From Cooking to Care: The Future Role of the Kitchen
The kitchen is rapidly changing, both in floorspace and use. With a vast and rapidly increasing percentage of the world’s population living in urban areas, our homes are becoming smaller, and the space dedicated to the kitchen is under more and more pressure and in some cases disappear.
The kitchen is already doubling as a WFH space for many, often transforming into homework space or side-hustle workshop in the evening.
With the rise of multi-generational households in the West, (currently 1 in 5 US households), as well as single living households, purchasing choices for appliances are adapting to consider scale, flexibility and multi function in different ways.
Image: Claudio Pantoni
At the same time, environmental factors such as the necessity of waste reduction and heat and air quality management are making demands on the kitchen and its contents.
The composting of kitchen scraps has already become embedded in every day behaviour. The action of cooking and refrigerating in the ways we are currently used to will come to be considered more carefully in terms of the impact it is having on our environment, altering the value of refrigerated or hot food to the consumer.
Innovation in this area will change consumer behaviour in this space, transforming our outlook on waste and adjusting the way we keep and eat food.
The reality is that the kitchen, and everything in it, is having to work harder. Advancements in automation embedding further into the kitchen in the shape of smart appliances to robotic chefs and XR dining experiences, will help this transition, but in future it is likely we will come to completely reassess the kitchen and it’s role in the home.
Image: Nadine Primeau
In time we will all see the kitchen as our essential food manufacturing and production space as well as a source of personalised health diagnosis and prescription, its enduring place as the beating heart of the home remaining unchanged from today.
We think the kitchen is one of the at the forefront of health and wellbeing in the future, and we are excited to be able to work on projects which consider how flexible a kitchen, and the items in it, can become, and how to adapt seamlessly to each user’s personal needs.
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