LivingKitchen WORLD 2017 Magazine

STYLE, KNOWLEDGE, DESIGN AND EXPERT INSIGHT FROM THE LIVINGKITCHEN 2017 EXHIBITION

LIVINGKITCHEN WORLD MODERN DESIGN STYLE How designers are setting the agenda at this year’s LivingKitchen fair

PLUS: DESIGN INSIGHT | NEWS AND VIEWS | TRENDS ROUND-UP THE FUTURE OF COLOUR | THE ROBOT AIDS IN YOUR KITCHEN DESIGN TALK | NEW PRODUCTS | RETAIL INSIGHT | COMMENT

Island, Counter, Backsplash, Wall Cladding & Flooring: PIERRE BLEUE Satin Stand designed by DOCA - EuroCucina 2016, Milano (Italy) Photography: DĂĄmaso PĂŠrez, Fototec.

Extraordinary Surface.

Interior and exterior applications: Countertops, Cladding, Flooring, Furniture, Facades.

Resistant to stains, scratches, chemicals, extreme temperatures and UV rays exposure.

Maximum format, minimum thickness. Different finishes. More than 50 available models.

Design, Durability, Versatility, Sustainability.

INTERNATIONAL AWARDS

Discover Neoltih 2017 collection in Stand A10 Hall 4.1 at Living kitchen from January 16th to 22nd.

Kitchen Island: CALACATTA POLISHED. Muratori Residence - Newport Coast - California. Photography: Dámaso Pérez, Fototec.

CONTENTS | INTRODUCTION

IN THIS ISSUE LivingKitchen World – in association with LivingKitchen 2017 – is designed to inspire and inform you as you enjoy this year’s exhibition. Take a peek inside for an insight on designers, trends, colours, design and much, much more.

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06 | WELCOME TO LIVINGKITCHEN Koelnmesse’s CEO Gerard Böse welcomes you to the fair...

08 | NEWS AND INSIGHT FROM LIVINGKITCHEN A round-up of the latest news from many of the exhibitors showing in Cologne

14 | TOP NEW PRODUCTS ON SHOW LivingKitchen is renowned for the wide range of new products and innovations on display, here we look at some of the outstanding exhibits

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20 | TRENDS FOR 2017 AND BEYOND With the New Year upon us, LivingKitchen World brings together all the key trends in kitchen design and appliances for 2017 and beyond

32 | DESIGN TALK – THOMAS JOHANSSON Face-to-Face with Electrolux’s head of design Thomas Johansson, as the design guru takes a look into the future and how he believes appliances will evolve

36 | THE COLOUR OF THE FUTURE Pantone has announced its Colour of the Year – Greenery – and other colour companies are also wading in with their takes on coming colour trends

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Director Alexander Collis Managing Editor Andy Sutcliffe Creative Director Digital/Print Lee Gavigan Operations & Production Alena Kravchenko Accounts Controller Martin Reece Project Services Alex David, Paul Cooper Dawn Cooper, Jim Kook

LivingKitchen World 2017 is produced and published by Event Publishing Services for and on behalf of Koelnmesse GmbH. Event Publishing Services Tel: +44 (0) 20 3727 7979 Fax: +44 (0) 20 8181 8633

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Website: www.epsbusiness.com For all sales enquiries: alex.david@epsbusiness.com For all corporate enquiries: corporate@epsbusiness.com

eps 40 | DESIGN TALK – ROBERT SACHON Robert Sachon is Global Design Director at Bosch. We ask how design contributes to the huge success of this international company

44 | VIRTUAL REALITY IN RETAIL Long signposted as a ‘next big thing’, 2016 was the year when Virtual Reality truly broke cover and entered the mainstream. The kitchen retail industry is starting to take its first tentative steps down the virtual road. Is this the future?

50 | DESIGN TALK – GESA HANSEN Gesa Hansen comes from a famous family of designers. For her recent collaboration with Villeroy & Boch she broke new ground with colours for the kitchen

54 | SMART AND CONNECTED KITCHENS Many of the appliance manufacturers exhibiting at LivingKitchen 2017 are embracing connected homes and offering exciting new innovations to delight consumers.

LivingKitchen World takes the temperature of this growing sector

58 | THE FUTURE IS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK Robot kitchen assistants, smart coffee makers and even a toaster that sells itself on ebay if you don’t use it enough! The future is arriving faster than you think

LivingKitchen World 2017 is published under contract by Event Publishing Services and provides visitors with comprehensive pre-event information and essential reference material, helping delegates to plan their event.

The LivingKitchen and imm trademarks are owned and protected

by Koelnmesse GmbH. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, photographic, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of Koelnmesse GmbH and Event Publishing Services.

While every effort is made to ensure information is correct at the time of going to press, neither the publisher nor the organisers can be held responsible for any errors, omissions and changes to the event programme and content.

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WELCOME | GERALD BÖSE

WELCOME Welcome to LivingKitchen 2017 from Gerald Böse, President and Chief Executive Officer of Koelnmesse GmbH

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he celebration of eating and cooking is a real mega trend in Germany and Europe, which in our opinion will develop further worldwide. Related to this, there is a major trend in Europe toward the open-plan kitchen. In cooperation with architects, floor plans have undergone such vast changes in past years that the kitchen today is often the centrepiece of the home: open, merging with the classic living area and at the highest aesthetic level. However, at the same time, absolute individuality is called for in the kitchen. It is the key requirement of modern kitchen design that the kitchen should be understood as a living space that not only allows appliances, work surfaces and space to be used efficiently, but which is equally welcoming as a place to linger, to chat, and for social life to take place.

The ever increasing offering of networked installation devices ensures a lot of enthusiasm and high demand. Apps facilitate the control of ovens and coffee machines, even when the user is a long distance away. Intelligent sensors think for themselves and, for example, warn of food that is about to burn or independently regulate the temperature. Even today, we have apps to tell us that the food baking in the oven is perfectly cooked. Under the umbrella term ‘Smart Home’, a range of products will be available which ultimately contributes to ‘Smart Being’ and provides real benefits for the user. It won’t be long now until the fridge will be able to order a new carton of milk. New technical features in combination with constantly growing product portfolios of the manufacturers

mean that the design possibilities in the kitchen are nearly unlimited.

Of course, this news is well-received at an event like LivingKitchen, which, alongside trade visitors like planners, distributors and architects, also attracts end consumers interested in design and cooking. LivingKitchen 2017 will not only set off a fireworks display of new products; it also offers an exciting live programme. Great cooking shows with famous chefs and celebrity ‘kitchen assistants’, as well as attractive contests, should arouse more enthusiasm for the kitchen and cooking during the public weekend. I would be very pleased to be able to welcome you to IMM/LivingKitchen 2017 in Cologne.

The kitchen today is often the centrepiece of the home: open, merging with the classic living area Gerald Böse , CEO, Koelnmesse

RIGHT | Koelnmesse’s Gerald Böse

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NEWS | WHAT’S NEW

LKW NEWS The kitchen industry is vibrant and fast-moving. The LivingKitchen World team rounds up some of the major stories from a few of the exhibitors who will be showing at this year’s fair.

LIVINGKITCHEN PRESENTS THE KITCHENLAB DESIGN EVENT KitchenLab, the new innovative design event developed jointly

by LivingKitchen and the Dutch interior design magazine Frame, will be setting new standards at the fair.

In Hall 5.2, at Stand A-028, 15 Dutch designers will have the opportunity to present their ideas and visions about cooking.

While exploring topics such as the production and preparation

LK WORLD REVIEW All exhibitors looking to increase their exposure need to reserve space now for the LivingKitchen World Digital Review.

Mailed out to the LivingKitchen and imm database after the fair, the LivingKitchen World Review is packed with news, key products and events from the exhibition and gives advertisers an unrivalled opportunity to target LivingKitchen visitors after the event.

Alex David | +44 (0) 20 3727 7979

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of food, the event will also shine a light on consumer behaviour.

The designers gathered together by the editorial department at Frame, such as Juliette Warmenhoven/Everyday Growing Collection and Renske Rothuizen/Lemonade Factory, will be providing visitors with an exciting picture of how kitchens might look in the near future.

V-ZUG’S BRAND CHEF The Swiss kitchen appliance manufacturer, V-ZUG, has a new brand ambassador: 34-yearold Anton Schmaus, “Chef of the Year 2015”, is now the brand’s representative in Germany.

His restaurant ‘Storstad’ in Regensburg, Bavaria, is the proud owner of an MSLQ, the new multi-functional steam cooker from V-ZUG. Down-to-earth yet at home anywhere in the world: Anton Schmaus is an ideal ambassador for the Swiss brand V-ZUG in Germany. The 34-year-old, who grew up in a family of restaurateurs in the Bavarian Forest, learned his trade through classical teaching. His early wanderings took him to Switzerland, Sweden and the US, where he discovered new ideas and ways of thinking.

Today, Anton Schmaus and his wife Anna work for themselves running their restaurant, which quickly found its way onto the epicurean radar. Shortly after the restaurant opened in June 2014, the ‘Guide Michelin’ awarded it one star.

UNCOVERING THE ULTIMATE TASTE EXPERIENCE Tasteology is a new AEG-initiated documentary series uncovering the four steps of achieving cooking results that are multisensory, sustainable, nutritional and tasteful.

The four-episode series invites viewers on a culinary journey around the world to gain inspiration and knowledge far beyond the usual TV cooking shows. Insights are gathered from different kind of experts, such as a psychologist, a chemist, a food waste activist and a famous Instagrammer who all share their answers to questions traditionally asked to chefs.

Tasteology seeks out the answers to what the ultimate taste experience is from new angles and expertise. The ambition with the film series is to look far beyond traditional cooking programmes to guide the viewer to new paths in the search for the ultimate taste experience. For more information please visit | aeg.co.uk.

STYLE PARTNERS Diesel and Scavolini have joined forces to create a kitchen of outstanding modernity.

Using materials, treatments and finishes that express all the vintage spirit so central to Diesel’s DNA, The Diesel Social Kitchen is an extension of the Diesel philosophy applied to the home collection, entitled ‘Premium Casual Living’, where the kitchen acquires all the verve and energy of a party.

Contemporary lifestyle trends are towards smaller and smaller homes, especially in big cities, where the kitchen and living zone often form a single design unit.

This means that nowadays the kitchen is no longer just a place where tasks are performed but is also a room for socialising and fun: these two iconic brands have thus set out to create a project where design becomes casual.

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NEWS | WHAT’S NEW

LECHNER STONE SURFACES, THE TIMELESS KITCHEN CHOICE On show at LivingKitchen 2017 will be the full range of Lechner work surfaces with many fascinating new products...

The centrepiece of the Lechner display at LivingKitchen 2017 will be the company’s brass-coloured glass worktop: unique with its glossy surface and warm golden hue. This must-see product, carefully displayed in the bright spotlight, shining like a star, is just one of the highlights of the Lechner stand.

The glass products from Lechner are not only a highlight as a worktop, but also complement every kitchen by providing a collection of decorative and customisable back walls. In addition the company will be showing a variety of other materials.

