the possibility of access electric plugs where laptops or other gadgets can be switched on - light must be placed in such a way that shadows are eliminated as much as possible. Thus, kitchen planning in such a case is not just about hobs, wet areas and kitchen hoods; it is about the family’s lifestyle.
The kitchen design for any family would have to take into consideration their daily routine needs. Photo Courtesy: Leiken
What is the importance of lighting in the scheme of things?
The light must be around 3,000 k and should not be too luminescent in the evenings and night that it hurts the eyes if we look up. This way, it ensures a calm meal and comfortable communication amongst family members.
Taking advantage of natural daily light would also be a relevant concern, as this would create a more relaxed environment. Personally, in a family of four, I would only let the TV be visible to one side of the breakfast bar.
What about other features of the kitchen beyond the food preparation area?
Let’s now re-focus on the food preparation zone. It is vital to consider dividing the space into food storage, cooling/fridge, preparation and cooking areas, plating area and washing up/dirty area and general storage. If one succeeds in creating these areas in order to meet client needs, he is still three-quarters away from a perfect kitchen.
This requires insight, knowledge of the cooking process and needs of the individual family. It also requires information about the available modulation units and their mechanisms. Considering easy access is a must to plan a functional kitchen, Taking advantage of the modular facilities available requires knowledge of its purpose. Pull-out drawers and tall units where various ranges of inserts and mechanisms are possible and available to use as individual needs are essential. Planning and bringing the accessories and flow systems accordingly to the customer’s daily routine is primary to the design.
The designer must assure that he/she creates an area of double function, easy access and free obstruction position. Photo Courtesy: Leiken
This must involve a lot of information and understanding of individual needs…
Designing a kitchen indeed involves a lot of research – of the customers’ needs, the available materials and mechanisms. They can be mixed well, art orientation can be added along with a warm feeling of love for the house for the perfectly designed kitchen.
Tons can be said about planning a kitchen, but for me, the above is just an introduction. When I started designing it was a premium kitchen brand, Valcucine. It is with them that I learned immensely about the significance of design. Form, function, ergonomics to good design - all these factors were a concern with them. That is where I picked up the intuitive eye for design, I might profess to claim.
What has been your individual take and enhancement to the knowledge you gained so far?
I accumulated considerable experience that allowed me to create my own lines; yet, mere knowledge is not enough. Several times, when I’m commissioned to design a kitchen, I do not feel the space talking to me. I must wait for some inspiration. I felt this in a showroom I had designed in Algarve in Portugal. No two kitchens can be the same. Every time, it has got to be a new story.
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