Kitchens have now taken on the “status indicator” connotation that sitting room furniture had previously enjoyed. This means that many of our observations on furnishing are not relevant to EuroCucina 2014.
There are no kitchen “reeditions” for example: futurity and technology remain insuperable goals for this deeply functional space. There is some attention to vintage details, as in the large sink in Giuseppe Bavuso`s “Soul” composition for Ernestomeda, immediately “compensated for” by the innovative door lacquering technique using deposits of ceramic microspheres, and the Austrian Team7’s use of solid wild walnut and Venetian oak, teamed with concrete worktops.
However, what we will not find in the kitchen world are certain playful accents or the “selfmade” aesthetic palpable in the furniture world. Kitchens for 2014 are both rigorous and luxurious. Formerly unacceptable expanses of material have become increasingly important choices, including precious woods, scratch and stainproof treatments for metals, marble and rare stones.
Examples of this are seen in classic models such as Dante Bonucelli’s “Vela” for Dada, using novel eucalyptus wood with horizontal veining, and G.V. Plazzogna’s decision to use a titanium-coated aluminium in “Lucrezia 22” for Cesar. Still on the subject of materials, “Artematica” by Gabriele Centazzo for Valcucine is an interesting essay in eco-sustainability, with 100% recyclable glass used for the bases.
There is, however, one single thing emerges quite clearly and is fairly innovative in terms of trends: several brands have decided to do away with the usual split between “country” and “modern” kitchen furnishing in 2014. Hence, symptomatically, “Sinetempore” – again by Valcucine, in which traditional crafts such as intaglio, intarsia and pokerwork are incorporated into a contemporary image.
To sum up, therefore, as far as kitchens are concerned, there seems to be a strong compulsion to meld the warmth of the past with the efficiency of the future. Proof of this, ahead of Expo 2015, is the identical parallel trend in food design, with regional cookery and molecular cookery.
Photo: Carola Merello