NATURAL STONE – truly unique For billions of years the surface of the earth has constantly been moving. Heat and enormous pressure have created a variety of stones of different solidity and structure that can be found in every part of the world. As a material formed by nature stone contributes a unique character that lends every kitchen an individual and singular feel. Most natural stone worktops and matching back walls from Lechner are available in a polished or structured design.

QUARTZ STONE – cool and cosy Also known as engineered stone, the artificially produced quartz stone mostly shows a more homogenous colour and structure than its natural counterpart. However, the surface designs are certainly not less exciting: A fascinating variety of colours and various types of finishes – from matt to polished or even fashionable surface finishes as concrete – leave no wish unfulfilled! Harmonious and soft tones very much epitomise the trend in home design right now offering a wealth of options for the kitchen, the personal feel-good space. Next to many attractive décors, hygienic properties are also convincing characteristics of this material, making it in all terms an ideal product to use around the kitchen.

CERAMIC – design meets function Kitchen worktops made of ceramic are currently winning over the hearts of kitchen buyers. This material impresses not only with its exceptionally robust and pore-free surface, but also in terms of design. Ceramic is an absolute must-have for every kitchen aficionado: by using matt and gloss effects, the appearance of concrete or marble can be authentically recreated and beautifully interpreted. Experience and feel the natural structures of this outstanding material.

For information please visit Lechner at hall 4.2 | booth A40 | www.mylechner.de

HOUZZ AND LIVINGKITCHEN JOIN FORCES LivingKitchen has signed an exclusive partnership with Houzz for strong digital trade fair communications.

“We are very proud to be a partner and to be able to actively help the most important interiors show in Germany to communicate online with trade visitors in an even more targeted way”, says Roman Rochel, MD of Houzz Germany. “For our community of professionals, which comprises more than 25,000 active interior architects, interior designers, room furnishers and kitchen experts, imm cologne and LivingKitchen offer the ideal platforms for starting a dialogue with business partners.”

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LEICHT AND LE CORBUSIER LEICHT is now offering exclusive new kitchen concepts with colours from Le Corbusier, the French/Swiss architect, photographer and painter.

At this year’s LivingKitchen LEICHT is introducing some expressive colours for innovative kitchen concepts and is the first and only kitchen manufacturer to be offering select colours from Les Couleurs® Le Corbusier. “The new colours mean a further possibility for individualisation in the planning of homely and open LEICHT kitchens. As our kitchen concepts are all about the harmonious integration of the kitchen within a discerning homely atmosphere, we concentrated on classic, expressive colours in our range,” says LEICHT CEO Stefan Waldenmaier.

SMART LIEBHERR

BORA HITS THE ROAD WITH HANSGROHE BORA is strengthening its commitment to cycling and setting off with Hansgrohe for the 2017 WorldTour season.

BORA is extending its commitment to the BORA-hansgrohe team by remaining the title sponsor in cooperation with the new co-sponsor Hansgrohe from 2017.

“We are delighted to receive Hansgrohe’s support as a traditional German company, which, like us, is committed to offering innovative products, forging new roads and providing the highest quality,” said BORA founder Willi Bruckbauer.

The team hit the headlines late last

year when, after months of rumours, they announced the signing of current road race World Champion Peter Sagan, the world’s number one ranked cyclist.

“Since we started our sponsorship in cycling our objective was to get to the top of this sport. Peter will help us to achieve this goal,” said Willi Bruckbauer. “And he will support us to make our vision come true: the end of the extractor hood. We are very happy to welcome Peter Sagan as a new member to our cycling family.

He is a real star, who achieved almost everything in cycling by being focused, dedicated and by believing in himself.”

Liebherr is taking a logical step forward in the direction of digitalisation: refrigeration and freezer appliances being able to network with mobile devices via the new generation of the SmartDeviceBox. Liebherr refrigerators will in future help in shopping and meal planning.

Stored groceries can be recorded and monitored using cameras with object recognition and a voice module MIA ‘Media Intelligence Assistant’. In this process cameras not only show images, they also recognise the individual foods inside

the refrigerator. This information then flows automatically into an inventory list. This lets the customer see quickly and clearly what is in the refrigerator.

Using the voice module they can then add additional groceries, thus creating their shopping list. Using an app they can also access their shopping lists while they are on the move. Liebherr has partnered with Microsoft on this new generation SmartDeviceBox. which uses a Windows 10 IoT Core operating system.

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ADVERTORIAL | LECHNER

LECHNER With a unique range of top quality worktops, perfect for giving kitchens a new look, experience the brand world of Lechner live.

The centrepiece of the Lechner display at LivingKitchen 2017 will be the company’s incredible brass-coloured glass worktop: unique with its glossy surface and warm golden hue. This must-see product, carefully displayed on stand in the bright spotlight, shining like a star, is just one of the highlights of this year’s Lechner LivingKitchen stand.

The glass products from Lechner are not only a highlight when used as a worktop, but can also complement every kitchen by providing a unique collection of decorative and customisable back walls.

Furthermore, Lechner can boast many fascinating new

products, with individual strengths regarding feel and décor, ready to conquer the hearts of the kitchen industry: Natural and quartz stone, ceramic, glass, compact or laminate – all which are proven as highly suitable for the demands of every day usage.

At the same time each material makes a worktop a standalone design element that can be supplied in warm and friendly surfaces in the latest colours.

Allow yourself to be amazed by Lechner’s special eyecatcher – the Pure FullFit induction hob. For the first time ever, you can not only have your kitchen worktop custommade, but also the integrated hob! The great advantage of this hob created by Lechner, and its partner AEG, is that the depth of its glass ceramic plate can be custommanufactured, opening up new dimensions in the kitchen planning. Be inspired: Hall 4.2 | Booth A40 – We are looking forward to your LivingKitchen visit.

DESIGN YOUR KITCHEN ONLINE! Staying true to the claim ‘We give kitchens a new face’, Lechner also offers you and your clients a user-friendly online configuration tool to help you with specific plans or to provide initial inspiration.

Just a few clicks are all it takes to create life-like visualisations of worktops and back walls in the kitchen, and all in a host of different room architectures.

Visit Lechner at: www.mylechner.de or make sure you visit the company in the LivingKitchen show hall 4.2/booth A40.

For more information visit:

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PRODUCT NEWS | INNOVATIONS

LivingKitchen will once again provide visitors with a unique opportunity to see the very latest kitchen designs and features, all on show in Cologne this January.

LivingKitchen 2017 allows visitors to discover innovations and trends from all over the world – from kitchen furniture and built-in appliances to related accessories.

With more than 200 exhibitors from all over the world in three exhibition halls, LivingKitchen showcases pure, stylish, undiluted kitchen lifestyle. Exhibitors attending include many of the world’s leading kitchen companies, showing new products across all

ARAN CUCINE SIPARIO DETAILS : The Studio Makio Hasuike & Co, founded in Milan in 1968 by the Japanese designer Makio Hasuike, is one of the first Industrial Design practices in Italy. The kitchen on display is in FENIX NTM® grigio bromo on plywood supporting panel, with countertop in stainless steel. | Hall 04.1/Booth A024 | www.arancucine.it

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sectors of the kitchen industry. With new appliances from the major manufacturers, full kitchens from leading designers, new materials and colours, plus a whole range of innovative products designed to solve home design problems and provide unique solutions, LivingKitchen offers visitors the ideal opportunity to explore the vast wealth of cutting-edge products and ideas the industry is constantly innovating.

EXPRESS KÜCHEN SYSTEMLINE DETAILS : Express Küchen is embarking on the next stage of development of its product and range policy. Reduced to the essentials and resolutely oriented to the spirit of life today, on display, the SYSTEMLINE offers a handleless version in five product ranges. | Hall 04.1/Booth C049 | www.express-kuechen.de

MARMOTEX K-PROOF DETAILS : Marmotex for Kitchen is a new line of natural stones – unique thanks to the exclusive K-PROOF® treatment, that makes stones totally waterproof, food contact safe, easy to maintain and resistant over time.

The stone is also highly resistant to impacts, abrasions and scratches. | Hall 04.1/Booth A029 | www.marmotex.it

ABOVE | Clean lines on the Express Küchen SYSTEMLINE range because of handleless design in five product ranges

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PRODUCT NEWS | INNOVATIONS

CONTEMPORARY DESIGN

CARESSI BLACKLINE DETAILS : Netherlands-based sink manufacturer Caressi will be showing its new Blackline black-coloured granite sinks for the kitchen. Bringing exciting contrasts to the kitchen, with a tough and luxurious look. Citing nature as the inspiration in the development of the black granite sink, Caressi says the material has a superior resistance and is ideal for the kitchen. Also on show, the range of Caressi taps has been updated and enhanced to include more colour and luxury materials. At LivingKitchen, you can also view the water-saving taps. | Hall 5.2/Booth B020/C021 | www.caressi.nl

LAPITEC URBAN DETAILS : Italian company Lapitec will be showing Urban: the new finish inspired by four cities – Brooklyn, London, Rome, and Casablanca – and designed to create large sintered stone surfaces. The Urban finishes retain the technical properties of sintered stone: the large size slabs are of calibrated thickness. | Hall 4.1/Booth B036 | www.lapitec.com

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BELOW | Luxurious black granite is used for the Blackline kitchen sink

DIZZCONCEPT PIA-NOVA DETAILS : An innovative concept of a kitchen for small spaces. When closed, PIA looks like a living room cabinet with integrated TV. When the doors open it reveals a full kitchen.

Doors open at an angle of 90 to 120 degrees to present an optimal work environment. | Hall 4.2/Booth B039 | www.dizzconcept.com

PRODUCT NEWS | INNOVATIONS

CONTEMPORARY DESIGN

BALLERINA-KÜCHEN Y-KITCHEN DETAILS : Ballerina-Küchen’s new Y-kitchen represents the logical continuation of the classic island solution. Developed by the architect and designer, Michael Hilgers, the target groups are modern people who want to be different – the manager, doctor, lawyer in the big town, but also the young family in outlying area or in a villa.

The on trend colours light blue and beige grey serve to underline the young and easy nature of the kitchen. In addition to the Y-island unit the wall construction with wall system Creativo, next to the tall units, enables flexible storage and easy access. | Hall 5.2/Booth A031 | www.ballerina.de

ERNESTOMEDA K-LAB KITCHEN DETAILS : Ernestomeda’s new K-Lab kitchen, designed by Giuseppe Bavuso, adopts an informal, dynamic stylistic language and is intended for a young target market. It is inspired by the large workbenches found in industrial contexts and includes a skilful alternation of solid forms and open units. | Hall 4.1/Booth A020 | www.ernestomeda.com

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COLDLINE BLAST CHILLER DETAILS : Coldline will be showing its LIFE domestic blast chiller: the appliance designed to chill food from +3°C to -40°C, leaven, defrost, preserve, prepare yogurt and chocolate, and rapidly chill bottles.

The traditional freezer ‘freezes’ while the LIFE blast chiller ‘deep freezes’. | Hall 4.1/Booth C037 | www.coldline.it

GROHE FOOTCONTROL DETAILS : The ability to turn the TAP on and off simply by touching it with your wrist or elbow is the hallmark of Minta Touch and Zedra Touch from GROHE. Resulting in excellent convenience and hygiene in the kitchen, this innovative concept has now been taken to the next level in a new generation of kitchen taps featuring EasyTouch and FootControl for even greater functionality and benefits in daily use.

