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Furniture Fusion
Designer went to Germany for a world exclusive look at the new Philippe Starck-designed kitchen by Warendorf
The full version of this feature appears in the October 2009 issue of Designer, available online from 6 October
As Miele kitchens embarks on a complete re-brand to take on the name of the German town in which the company is based - Warendorf - it is making this change with a new kitchen destined to make a significant impact.
This is partly because they've chosen one of the biggest names in design - Philippe Starck - to develop the first kitchen under the new brand, but it's also because the concept for the range itself is also very engaging in its own right.
Starck's starting point for the design was to consider the fast-paced and pragmatic society that we live in today. An openness to new things and a disregard for conventionality means that consumers can no longer be forced into rigid stereotypes.
Starck therefore has attempted to channel his thoughts on this new lifestyle into a kitchen design that represents something of a departure, both emotionally and functionally, from the traditional wall-to-wall arrangement of the fitted kitchen. He calls the concept "democratic design" because its wide range of individual elements and the ability to combine them in different ways gives it potentially wide appeal to a range of consumers, lifestyles and spaces.
Starck's first kitchen design concept, Starck by Warendorf, is made up of various designs that can be executed in a variety of material combinations. These designs are complemented by functional tables that can be integrated into every Philippe Starck kitchen but may also be used as a standalone concept. It is a modular system made up of kitchen elements and individual pieces that leave all interior design options open.
Starck decided against the use of handles in his kitchen designs, playing instead with decorative flourishes and accessories.
A key element of the Starck by Warendorf concept is the way it combines living functions even more closely than before with the functions of eating and food preparation.
Starck does this with a number of specific design references. His bookshelf-style elements are intended to combine culture and food in the domestic kitchen. The bar-style counters are a response to the changed dynamic governing meal times. His multifunctional, standalone towers provide flexible options for storage and appliance integration. Finally, the functional tables with their elegant and innovative, chrome trumpet feet and flexible equipment options provide an upbeat and eyecatching accompaniment to the rest of the designs.
Starck has banished visible appliances from these kitchen designs. Refrigerators, freezers, dishwashers, ovens etc are all concealed behind handleless unit fronts either inside the tall units or the standalone tower. The flush-mounted hobs can be installed either in the wall kitchens or the functional tables. The accompanying extractor hoods disappear as ceiling extractors mounted inside the units.
One technically clever idea is contained within the functional tables. Here the connections for electricity, fresh and waste water lead invisibly through the trumpet foot.
The new kitchen range comes in four different variations with a wide range of colours and materials. Central to the thinking behind it is that it allows the consumer to have a 'kitchen for personalities' that allows them to develop their own personal style in that space, however they actually choose to use their kitchen.
The two wall elements and the freestanding monoblock - which can be used as a room divider with an optional reach through opening - have a breadth of up to 6.7 m and height of 2.3 m or 2.7 m and are conceived for the wide open spaces commonly found in penthouses and loft apartments.
The square 360 degree rotating tower units measure just 95 cm on each side and are 2.3 m high. Together with a trumpet table, they offer completely new opportunities in kitchen design. A similarly wide range of options is available with the functional tables, which are available in dining table or bar height and with or without hob and sink.
Starck's personal signature can be seen in the unusual materials used to decorate the tall units, tower element and functional tables. Materials such as yellow mirrored glass with etched decoration and elegant material combinations such as cherry mahogany or yellow mirrored glass with stainless steel give the design a unique character.
Starck hopes that the overall effect is to open a new chapter in kitchen design that turns its back on the traditional question: "How can I fill the available wall space with as much storage as possible?"
Instead it only alludes in passing to the functional aspects of kitchen design and gives the traditional kitchen a new creative look.
Warendorf
www.warendorf.eu
