KITCHENS
KSA developing
future design talent
Stephanie Forbes
KSA Students
At the end of 2025 the Kitchen Specialists Association( KSA) team celebrated one of the highlights of their calendar – announcing the top five students in their student kitchen design project.
Last year marked our fifth year of running the KSA Student Kitchen Project. The enthusiastic uptake from the tertiaries and the support of the IID in this initiative is always appreciated. We received 126 projects from Inscape, Vega Schools, TUT, Potchefstroom Academy, DUT, CPUT, Design Time, BHC School of Design and Nelson Mandela Bay University.
The brief
The students got to design for a real live client. Tracy Hicks, a past KSA employee, and her family are planning a major home renovation during 2026 and they invited the students to design for them. The brief was very detailed on the specific needs of the multi-generational family and their specific storage needs and tastes. It involved reimaging a space where the kitchen was strangely shaped with little work surface and storage cut off from the main living area of the home into an open plan space with exposed roof trusses, a scullery and office.
By Aquilla Fernandez
By Delne Pottas
Growing future designers
The KSA team took the time to assess every project giving feedback that would hopefully help the students grow as designers and increase their skillset in kitchen and cabinetry design. The project requires the students to be proficient not only in aesthetically attractive design but in CAD based rendering, plans and elevations. They need to have a good understanding of materials and their application and specification, to have a basic concept of costing, and to present a mood board that successfully sums up the project for the client. To get into the top five, students had to be above average in each section of the project.
86 autumn 2026 | www. tobuild. co. za