The new FootControl technology has been developed for all those who always have their hands full when doing their kitchen chores. As the name suggests, it allows users to control the flow of water without any hand or arm contact whatsoever, giving busy amateur chefs complete freedom to focus on their chores and culinary creations.

Slightly tapping the bottom of the kitchen cabinet below the sink is all it takes to start and stop the flow of water. Temperature can be preset from the mixing valve. | Hall 4.2/Booth B011 | www.grohe.com

LIEBHERR IKF 3510 DETAILS : Convenience-of-use is ultimately revealed in the things that are used on a daily basis, and Liebherr’s latest built-in models offer convenience in abundance! For example, the new IKF 3510 built-in refrigerator is perfectly suited for storing larger quantities of drinks. | Hall 4.2/Booth A047 | www.liebherr.com

KOMET VACUFRESH DETAILS : As professional kitchen processes such as vacuum packing or vacuum cooking (Sous Vide) become more and more important in private households, there is a growing demand for domestic-focussed ‘professional’ products. With its VacuFresh, KOMET is for the first time offering a ‘built-in solution’ for vacuum packing of fresh products in the domestic kitchen environment. In this way, food remains usable for longer and can be more easily stored. The new unit is perfectly integrated into the kitchen.

The new VacuFresh is based on KOMET’s 60 years of vacuum packing experience and was conceived with the cooperation of leading chefs in Europe. The technique complies with highest quality demands and can be operated cost-efficiently. If the installation of a VacuFresh was not considered during the planning of the kitchen and kitchen devices, it can be easily retrofitted. No special designs are required for the kitchen installation.

The unit fits in all 2-grid standard drawers (with a width of 60cm) so that a maximum of one drawer must be replaced. | Hall 4.2/Booth B022 | www.vakuumverpacken.de

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STYLE | FUTURE TRENDS

TREND WATCH LivingKitchen gives visitors the perfect opportunity to check out forthcoming home interiors trends and to see how leading companies are addressing consumer demands.

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he new year is upon us and with consumers thinking ahead and planning to treat themselves to a new kitchen in 2017, LivingKitchen World trawled the Internet and spoke to leading kitchen designers to identify the year’s hottest kitchen trends. From counter tops to colour schemes, from the latest kitchen technology to trends in cabinetry, we round-up the key trends for 2017.

Many of the anticipated trends for 2017 are developments on the styles which emerged over the past 12 to 18 months. Textural contrasts will continue to underpin contemporary design in 2017, with doors inspired by materials as diverse as concrete and rustic wood. Two-tone cabinetry, more metallics and blacks, semi-pro kitchen equipment and fittings and, of course, more and more smart integration of appliances and apps are all trends experts, bloggers and designers believe are likely to gain traction in 2017 and beyond.

“Homeowners today want an open and thoughtfully designed kitchen that blends seamlessly with the rest of the home’s design aesthetic,” said Kerrie Kelly, home design expert for Americanbased home inspiration website Zillow Digs.

“From hidden appliances to beautifully-painted cabinets in complementing colours, homeowners want kitchens to be stylish enough for entertaining, yet welcoming and functional for everyday.”

At LivingKitchen 2017 visitors have a unique opportunity to view how many of these anticipated trends are bing interpreted by many of the leading companies in the kitchen sector.

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LEICHT BONDI-VALAIS OPEN PLAN KITCHEN DESIGN LEICHT has developed the new EVO planning concept for its Bondi-Valais kitchen.

This design creates a seamless transition between the work surface and the fronts of the cabinets. The almost invisible worktop with its peripheral metal edge is flush with the fronts and gives the kitchen an extremely pure design. The seamless

transition from worktop to fronts is sensational and gives the kitchen an exceedingly puristic air. Following a trend for 2017, material mix brings tension into the ensemble: Structured real wood meets velvety matt lacquer, the warm tonality of the wood meets the cooler note Carbongrau – creating a skillful blend of contrasts. | www.leicht.com

STYLE | FUTURE TRENDS

GREY IS THE NEW WHITE (AGAIN!) While white will always remain a classic, many trend watchers are saying grey cabinets will be dominating the kitchen in 2017. Be on the lookout for soft dove grey cabinets mixed with warm woods.

STAINLESS STEEL COUNTERTOPS Give your kitchen a sleek, professional look with stainless steel countertops. They’re easy to maintain, hygienic, and will last.

GO COMMERCIAL GRADE Incorporating commercial grade appliances, fixtures, and layouts into the home kitchen is creating quite the boom for the up and coming seasons. With functionality at the heart of it, maximizing prep space and increasing productivity with staple items like a prep-tap with an incorporated pot-filler.

MULTIPLE COUNTERTOP MATERIALS Mixing your countertop materials is a big trend coming in on the horizon, especially wood. Get ready to see wood countertops contrasting against cool marble and other stone counters.

TRIED AND TRUE BLACK AND WHITE Have no fear, that classic black and white colour palette is here to stay well into 2017. How will it change though? Think bolder, with higher contrast, and rustic touches.

BLACK STEEL FIXTURES Rose gold and copper are moving out in favour of a more industrial aesthetic. Expect black steel and other burnished metals to take the place of the polished metallics.

“Say hello to dark metals in the kitchen. Polished chrome and nickel accents are giving way to black faucets, burnished steel pendants and matte black cabinetry handles. The dark finishes can work in sleek modern kitchens or the most cottagey of cooking spaces. With white kitchens continuing to dominate, a dash of black can provide high contrast and instantly update tired cabinetry.”

Blogger and Designer, Jennifer Flores

KITCHENS ARE GETTING SMARTER BY THE DAY! The popularity of smart kitchen appliances is growing: more and more kitchen appliances are being supplied with built-in wifi; for example, ovens can now text us to let us know when our dinner is ready. With the ability to link kitchen appliances to phones, kitchens can be run remotely; coffee

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machines can be turned on from your bed and ovens set to start cooking dinner before you have even left work.

Designers are predicting more kitchens will have designated spots for smart devices next year. With areas to locate hidden charging stations to store devices such as phones and tablets so

that they are always operable, at hand and charged. The quintessential 2017 kitchen will focus on convenience for families on the go via accessible smart appliances. Expect kitchens full of state-of-the-art appliances, from steam ovens to built-in coffee machines to wine coolers to smart fridges.

MIXED DESIGN STYLES

While it takes a bit of an expert eye, it is totally appropriate to mix metal finishes in your tap, cabinet pulls, chair legs and pendants!

Generally speaking, people tend to pick one style and stick with it when designing a kitchen space. This year we have seen a sharp rise in consumers turning away from traditional interior design rules and making something that is altogether different. As the demand for personalized everything becomes the driving force in kitchen design trends, we see that home owners today are choosing to go with a much more eclectic style of decorating. People are borrowing little bits from many different design styles in order to make a kitchen space that is very uniquely them. This leads us to believe that seeing a mixed batch of different design styles may very well be the new kitchen design trend that is promising to take over 2017.

LINEAR SILHOUETTES On the tap front in 2017, keep things clean and minimal by opting for one with a linear silhouette. The architectural aesthetic will instantly update your look and is compatible with a wide range of styles.

APRON-FRONT SINKS At the sink, apron-front styles are timeless and are becoming more than just the traditional farm house style. You can always expect great things from a modern apron-front sink, not only do they act as the perfect focal point, but their practicality makes them an easy choice.

Lisa Canning, Designer BIG, BAD, KITCHEN ISLANDS Everything happens around the kitchen island, and 2017 wants to keep it that way. Oversized kitchen islands provide enough space to converse around while you cook, and they work well in an open floor plan.

MIXING METALS Mixing metals is a kitchen design trend for 2017, reflecting a more individual, less formal approach to design that is popular with millennials and non-millennials alike. “While it takes a bit of an expert eye, it is totally appropriate to mix metal finishes in your tap, cabinet pulls, chair legs and pendants!”

Designer, Lisa Canning

WARM MATERIALS “While white kitchens will never go out of style, we’re seeing a move towards warmer materials and a less utilitarian or expected approach. Consider the new kitchen an extension of the living and dining spaces, especially those in an open concept arrangement. The thought process is a ‘not so kitchen, kitchen’.

Working with a cohesive colour palette and materials to achieve a sense of unity with adjacent spaces provides a connection with interior elements such as furniture, lighting and decorative details, leaving the kitchen with all the importance of function yet all the style to go along with the rest of your home.”

Simon Parr-Black, Interior Designer

WOODEN KITCHEN FURNITURE Natural textures are modern kitchen trends. Luxurious marble, stylish concrete, durable granite and classic wood bring fabulous textures into modern kitchen design. Wood is an especially popular choice. Wooden kitchen furniture work well with glass, stone, ceramic and metal, and look warm creating inviting, comfortable and modern kitchen design in 2017.

TOP LEFT | On-trend beige from Nolte Kitchens ABOVE LEFT | Mixed materials from allmilmö ABOVE CENTRE | Handleless kitchens from allmilmö setspecial accents in modern kitchen design ABOVE RIGHT | Semi-pro fittings from Hansgrohe LEFT | AEG is pressing ahead with its Smart Kitchen range of products and services

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STYLE | FUTURE TRENDS BELOW | Mixing concrete grey and white from Häcker Kitchens

EXTENDED CABINETS “One top kitchen design trend I love is to have sections of the upper cabinet extended onto the counter. Let’s face it, we all love our small appliances (i.e. toaster oven, espresso machine) but we may not want them on display all the time.

A multi-purpose kitchen island has been the go-to solution to disguise the microwave and dishwasher, but unless the island is 10 feet long, it is challenging and perhaps impractical for the island to house the small appliances we use daily off the counter. By having the upper cabinets extended to the counter and small appliances sitting behind doors, you can achieve a sleek design statement without sacrificing your morning coffee!”

Blogger and Decorator, Tim Lam

THE RETURN OF TERRA COTTA “Terra Cotta is back! But it’s not the tangy orange clay you’re used to. In 2017, Reclaimed Rose Terra Cotta will be hitting it big. Following the trend of reclaimed wood, the rich creams and pale pinks of this antique terra cotta tile will be the next phase in the modern farmhouse kitchen. Look for hexagon or herringbone for a modern take on this old classic. Pairing over-sized pendants and industrial decor with reclaimed terra cotta will help keep the space current.”

Designer, Andrea Haraldsen

COLOURED STAINLESS STEEL Back in the 1950s, colours such as Stratford Yellow, Sherwood Green, Turquoise Green, Cadet Blue, Woodtone Brown, Petal Pink and Canary Yellow offered homemakers exciting new ways to coordinate their kitchens. Thankfully, it doesn’t seem like design is heading back into that direction. However, more and more we are seeing a push for alternatives to the ho-hum plain stainless steel. In a recent Houzz.com Survey, they discovered

that 2/3 of people were willing to try, or were interested in an alternative to standard stainless steel. Then, Kitchenaid came out with a stunning set of black stainless steel appliances.

After seeing the rapid success of these appliances, the rest of the industry leaders quickly followed suit. It is clear that 2017 will be the year of coloured stainless steel.

