Fisher & Paykel calls this “The Social Kitchen” philosophy and
it remains at the forefront of the trends influencing modern
interior design and construction. As an appliance innovator,
it is our role to continue our active collaboration with
housebuilders to ensure our products continue to meet
their needs as well as those of our customers.
The notion of the Social Kitchen underpins our design
philosophy in developing flexible appliances that can
be distributed throughout the kitchen and tailored to
individual lifestyle needs. The key to the social kitchen
is understanding patterns of use – here, we engage and
interact with family and friends at parties; we do homework
and spend time on our hobbies. Considered kitchens reflect
this in their layout – from the efficient single person space
using the work triangle to distributed appliances in work
zones that allow family and friends to prepare and share a
meal together.
Often the design of modern homes does not allow space for
separate hobbies or workshop rooms – we see the kitchen
as a place for everyone to experiment, be creative and
perhaps go from being a novice to an expert in baking or a
new style of cooking. This can create a sense of wellbeing
and satisfaction; our role is to work in the background and to
provide discrete technologies without technology overload,
but also have the sophistication to provide the perfect
cooking result for both the novice and the expert.
To successfully create this social hub, it’s important to open
up the kitchen design and to move the appliances out into
places that allow work zones for more than one person.
This means that a friend or partner can pick up a knife and
chop some vegetables or stir the sauce – creating a shared
experience. Today’s kitchen needs to be able to respond to
these needs through modular distribution and exceptional
functionality.
Curating a collection of kitchen appliances that can adapt
to the physical, architectural, sociological and psychological
changes that are occurring in today’s and tomorrow’s
kitchens can only be done by working closely with specifiers
who are responsible for bringing these spaces to life.
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