CREATIVE STORAGE Storage space is often at a premium in modern homes, and consumers want to squeeze out every last possible storage space that they can out of their kitchens. It can be seen after just a few moments on websites such as Pinterest – creative storage ideas are the golden goose egg of kitchen design trends that are sure to be at the forefront of 2017. Whether it is deep drawers capable of holding pots and pans, or hidden slide type shelves that offer additional space to put non perishable goods – creative storage is definitely all the rage, and doesn’t show any signs of stopping anytime soon.

MIELE PURELINE COLOURED STAINLESS STEEL APPLIANCES Appliance manufacturer Miele has embraced coloured stainless steel with its PureLine range of appliances.

Gütersloh-based Miele offers four premium stainless steel colour concepts which can be integrated into traditional, contemporary and modern kitchen and living styles. The high proportion of glass on the appliances creates a calm visual

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impression. Pictured here, a successful modern interpretation of a classic theme, Havana Brown complements the PureLine colour world. Miele says about PureLine: ‘These are the perfect appliances for anyone with an instinctive feel for harmony and nature.’ Other colours include Obsidian Black, Brilliant White and stainless steel. | www.miele.co.uk

LIVINGKITCHEN 2017 HALL 04.2 STAND-NR B-022

A UNIQUE COLLECTION OF FREESTANDING BLACK STEEL SLIDING DRAWER STORAGE CABINETS USING VINTAGE WOODEN WINE BOXES FROM BORDEAUX, FRANCE AUF DER PLATTE 4, D-67686 MACKENBACH, GERMANY TEL 0049 6374 805455 | EMAIL CONTACT@HOBBS-DESIGN.COM WEBSITE HOBBSGERMANY.DE

H A L L 4 .1

STYLE | FUTURE TRENDS

LEFT | Handleless design and integrated storage from nobilia BELOW LEFT | White granite composite sinks from Aquasanita

VINYL FLOOR TILES If we had told you five years ago that vinyl was going to be the most popular type of flooring used in the kitchen, you might have laughed at us. Advancements in the way that vinyl is produced and manufactured have really upped the quality, durability and overall economic value of vinyl. And now, with the implementation of vinyl tiles (as opposed to the sheet vinyl you may remember your parents having), vinyl has really come into its own and has steadily increased in popularity.

And the companies producing vinyl have updated their designs by making these vinyl tiles in a huge assortment of looks, many of which are exact copies of their more expensive counterpart.

A vinyl tile floor that looks like hardwood, will cost you little in comparison… and it is truly difficult to spot the difference.

OPEN SHELVING Open shelving is one of the most popular kitchen design elements of the past year, and it’s showing no sign of slowing down for 2017. The major appeal of open shelving is the ability to showcase beautiful dishes, glasses, and serving pieces.

THE RISE OF CONCRETE Ceramics and concrete are natural materials that have previously been used for benchtops because of their heat and scratch resistance, however now we are starting to see them being used in cabinet doors and panelling.

They create a futuristic and minimal look that we’ll be seeing a lot more of.

DECORATIVE TILES Decorative tiles are great for feature walls. Using decorative tiles in small areas of the kitchen can create some flair and interest in an otherwise monotone room. This is a great way to refresh the look of the kitchen without changing much else.

INTEGRATED SPACES Maybe your kitchen feels disconnected from the rest of your home. Maybe you want your cooking space to feel more accommodating. Either way, this trend could be for you.

Designers anticipate more streamlined kitchen designs in which the kitchen converges with the home’s primary living space. It will become part of the main living space even further.

Designers will merge kitchens and living rooms by including hidden and integrated appliances.

TWO-TONE CABINETRY. Love white and black? Torn between gray paint and pale pine?

Now, you don’t have to choose just one finish for your cabinetry.

2017 will be all about the two-tone, layered look, whether you paint the upper cabinetry one shade and the lower set another, or simply choose a kitchen island in a different finish. Plain kitchen design can be brightened up by using two colour kitchen cabinets. If you like monochromatic colour schemes, then it is a great way to select two kitchen. A combination of two neutral colours, or a neutral colour with pale cool colour tone or the brown shades of natural wood.

GOODBYE STRAIGHT EDGES Oval shapes are a new trend for the 2017 season. Gone are straight, sharp edges, and instead designers are embracing soft curves and rounded shapes in the form of ovals and oblongs.

Combine an oblong shape with a black kitchen and you’re well ahead in the style game.

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A NEW KIND OF TRADITION While it’s no surprise that present-day kitchens are embracing simple design, we are starting to see traditional spaces hop on board with this trend too. Even traditional kitchens may experience a slightly cleaner feel with bold lines and less fussy details. This is not the end of traditional design as we know it. It just means homeowners will opt for fewer frills and more calculated, strategically placed details. Traditional designs will always remain popular, but future renditions will be more deliberate with an emphasis on key elements like hoods, islands, cabinet crowns and so on.

ELICA NIKOLATESLA EXTRACTOR FAN SYSTEM NikolaTesla is Elica’s first aspirating induction hob equipped with the most advanced technologies.

Offering a neat solution to combining the functions of two appliances into one single product.

The extraction system, positioned in the central zone, reaches high performance levels, in terms of fume extraction,

noise level and energy efficiency (class A+). Thanks to the direct communication with the integrated hob, it is able to receive information from the cooking zones, and automatically calibrates the ideal aspiration level, so that the user only needs to worry about cooking, while at the same time reducing energy consumption. | elica.com

STYLE | FUTURE TRENDS

WELL-LIT CABINETRY Homeowners won’t settle for just ceiling lights and table lamps to illuminate their kitchens. Extensive cabinet lighting is a trend to watch. Low-voltage light tape strips are used as accent pieces below cabinets, above cabinets, inside cabinets and below countertop overhangs. LED lights are the norm. These features will be grouped to offer better mood-setting capabilities.

WARMER METAL COLOURS Colored steel and soft glow of metal alloys are luxurious and beautiful kitchen trends 2017. Choosing a new stove or refrigerator for your modern kitchen design or remodeling it is better to look at colorful alternatives instead of buying ordinary kitchen appliances in steel gray color. The modern colors vary in a wide range of warm shades and cool tones from mysterious black to majestic bronze.

DEEP DRAWERS Deep drawers located in stylish, large kitchen cabinets featuring compartments for all your kitchen accessories offer better functionality. Personalised and comfortable storage solutions are modern kitchen trends for 2017.

HIGH END KITCHEN APPLIANCES Modern kitchen trends call for built-in ovens, cabinets for heating meals and drink coolers. Luxury kitchen appliances increase the price of modern kitchen remodeling, but add more comfort to interior design and create incredibly attractive functional spaces.

SLEEK DESIGN FOR MODERN KITCHEN CABINETS Elegant simplicity and functionality with attractive look are modern kitchen trends in 2017. Metal and glass accents, elegant and simple details, made with high quality materials kitchen cabinets help create modern kitchens for 2017.

SCULPTURED KITCHEN ISLANDS Modern kitchen islands blend with dining areas. Large, super functional and beautiful, modern kitchen islands have lots of storage spaces, sinks, attractive tops and elegant dining areas which transform and style kitchen interiors.

VERSATILITY OF KITCHEN COLOURS AND DESIGN White plain colours and off-white kitchen cabinets with contrasting accents in neutral colour tones or bright warm shades are modern kitchen trends in 2017. White kitchen cabinets blend with wooden textures, exposed brick wall design, natural colours of stones or gray colour tones of concrete creating dream like kitchen interiors that are interesting and stylish.

CEILING KITCHEN CABINETS Hanging from the ceiling, kitchen cabinets create an effect of light kitchen design and delight with attractive, floating in the air, modern kitchen storage spaces.

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QUARTZ KITCHEN COUNTERTOPS Quartz kitchen countertops, marble and wood are versatile modern kitchen trends for 2017. Concrete, stainless steel and glass add industrial style vibe to modern kitchens and offer the latest trends in contemporary kitchen design.

Quartz kitchen countertops look like granite. Solid and practical, easy to clean and very attractive, quartz kitchen countertops are convenient and eco friendly solutions for modern kitchens.

THE REAL DIVAS OF THE KITCHEN Forget the units, forget the storage, forget the lighting for a second, the real “Primadonna” of the kitchen are the new, exciting and often unexpected appliances.

Some examples? Miele keep coming up with beautiful ranges of appliances and last year they presented a fridge with ‘blackboard’ surfaces that you can literally write on.

Say hello to dark metals. Polished chrome and nickel accents are giving way to black faucets, burnished steel pendants and matte black cabinetry.

Jennifer Flores, Blogger

Elica has been pushing the boundaries, giving us the luxury to have a stunningly decorative extractor system rather than the more typical boring, bulky and noisy one.

MODERN KITCHEN FURNITURE DESIGN Modern kitchen decor is luxurious and comfortable, blurring the boundaries between simply functional and beautiful living spaces. Modern kitchen furniture for homes are as attractive and comfortable as items for decorating luxurious restaurants and seating areas.

From great for spacious dining areas large tables, to space saving dining furniture items for small kitchen interiors, all modern kitchen furniture are elegant, comfortable and beautiful.

THE RISE OF LEDs Ribbons of LEDs are showing up in the weirdest – and most wonderful – kitchen places: Along toe kicks as nightlights; on the inside of cabinet doors to show off the china; concealed in crown molding to wash ceilings with light.

LED rope or cove lights are gaining in popularity because they come in a rainbow of colours, you can get creative about where you install them and as they emit virtually no heat, you can keep them on forever without burning cabinets or walls.

ABOVE LEFT | New colour choices for sinks from BLANCO, with SILGRANIT finish ABOVE CENTRE | New take on an island from Häcker Kitchens ABOVE RIGHT | Space saving integrated solution from Nolte Kitchens ABOVE | individual gas hobs directly placed into your favourite worktop by PITT® by Reginox

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PROFILE | THOMAS JOHANSSON

THOMAS JOHANSSON

DESIGN TALK With hyperconnection and apps, the next generation of smart kitchen appliances may not need a separate room, predicts Electrolux design director Thomas Johansson.

As Electrolux design director Thomas “[Future kitchen appliances] will be connected to you … your Johansson heads off to his Stockholm senses, dietary needs and more, perhaps even monitoring your office in the morning, his phone buzzes with health [and] proposing menus,” he explains. a message from his refrigerator: Lunch is Johansson points to the algorithms that currently allow ready to be picked up at a nearby restaurant.

Facebook and Google, for example, to create relatively accurate Through links to his smartphone and calendar, portraits of users’ preferences according to their behaviour. Your the refrigerator has already determined that refrigerator would do the same, knowing where you are likely Johansson forgot the sack lunch he was going to eat at his desk to be, and that “on Wednesday, your preference is this type of today, so it has ordered one of Johansson’s favourite meals at food,” says Johansson. “Your coffee machine at home: It [will an eatery he passes on his route to work. Later in the day, the know] you are at home, you’ve woken up, it’s connected to your refrigerator contacts Johansson again: Time to pick up some calendar and it makes coffee directly. Products will be connected snacks for his post-work bicycle ride, along with the missing to you … your senses, dietary needs and more, perhaps even ingredients for a cake his wife will make for their daughter’s monitoring your health [and] proposing menus.” birthday the next day.

“People want to indulge in food, they Right now this scenario happens only in are knowledgeable about food. That’s Johansson’s imagination. But the veteran why you need smart technology—helping, designer for Swedish appliance giant NAME : Thomas Johansson supporting and inspiring people to be Electrolux predicts that hyperconnection will TITLE : Design Director healthy,” says Johansson. “How do you define our relationship with the kitchen by INFO : Johansson has been take care of food—how it enters the home, the year 2050. Better data, he says, will be working at Electrolux since preserve it, prepare it – in a respectful way? delivered by smart apps using increasingly 2004. His experience in the [How do you keep the] nutrients, the sophisticated learning algorithms. company ranges from leading colour, taste and texture? This is the international design teams in both small appliances and major appliances to creating an entirely new range of white goods. Johansson has a MA degree in Product Design from HDK, School of Design and Crafts, Gothenburg, Sweden. | www.electroluxgroup.com

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BELOW | Full visual alignment across all product categories

BELOW | Appliances show careful consideration to detail

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PROFILE | THOMAS JOHANSSON

RIGHT | For the moment appliances will remain integrated into kitchens... but in the future?

BELOW RIGHT | Design is at the heart of Johansson’s role BELOW | The my AEG app unleashes a range of connectivity features

base for all of our work. Steam ovens, the smart fridge – it’s about taste.”

By the year 2050, says Johansson, the kitchen may no longer even be a kitchen as we know it. Instead, its elements may be incorporated into the living room, with embedded appliances disappearing into walls and working surfaces.

The fridge, for example, could be a series of a dozen hexagonal-shaped storage spaces set into a living room wall, adjacent to the ovens and ‘smart’ pantry.

Johansson hypothesizes that instructions might be embedded on the containers and in the wrappers housing the foods, perhaps using nanomaterials or other labelling. A piece of meat wrapped in ‘smart’ plastic with nanosensors, for instance, would be able to communicate to the refrigerator that it is a 1-pound steak.

Other refrigerator storage spaces would bathe vegetables in the correct sun-mimicking wavelengths and temperatures to keep them green and alive as long as possible – and perhaps even growing. In addition to keeping food fresher, says Johansson, these technological advances would result in less food waste.

In the same way that a smart refrigerator might work in the future, a smart pantry would maintain a log of its contents, says Johansson, while storing different foodstuffs that don’t require refrigeration but might need some other kind of treatment.

Perhaps a slightly cooler level would store potatoes and root vegetables, while cameras would scan packages on the shelves so the pantry could consult with the refrigerator on recipes that require baking ingredients like flour or sugar.

Meanwhile, a smart oven set into the wall next to the refrigerator modules might be able to detect the humidity and internal temperature of the food it cooks. When the oven cooks a juicy steak, says Johansson, it could scan the meat with colour and

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thermal detectors to make sure the end result is just the way he likes it – rare. The oven could double as a steamer, programmed to cook vegetables for maximum preserved nutritional value.

INTELLIGENT INTEGRATION Johansson says the ultimate goal for the next generation of kitchen technologies is individual health and well-being. Linking kitchen appliances to personal devices that monitor blood sugar levels, dietary habits, and prescription or other medicines would enable the appliances to use this information in evaluating the family’s food needs. This would require ‘smart’ machines linked to larger systems via the Internet and internal information “clouds” that could make some decisions on their own.

A key to much of this technology will be ever-smaller batteries, or perhaps some other form of portable power that takes up very little space. One idea from the Design Lab competition that particularly appeals to Johansson is a floating sphere to store the food. With a simple verbal direction from a cook, the sphere would unhook from its ceiling docking space and float downward as an autonomous vehicle, like a tiny self-piloted helicopter or bubble.

But finding tiny batteries that last and that can retain and regain a charge readily is the next immediate step in the work being done now, says Johansson.

Johansson says he eventually wants to expand Electrolux’s healthy home concept even further: “I live in the city, so I think about a healthy apartment building. Expand that to a healthy city, a healthy society,” he says.

THOMAS JOHANSSON | www.electroluxgroup.com

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PANTONE | TOMORROW’S COLOUR TODAY

TOMORROW’S SWATCH December saw the annual revealing of the Pantone colour of the year, a key guide for the home interest sector. LKW rounds up the key colour trends for 2017 and beyond.

P

antone, is the American-based provider of professional colour standards for the design industries, and has recently announced that Pantone 15-0343 Greenery is its ‘Colour of the Year’ for 2017; described as ‘a fresh and zesty yellow-green shade that evokes the first days of spring when nature’s greens revive, restore and renew’.

“While Serenity and Rose Quartz, the Pantone Colour of the Year 2016, expressed the need for harmony in a chaotic world,” said Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director of the Pantone Color Institute, “Greenery bursts forth in 2017 to provide us with the hope we collectively yearn for amid a complex social and political landscape.

“Satisfying our growing desire to rejuvenate, revitalize and unite, Greenery symbolizes the reconnection we seek with nature, one another and a larger purpose.”

“The tangy yellow-green speaks to our desire to express, explore, experiment and reinvent, imparting a sense of buoyancy,” said Eiseman. “Through its reassuring yet assertive vibrancy, Greenery offers us self-assurance and boldness to live life on our own terms, during a time when we are redefining what makes us successful and happy.”

GREENERY HOME DÉCOR | ARCHITECTURE Open spaces in interior and exterior design and floor-to-ceiling windows allow the green outdoors to become part of a room’s backdrop and ambiance. Adding Greenery through living walls, terrariums, botanically-themed wallpaper, paint, accent furniture and decor provides respite and breathing space. A Greenerypainted wall or piece of furniture delivers a pop of colour, with the added benefit of creating the illusion of nature indoors.

Bringing the outside in, the shade – like the plant life it represents – can improve self-esteem, reduce anxiety and heighten awareness of one’s surroundings.

Through its reassuring yet assertive vibrancy, Greenery offers us selfassurance and boldness to live life on our own terms.

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Leatrice Eiseman, Pantone Color Institute

BELOW | Pantone’s Capsure allows you to capture colour from virtually any material,fabric or surface and match it quickly and accurately to a Pantone reference.

PANTONE LivingKitchen World ®

PANTONE c40 m80 y100 k5

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PANTONE | TOMORROW’S COLOUR TODAY

BEHR PAINT’S 2017 COLOUR CURRENTS As well as Pantone, a number of paint companies have been revealing their own vision of the colours that will be shaping design trends in 2017.

Each year, the team of colour experts at Behr, one of the largest manufacturers and suppliers of paint, primers, stains and surface finish products, immerse themselves in an extensive process to curate the latest hues by examining trends in art, product design, fashion and architecture. This forecast, paired with the modern ways in which people live, results in the development of the Behr Colour Currents, an all-new collection of on-trend paint colours.

“Paint is more than just a colour; it is a method of communication. Colour conveys emotion and allows people the freedom to express themselves and be who they really are,” said Erika Woelfel, Vice President of Colour and Creative Services at Behr. “In today’s busy world, home is a safe haven, a retreat for living in the moment or welcoming guests for a weekend visit. That’s why our 2017 colours are time-honoured and heartwarming, just like any homecoming should be.”

Behr takes a non-traditional approach to colour forecasting.

Instead of choosing just one dominant colour of the year, its team of experts create a collection of hues that are curated into separate themes, empowering individuals to choose colours and colour combinations that speak to their moods, emotions and personalities. For 2017, the colours centre around three lifestyle themes: Comfortable, Composed and Confident.

The Comfortable palette features soft, tranquil and versatile colours. They work well for small spaces and help open up areas that do not get a lot of natural light. Recently, pastels have transformed from sweet to mineral matte shades. Light blue can effortlessly become the focal point when supported by neutral hues on the floor and furniture. These pale hues can be energized with bright accents of yellow, orange or bold green.

The Composed palette consists of colours with depth and intensity. Its hues are for those who desire a stronger colour experience. Deep, earth-inspired tones and rich jeweled shades provide an excellent background on which other colours can be layered. These robust shades are reminiscent of traditional

DULUX ANNOUNCES DENIM DRIFT AS 2017’s CHOICE Dulux has revealed Denim Drift as its colour of the year for 2017, with a supporting colour palette to reflect the sign of the times – ‘to take a fresh look on life’. Saying, ‘It’s a beautiful colour palette, which is on trend, simple to understand and yet so new, sophisticated and versatile’.

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Before joining Dulux’s Global Aesthetics Centre, Heleen Van Gent was educated at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, Netherlands. She says: “Our review of international architecture, fashion and design trends revealed that blue is the colour of the moment. To make it relevant for your home, the team

chose a blue that works as well in a kitchen as it does in a bedroom. Denim Drift, is the must-have colour for 2017.”

Heleen van Gent, Creative Director, Dulux’s Global Aesthetics Centre For more information please visit | www.dulux.co.uk

Paint is more than just a colour; it is a method of communication. Colour conveys emotion and allows people the freedom to express themselves.

grandeur, but offer a contemporary look when combined with gray, black and white. Charcoal gray proves it can happily dominate a space, creating a quiet and relaxing mood. Gray can also provide a modern effect when applied as one colour to walls, trim and ceilings.

The Confident palette is all about vivaciousness and impact.

Its colours are saturated and bright, capturing attention and enlivening spaces. These playfully optimistic hues find a sporty edge when combined with dark gray, bright orange and spicy red accents. Dusky blue and citrus-toned yellow make the perfect pairing, while a splash of orange adds an element of fun.

THE AMERICAN VIEWPOINT Every year, USA-based coatings company Accessa rounds up consumer trends in coatings and colours for homes and offices from a range of sources.

For 2017 it points to Poised Taupe to create a cozy lifestyle and bring a sense of sanctuary into homes.

Accessa claims it diffuses the stresses of the world outside our doors — so much so that we feel restored and in balance when we walk across our threshold.

In addition to the “warming up”

Erika Woelfel, Behr of neutrals in general, Accessa says 2017 will see several key colours emerge in combination with taupe: l Cornflower Hues: Faded indigo and lighter cornflower hues pair with modern white and Poised Taupe for a charming palette, reminiscent of the French countryside. l Organic Re-Imagined: Vegetal green, citrus green, weathered bronze and mustard yellow pair with Poised Taupe to create a contemporary organic palette — for the modern world. l Vintage Pastels: Pastels this year will take on a vintage vibe with dusty ink, amber, Poised Taupe, sage and oxidized yellow. l Wine & Taupe: Deep wine, purple and Poised Taupe bring warmth to the dark tones favoured in 2017. Silvery grey and intense teal will provide balance and drama to this rich and mysterious colour palette. l Eroded: Red and coral are vibrant and ore rich when combined with Poised Taupe and dusky rose. There is a natural feel to this palette, reminiscent of silt, clay and red stained bedrock. l Yellow POP: Yellow takes bold direction when paired with black, white, Poised Taupe and deep teal for a super graphic look.

And for kitchens they point to the trend of Two-Tone cabinetry. “Love white and black? Torn between gray paint and pale pine? Now, you don’t have to choose just one finish for your cabinetry. Next year will be all about the two-tone, layered look, whether you paint the upper cabinetry one shade and the lower set another, or simply choose a kitchen island in a different finish.”

TOP LEFT | Green splash backs add impact to this predominantly white kitchen ABOVE LEFT | Green shelving and accessories bring style to these modern kitchen designs ABOVE | Adding green to a kitchen for 2017 will be bang on trend LEFT | Dulux have announced a blue tint named Denim Drift as its 2017 colour

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PROFILE | ROBERT SACHON

ROBERT SACHON

DESIGN TALK As Global Head of Design at Robert Bosch, Robert Sachon is the face of the famous appliance innovator. LKW asks how can design contribute to the company’s success?

LKW : As a designer, are you not always destined to have one foot in the present and one in the future?

RS : We simply try to give the appliances the best that there is. And, depending on the product, we have to look far into the future. To this end, we have developed a dedicated process within the company which is known as “Vision Range”. It is roughly comparable with the show cars and concept studies used in the automotive industry. We design an ideal future scenario in order to gear our brand, our products and our design to that scenario from a strategic perspective. This guarantees us LKW : What does design mean to the Bosch brand? a competitive lead, as the content can flow directly into future RS : Our customers buy our products for more than just their projects. Maybe that is one of the major advantages of being appealing exteriors. They have very high expectations about able to work for one company and with one team on a long-term functionality and quality. So our design basis. Because it gives us the freedom to doesn’t primarily emphasize the visual look to the future, quite separately from the effect, but incorporates surprising simplicity specific product. and perceivable quality right down to the last NAME : Robert Sachon detail. The award as Red Dot: Design Team TITLE : Global Design Director LKW : You have been Global Design of the Year showed that in terms of design, INFO : Robert Sachon has Director for the Bosch brand for 10 years we’re on an equal footing with strong global studied free arts, product now. How would you describe your role as design companies from all over the world. design and is a graduate of head designer? the Harvard Business School’s RS : The term “head designer” is General Management Program (GMP). He can look back on a long design career in the household appliance sector.

Since 2005 he has shaped the Bosch brand as vice-President and Global Design Director at Robert Bosch Hausgeräte. | bosch-home.com After leaving university Robert Sachon started designing electrical appliances for Siemens where he became responsible for the central design department for the Bosch and Siemens Hausgeräte regional brands in Spain, Greece, Turkey, Brasil and Peru.

Since 2005 he has been the global Design Director of Robert Bosch Hausgeräte where he leads an international team of industrial product designers.

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ABOVE | It’s askfast is anything new, and ve been around for.

ABOVE | It’s askfast is anything new, and ve been around for.

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PROFILE | ROBERT SACHON

RIGHT | “Our customers buy our products for more than just their appealing exteriors” BELOW | In designing products, the team follows a family concept that’s intended to reinforce the ‘recognizability’ of all Bosch products BELOW RIGHT | Products are designed for everyday life, not for museums

pretty accurate. It sounds a little like a head chef. Similar to the chef de cuisine, who is in charge of the kitchen crew in fine dining establishments, I lead a team of employees who are responsible for the design of the home appliances.

I consider myself as one of those designers who not only manage other people but are also happy to get their own hands dirty in order to set out the design direction. We have lots of different product categories, but at the end of the day the point is of course to shape the face of the Bosch brand.

how consumers perceive products. After all, they hold the devices in their hands day after day, and that also makes them more discerning of quality in other product segments.

LKW : So you are a brand manager as well as a designer?

RS : Most definitely. Unlike other companies, where design is part of technical development, design at Bosch benefits from the fact that it is a key part of brand management. Our design team plays an important role and has a clear remit, as it gets involved with the development of product concepts at a very early stage – long before any thoughts of marketing for the products or of an advertising campaign.

LKW : Where do your go looking for ideas?

RS : As a designer, you work practically round the clock. Good ideas do not come at the push of a button and not when you need them, but mostly at the most impossible places. With good ideas you wake up at night or you have them in the plane, in the car or through completely banal things. Home-appliance design is characterized by the trends from three other areas: the consumer goods, the automotive sector and the housing sector.

LKW : Basing design language on the brand values is one side of the coin. How would you on the other side describe the product’s use and benefit for the consumer?

RS : We pursue a user-centred design approach where consumer monitoring plays a major role. We benefit from the fact that we too are all users of home appliances. We therefore can observe ourselves as well as others. And when observing ourselves, it’s important to always be aware of our blind spot.

Also, the consumer perception is evolving. For example, this is where influences from the field of consumer electronics and mobile communication come to bear. The materials used in smartphones and tablets as well as their finishing quality change

LKW : Would you say good design is no longer an exclusive asset – thanks to companies like Bosch?

RS : Yes, good design does not have to be elite. I am concerned that all our products meet our design requirements. We design products for everyday life, not for the museum. Our design is “design for life”. Our products should be convincing in daily use, both functionally and aesthetically. So it is only logical that we apply the same care to all our equipment, from the beginner model to the absolute premium product.

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LKW : Could you point to a designer whose work inspires you in your own work or you admire?

RS : Dieter Rams. I am fascinated by this clear design language, which is now again high on the agenda – and which is all the more suited to the Bosch brand values.

ROBERT SACHON | bosch-home.com

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TECHNOLOGY | VIRTUAL REALITY

INTERACTIVE FUTURE Virtual Reality has moved from being a buzzword to actual reality as retailers around the world realise the potential of letting customers ‘try before they buy’, writes Andy Sutcliffe

T

he leading shopping centre operator Westfield launched a report in 2016 – ‘How We Shop Now: What’s Next?’ – which unveiled trends that will shape tomorrow’s retail industry. The report revealed that 41 per cent of consumers in the UK and USA would like to use new technologies, such as Virtual Reality (VR) headsets, to experience how products would look in their home.

It may still be early days but Virtual Reality is making a splash in the world of retail. Virtual Reality is a major buzzword these days and being talked about at many trade fairs. In VR, users are enjoying virtual environments that are either consisting of video material that was captured from the real world in special 360-degree camera rigs, or completely computer-rendered environments that can either be completely made-up or based on the real world. In this context, it must be distinguished between 360-degree video and immersive VR content. While the former takes the user on a predetermined journey allowing only head movements as the only degree of interactivity, true VR enables users to explore at will and take choices that influence the material being shown.

There are also more advanced tracking techniques at work, enabling users to freely move through the VR display and lean in to investigate items from closer up.

In the kitchen sector a number of retailers worldwide are now using VR to allow customers to visualise in-store a kitchen within their own home.

However, not everyone is convinced. With some in the industry arguing that this is little more than a novelty that retailers can use as a PR stunt to entice customers.

“I think it has been very niche so far,” Leo Burnett activation director Ian Thomas told the UK’s Retail Week.

“Generally, the headsets need to be manned so it

Virtual reality was once the dream of science fiction. But the internet was also once a dream, and so were computers and smartphones.

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Mark Zuckerburg, Facebook founder

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TECHNOLOGY | VIRTUAL REALITY

makes it quite expensive to use in retail stores.

“You can only demo a small number at a time and, whilst the hardware is low cost the cost of producing good content is still incredibly high.”

LOWE’S HOME IMPROVEMENT In America, Lowe’s Holoroom augmented reality and virtual reality experience is now available in Lowe’s Home Improvement stores in select US markets. The experience combines an instore iPad kitchen and bathroom design app with Oculus DK2 Virtual Reality viewing experience. Once users are satisfied with their selections, designs can be exported to YouTube 360 for viewing at home with a Google Cardboard.

A project of Lowe’s Home Improvement, Lowe’s Innovation Labs and SciFutures, the Lowe’s Holoroom is powered by Marxent’s VisualCommerce™, which is the virtual products platform.

VisualCommerce enables Lowe’s to manage thousands of SKUs (stock keeping units) as virtual 3D objects, along with their associated meta data.

With the ability to populate a 3D space with actual products stocked by Lowe’s, Lowe’s shoppers can design their perfect kitchen and literally walk into it, share it via YouTube 360 and then buy the products to turn their virtual design into reality.

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Kyle Nel, executive director of Lowe’s Innovation Labs, said the Holoroom helps nudge people over the biggest hurdle when it comes to a room refresh: imagining what those changes will look like in real life.

“If you think about the way people conceptualize remodels now, it’s really abstract,” Nel said. “They go and get a little swatch here and one there and lay it on a table.”

But with virtual reality, people can get a much more “holistic” and immersive view of how a slab of marble or different paint color can change an entire room – drastically increasing the likelihood that they will go with Lowe’s for their project, Nel said.

“It removes five steps along the way,” he said. “Anyone who has done a renovation has a really visceral reaction.”

THE LEROY MERLIN EXPERIENCE Virtual reality headsets mimic the sights and sounds you find in the real world, using a combination of motion-tracking, graphics and algorithms. The next step for Lowe’s is incorporating

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Microsoft HoloLens and Google’s Project Tango, where virtual objects can be overlaid on top of real objects.

“You can stand in your own kitchen and overlay a fridge on top of your own fridge,” Nel said. “It’s uncannily real.”

Closer to home, European retail giant Leroy Merlin has developed a VR app, the first of its kind for the retail sector in Spain, using the Oculus Rift. The app helps Leroy Merlin offer an improved service for its customers, who can now view their entire catalogue of ready-built kitchens using Virtual Reality Virtualware designed the POP Virtual Reality software platform based around the SDK2 of the Oculus Rift which allows customers to virtually walk through and experience the kitchen models of Leroy Merlin.

Customers in Leroy Merlin stores in Spain are now able to virtually ‘visit’ 50 different models of kitchens that make up the catalogue of the retailer, being able to see the complete variety

LEFT | Virtual Reality allows modelling software to create virtual rooms to any design BELOW FAR LEFT | The software allows consumers to easilly compare different colours and products from the showroom BELOW LEFT | Lowe’s Holoroom is an in-store concept

THE GOOGLE CARDBOARD EXPERIENCE The main issue for VR users is the cost, with the headsets costing hundreds of Euros.

Enter Google, with its ‘Cardboard’.

Google has released the design of the Cardboard phone holder for free, and other companies sell versions for as little as €10.

Google estimates that it and other companies have sold or given away millions of Cardboard kits.

Google has several initiatives designed to help its lightweight take on virtual reality take off. It is working with phone makers to ensure that future smartphones support Cardboard better. It has invented a new kind of camera to make it easier to produce virtualreality movies, and it is developing YouTube into a platform to deliver them. If it works, Google’s

of flooring colours, wall finishes, countertops and cupboards.

Once the customer puts on the Oculus VR goggles, they can virtually “walk” through each of the different kitchen space, see clearly what each model looks like, and later receive an email with a photo and information associated with their favourite kitchen unit designs.

Thanks to an additional screen installed in the shop the rest of the public will also be able to see what the customer wearing the VR goggles is experiencing.

DOWN UNDER Josh Mammoliti, managing director of Australian retailer The Blue Space, says: “We are changing the future of buying your kitchen with our world-leading Situ Virtual Reality technology experience powered by HTC Vive.”

gimmick might neutralise virtual reality headsets before they even get properly established. Putting your expensive glass-and-metal phone into a brown box you just folded together and raising it to your face feels a little silly. But watch someone try Cardboard for the first time, and you will usually see a grin quickly appear beneath the plain brown goggles.

The eCommerce retailer’s Virtual Reality technology allows customers to design the space to replicate their own kitchen, then see what an almost endless range of packages would actually look like.

It even shows real lighting and reflections, from the exact position of the sun as it moves through the day, to the accurate ambience of light fixtures. It is also dimensionally accurate, within 99.9 percent, to correctly display all the fixtures and fittings in your space.

If you think about the way people remodel now, it’s really abstract. They go and get a swatch here and one there and lay it on a table.

Kyle Nel, Lowe’s Home Improvement

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TECHNOLOGY | VIRTUAL REALITY

HOW DOES VIRTUAL REALITY WORK? THE FUTURE

How does VR work? How does wearable tech make you think you’re standing in your new kitchen when you’re actually about to bump into the showroom’s counter? The headset set-up is being used by Oculus, Sony, HTC, Samsung and Google, and usually requires three things. A PC, console or smartphone to run the app or game, a headset which secures a display in front of your eyes (which could be the phone’s display) and some kind of input – head tracking, controllers, hand tracking, voice, on-device buttons or trackpads. Video is sent from the console or computer to the headset via a HDMI cable in the case of headsets such as HTC’s Vive and the Rift. For Google’s Daydream headset and the Samsung Gear VR, it’s already on the smartphone slotted into the headset. VR headsets use either two feeds sent to one display or two LCD displays, one per eye.

So is VR just a fad or something that kitchen retailers and manufacturers need to actively explore? For now, VR commerce, like much of the VR industry, is small and experimental, with a big focus on getting people to take their first taste.

Lowe’s hasn’t commented on how its VR Holorooms, which it started installing in stores in 2014, have affected revenue.

Nevertheless, Kyle Nel, executive director of Lowe’s Innovation Labs, sees value in experimenting. “By testing and rolling out different AR and VR technologies and applications, we have the opportunity to learn how customers engage with these solutions and stay ahead of their rapidly changing expectations and differing needs,” he says.

Although the virtual reality industry is still in the early stages, its annual revenue is forecasted to grow from less than $1 billion to $30 billion by 2020, according to advisory firm Digi-Capital.

However, no less an authority that Facebook’s Mark Zuckerburg made it clear that he was playing a long game when Facebook purchased Oculus Rift for $2 billion in March 2014, saying: “One day, we believe this kind of immersive, augmented reality will become a part of daily life for billions of people.

“Virtual reality was once the dream of science fiction. But the internet was also once a dream, and so were computers and smartphones. The future is coming and we have a chance to build it together.”

Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey has acknowledged the challenge. “Most people don’t have computers with high-end graphics cards. In the future, that’s going to change: give it five or six years, and most computers will be capable of running good virtual experiences.”

What is certain is that retailers need to consider now whether it’s time to jump on this particular bandwagon. Writing in The Harvard Business Review, L.E.K. Consulting’s Dan McKone said: ‘VR and AR are emerging technologies. But investment in the sector is hot, with AR and VR startups raising $658 million in equity financing last year [2015]. Some projections put AR and VR investment in retail at close to $30 billion by 2020 (from nothing today). Don’t wait for a “killer app” to force your hand.

Deciding how to play early, and which bets to place now, will let retailers take the lead in this technology’.

In conclusion, shoppers clearly want personalised experiences from retailers and they’re open to VR being used to achieve it.

With so many retailers adopting this technology and doing so effectively, it could only be a matter of time before it is no longer a gimmick, but a staple of our everyday shopping experience.

VR is hugely important to the future of retail, particularly instore. In creating a more exciting experience, retailers will tempt shoppers in-store and use this vastly improved experience to give customers the confidence and convenience to purchase their kitchen at that time. Once consumers embrace Virtual Reality in-store it’s only a matter of time before it’s widely adopted online and in the home environment too.

ABOVE LEFT | Lowe’s Holoroom allows users to visualise their perfect kitchen ABOVE RIGHT TOP | The Oculus Rift unit uses complex electronics to create a ‘true’ virtual experience ABOVE RIGHT | Now owned by Facebook, Oculus Rift is working on a standalone headsest – Santa Cruz

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PROFILE | GESA HANSEN

GESA HANSEN

DESIGN TALK Gesa Hansen is regarded as one of Germany’s most successful young designers. In an interview with LKW, Hansen allows us a peek into her daily life.

With Danish roots, her grandfather an were always lots of design books lying around at my parents’ architect and her father the successful owner and my uncle’s houses, but I was always more fascinated by of his own furniture brand (Hans Hansen), the layout than the contents! It wasn’t until I went to a lecture perhaps Gesa Hansen was destined to be

by Axel Kufus [Professor at Berlin’s University of the Arts] that gifted in design.

I understood what it means to be a designer. To me, he will Growing up in the peaceful region of Sauerland always be the best role-model for what a designer should be. in Germany, Hansen went on to study at the famous Bauhaus University in Weimar and spent some time LKW : After studying at the Bauhaus University in Weimar you in Japan before eventually locating to Paris. When first in the moved to Japan for two years, and for the last several years French capital, she worked in Jean Nouvel’s studio. you have been living in Paris. How have your travels and your In 2015, Wallpaper Magazine named her one of the 200 time in Paris influenced your personal design? most important designers in the world. Since then, her natural GH : In Japan I was fascinated by the tense relationship between Scandinavian designs mean that Gesa Hansen is regarded as tradition and modernity: the unbelievable commitment to detail one of Germany’s most successful young and the importance of rituals. I find that designers. A recent collaboration with nowadays a lot of rituals get lost in daily life.

Villeroy & Boch has brought her unique take I try to bring some of them back with my on colour to the kitchen environment.

NAME : Gesa Hansen furniture designs.

TITLE : Designer Paris is my adopted home: there is no LKW : What was it that drew you to INFO : Gesa Hansen other city where I feel as comfortable or as become a designer? graduated from the Bauhaus at home as I do here.

GH : I didn’t actually want to be a designer University (Germany) and from On one hand it’s the beauty of the at all, I wanted to be a graphic artist. There NZU, Nagoya University of city and on the other it’s her people: Arts, (Japan). She enhanced her training in Paris working for Jean Nouvel Atelier and H5 and in Japan at the Nippon Design Center. Following a long family tradition of Danish designers, she founded her design studio in 2009: The Hansen Family. | gesahansen.com

FACT FILE

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ABOVE | Gesa Hansen’s love of design came very early in life

PROFILE | GESA HANSEN

I love Parisian daily rituals. And it’s a very emotional city.

I’ve learnt to be freer here – with my designs, colours, textiles and patterns.

LKW : Is there a typical Hansen design? Do your designs follow a particular underlying idea?

GH : I prefer to make subtle designs. I try to find my perfect, harmonic form and shape. It’s also really important to me that furniture fulfils its actual purpose. But everything that I make is in the tradition of Scandinavian design. I think that’s in my DNA. LKW : How would you describe your own home decoration style, do you have any particular pieces in your own home?

GH : Almost all of my furnishings have a story. I have lots of old furniture from my family, pieces from my travels, prototypes and experiments or products by designer friends. In short, I have an emotional attachment to every piece.

LKW : As Co-Founder you haven’t just been working on new products for your label The Hansen Family; since 2011 you’ve also been working with the HFB studio on interior and set design. How does your average working day look?

GH : In the morning I take my children to Kindergarten. Then I meet Pascaline and Ai for a coffee in Restaurant 52, my husband’s restaurant that I designed. Our office is only a block away. If we need materials, we visit the many showrooms in Paris to find new tiles, textiles or carpets.

At the moment, Pascaline is working on a Givenchy film again, while I’m currently working on a project for Dom Perignon and Villeroy & Boch. We discuss everything with each other, but with every project one of us takes the wheel.

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LKW : What are your plans and dreams for the future?

GH : I will probably be designing my first hotel project this year.

If it all works out, that’s going to be unbelievable. And of course I have loved Vitra and Artek since I was very young. Working for one of those companies would be a dream come true.

VILLEROY & BOCH CONNECTION Gesa Hansen has developed an exclusive colour concept for Villeroy & Boch. For the Artis wash table series, the designer has developed four harmonious colour worlds of green, yellow, rose and blue tones in three gradations as well as a neutral series with three timeless colours in the black-gray spectrum.

LKW : What colour trends do you currently see developing in the interior design area?

GH : I see that the current colour schemes are changing. In recent years, neutral, restrained notes have been in demand in the interior sector. Now I have the impression that, as in the fashion world again, expressive colours are comingthrough. In all living areas, also in bathrooms and kitchens, the room design is animated with colour.

LKW : What is your personal favourite colour and why?

GH : Oh, it’s difficult to name a firm favourite. Probably green, because it reminds me of nature. But my preferences change every year. At the moment I love Yves Klein’s blue, which Le Corbusier also used a lot in his architecture.

This is no plain blue though – its luminosity is incredible and it makes me feel as if I could immerse myself in the colour.

My answer shows how colours are an expression and reflection of one’s personality.

ABOVE | Gesa Hansen created an exciting new colour concept for Villeroy & Boch that lends a very individual touch ABOVE LEFT | A unique range of colours are at the heart of the products MIDDLE LEFT | Sinks are available in a range of sizes LEFT | “Nothing provides more beautiful and interesting colours than nature” LKW : What is the thinking behind your colour palette?

GH : I have developed four harmonic colour worlds of green, yellow, rose and blue tones in three grades each and a neutral series with three timeless colours in the black-gray spectrum.

LKW : They speak of colour worlds, not of colour concept.

What has led you to this approach?

GH : For the new colours, I have abandoned the idea of a classic colour concept from different coordinated colours and replaced them with the different nuances of a single colour. The result is four vibrant colour series of three colours each, within which the intensity of the colour depth changes.

They are self-assured and emotionally charged and create corresponding room atmosphere. I would like to deliberately arouse associations; trigger emotions. Even when you hear the colour names, there are some definite ideas: Take Mint or Lemon, for example, and you can really feel a spicy freshness.

With powder, you think of something fragrant, delicate, and with frost a clear cooler, right?

LKW : Setting up with colour always requires a certain fingertip feeling. Do you have tips on how to create the new colours?

GH : Yes gladly. The green tones can be combined with dark wood, gray or white elements and walls. Rough textures, such as floor tiles with concrete supposition or matt metal, underline the natural associations. The yellow varieties harmonize with light wood and also work in combination with pastel colours.

Strong contrasts can be created here with black, while a warm wood brown brings naturalness into the design. The rose tones also match light surfaces and furniture, such as gray-lacquered or white-lacquered wood, white marble or cream-coloured

stone. And the blue tones provide an atmosphere of freshness and purity. A floor in light wood or concrete optics, together with white or light gray furniture, further enhance this charisma. If you want to bring a warming impulse into the production, choose warm yellow or wood-coloured accessories.

LKW : And what are the neutral colours in the overall concept?

GH : Light gray, medium gray and black are real classics in the interior, which are indispensable in modern bathrooms. The three neutral colours offer up-to-date and timeless design options for design-conscious wash rooms. Do not forget the white models!

LKW : Do the colours for kitchen and bathroom match?

GH : Yes, they do. If you want, you can work in the kitchen and bathroom with the same colour family or combine different colours. The colours for the kitchen and the bathroom are designed in such a way that they enable harmonious staging in a colour world as well as accentuated designs with different colours. But no matter which version you choose, the result is always an interior in a harmonious, expressive colour world.

LKW : Kitchen rinsing and washing tables in colour – how does will it develop? Are further coloured products planned by yourself and Villeroy & Boch?

GH : The colour worlds can also be transferred to other products.

Matching furniture or freestanding bathtubs as extravagant eyecatchers. I do not want to betray too much, but watch this space and be prepared...

GESA HANSEN | pro.villeroy-boch.com

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GADGETS | CONNECTED HOMES

SMART KITCHENS Although smart homes have been exciting tech writers for years, connected kitchen have lagged behind mainly because of the high costs involved with ‘smarting’ major appliances.

A

ccording to Technavio’s latest report, released in February, the global smart kitchen market is expected to exceed US$7 billion by 2020, growing at a compound annual growth rate of over 63% during the forecast period.

Sunil Kumar Singh, the lead research analyst at Technavio for human machine interface, told LivingKitchen World: “The smart kitchen market will grow rapidly over the next five years due to changing consumer behaviour and government efforts to develop smart cities in countries such as India, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.”

Taking a similar viewpoint, Michael Wolf, Chief Analyst with NextMarket Insights, says, “Whether it’s food storage, preparation, or the act of cooking itself, the arrival of new technologies will enable consumers to become more efficient, knowledgeable and possibly even better cooks in coming years. As a result, we believe that appliance makers, smart home companies as well as those who provide food to consumers will see both enormous opportunity as well as disruption to their existing businesses with the arrival of the smart kitchen.

“Appliance and device makers are integrating smart features at both the high and low end of the device spectrum. We see significant investment in putting smart features in big ticket items such as refrigerators and ranges by major manufacturers, as well as strong interest in creating a new lines of smaller, more discretionary purchase lines of smart kitchen products such as smart thermometers and scales.”

Large kitchen appliances have lagged behind other gadgets

We believe that appliance makers... will see both enormous opportunity as well as disruption Michael Wolf, NextMarket Insights

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GADGETS | CONNECTED HOMES

in the connected home. It takes a lot longer to design, produce and upgrade large appliances as opposed to smaller smart products such as a frying pan or coffee maker.

You don’t replace large appliances nearly as often as, say, a smartphone, so manufacturers have to make smart white goods that will have decent staying power. And convincing consumers to add new technology or adopt new cooking practices is a tough proposition, said analyst Michael Wolf, the founder of the Smart Kitchen Summit.

“There’s connectivity and there’s reinventing core cooking, and both are moving along at a relatively slow pace,” Wolf said.

PRODUCT TESTER’S VIEW Ahead of the Smart Kitchen Summit in Seattle in October, the team questioned David Kender, Sr Vice President of Editorial at Reviewed.com, about the opportunities and challenges the industry faces. Asked what he saw the most exciting aspect of the emerging smart kitchen industry right now, Kender’s view was that: “The most exciting thing happening in the smart kitchen space is that companies are slowly starting to realise that they can’t create a walled garden ecosystem and expect success Apple has set unrealistic expectations that, just because they managed to do it in smartphones, some other company can do it in the kitchen. There are too many products and too many different kinds of behaviour in the kitchen that no one ecosystem can or should contain them all – at least not right now.

“So when new smart appliances are rolling out, it’s heartening to see that they may tout a marquee partnership – Bosch and Drop, GE and Alexa – but that the underlying technology and opportunity is there for the product to work with other ecosystems.”

In terms of the mainstream, Kender believes that smaller appliances will lead the way. Countertop appliances like scales, microwaves, sous vide – “the buy-in is much less steep and consumers will be willing to take a chance if the price isn’t outrageous”. However, Kender also belives there are genuine barriers to acceptance by the end consumer, and the industry still faces an uphill struggle.

“Take the uphill battles that other smart home products face, double the incline, and you have a sense of what the smart

GAGGENAU – SMART TECH CAN’T REPLACE HUMANS Appliance manufacturer Gaggenau is taking a somewhat different approach to many of its competitors.

Speaking earlier this year to KBB Review, Gaggenau’s head of global brand, Sven Schnee, argued that appliance connectivity could be seen as being at odds with the experience of

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using a high-end appliance.

“Our high-end showrooms get the emotion across to people. The internet won’t do that and the Internet of Things won’t do that either. So we need to remain a brand of humans. We’ll add on connectivity, but for us it’s not the primary issue.”

Asked if he believed smart technology would play a major role in coming years, Schnee said: “I don’t say I don’t play, we’re going to have connectivity all over, but for us it’s a tool for doing online inspection services or concierge services, to do software updates, to do remote diagnostics.”

Consumers don’t embrace technology for its own sake. What’s important to consumers is that it solves a problem, and one they recognise they have.

kitchen is up against,” argues Kender.

“The scepticism among consumers is not ill founded by any means. There have been very few products I’ve seen that hit the sweet spot between ‘I can afford that’ and ‘makes my life easier’. And that latter quality is a tough nut to crack because consumers aren’t gullible about features that claim to make your life easier, only to present them with a huge learning curve as soon as they take it out of the box.”

GOOD HOUSEKEEPING As Director of Kitchen Appliances and Technology Lab at Good Housekeeping, Sharon Franke, who also spoke at the Smart Kitchen Summit, is ideally placed to see how consumers are embracing smart technology in the kitchen. So what is her view?

“Consumers don’t embrace technology for its own sake.

What’s important to consumers is that it solves a problem, and one they recognise they have. If they can relate to how technology will make their lives easier, safer, or help them eat healthier, they’re on board with it. I don’t think anyone who ever cleaned a dirty oven with rubber-gloved hands and oven cleaner, would want to return to the days of non-self-cleaning ovens.

However, to get users to actually take advantage of technology that appliances offer requires that they be easy to use and intuitive to program. While people understand the benefits of a coffeemaker that can be preset to start brewing in the morning, attempting to program one is often so difficult that the feature

Sharon Franke, Good Housekeeping goes unused. Microwave ovens with sensor technology and combination cooking have been around for about 30 years but it is rare that anyone uses anything but the number pads or ‘Minute Plus’.

When we get to the point where a system like Innit’s allows us to put the chicken in the oven, push start, and get perfect results, we’ll never want to go back to guessing cooking times, temperature settings, and whether or not our food is ready.”

FOOD WASTE The Internet of Things (IoT) has taken hold of the kitchen, thanks in part to start-ups such as Silicon Valley-based Innit, which has created a cloud-based “kitchen platform” that connects to smart kitchen appliances in order to tell the user what to cook.

Innit CEO Kevin Brown told CNBC’s “The Rundown” that bringing smart devices into the kitchen was a natural progression for the IoT. “Consumers are using their smart phones and tablets and smart appliances in every walk of life – their cars now have screens in them, everything is now starting to get more connected – so it’s a pretty natural transition to then start doing that in the kitchen,” he said.

Brown said that as well as being more convenient, a smart kitchen could help address the issue of food waste.

The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization has estimated that 1.3 billion tons of food are wasted every year, equivalent to about a third of all food produced for human consumption – squandering vital resources such as land, energy and water.

The Innit CEO explained that as well as helping consumers make the best use of the food they have by connecting it to the right appliance, his software could help users keep track of which foods were closest to spoiling.

TOP LEFT | Many of the exhibitors and LivingKitchen will be showing connected options ABOVE LEFT TO RIGHT | Bosch has developed an App for its Smart Connect range of products. Miele has been at the forefront of developing connected kitchen appliances.

The Bosch app showing ridge contents LEFT | Gaggenau’s new flex induction cooktops with integrated ventilation system

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ROBOTS | RISE OF THE MACHINES

ROBOT COOKERY Robot kitchen assistants might still mainly be the stuff of science fiction, but a quick look at some projects currently looking for kickstarter funding is very revealing.

S

ometimes it seems our appetite for tech knows no bounds. So perhaps it is small wonder that kitchen innovations are moving swiftly on from just a humble lightbulb in the fridge and softly, softly closing drawers.

One thing that’s certainly on the menu is a spare pair of hands to wield the pans – be that a fully robotic chef like Moley (www. moley.com) that can, by motion tracking, replicate your Jamie Oliver impression perfectly. Moley says it has started work on designing the production model for the European region, intending for this to be installed in new build properties or via a kitchen upgrade to an existing property — with a slated launch for the model of 2018. Or perhaps the fetching-andcarrying Care-O-Bot4 by Fraunhofer [Pictured right]. Not only can the latter turn up with a colander but it can also do the laundry and, apparently, garnish your breakfast tray with a red, red rose. If you are so inclined.

TNL’s OneCook is a cooking robot that drops food from separate containers into a

pot-like device and heats and stirs it. It follows the recipes on the accompanying app to get the timing right and has RFID technology so the onions get added before the garlic, for example. Creator Hanlin Hong says some meals can be ready in about five minutes. You can order meals, each under $10, from the app, or you can add your own ingredients and recipes to the dispensers and app. And it’s cheers all round as be-splattered recipe books and pastry-flecked screens get the boot in favour of hygienic upgrades. Among them is a nifty vertical recipe projector, suggested by Wan-Ru Cin for the James Dyson award, and an even smarter system dreamed up by students at Lund and Eindhoven Universities for the IKEA Future Home project that not only projects recipes onto the work surface but also uses a canny

The Alexa-enabled Amazon Echo ‘virtual assistant’ has quickly found favour with amateur chefs who welcome having a hands-free friend.

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array of cameras to detect ingredients and offer culinary suggestions accordingly.

The kitchen is occasionally the domain of the very amateur chef, but there too technology has the answer to lobbed tomatoes, dropped cheese and mishaps involving flour. Enter, on all fours, the Instinct Vacuum cleaner. The as-yet unmarketed brainchild of Australian Berty Bhuruth, and resembling a bull terrier with a vacuum for a head, it’ll 3D-map the room before hoovering up the mess.

Not every kitchen aid will have limbs.

Taking Amazon’s Dash button to its logical conclusion, smart fridges seem probable.

Although the LG ThinkQ is no longer available other companies are quietly releasing some very exciting models, including some on show at LivingLitchen. Sticking with Amazon, the Alexa-enabled Amazon Echo ‘virtual assistant’ has quickly found favour with amateur chefs who welcome having a handsfree friend to provide recipes and tips.

Ovens, however, are surely in for a renaissance. Electrolux’s ProCombi Plus Smart oven offers all aspiring cooks the chance to cadge a sneaky peak on a rising cake without making the rookie error of opening the door too soon, while smart oven June isn’t leaving anything to chance.

Just pop in the raw ingredients and stand back as its intelligent systems recognise the dish and then know exactly how to turn out a perfectly cooked meal.

SMARTER TEA MAKING Of course the one appliance we are all hoping to see upgraded is that bastion of the 1960s, the Teasmade. And, behold, it shall be done. Budding technologists have devised a smart coffee machine dubbed the smarter.am (app controlled, of course), while innovation has been brewing on Kickstarter with offerings such as the Qi Theteamaker that adjusts temperature and steeping time to the leaves used. Teforia (www.teforia.com), meanwhile, has just launched a robot that can adjust antioxidant caffeine levels to taste, although the price tag of $1,300 might be harder to swallow.

With a kitchen bursting with such intelligent devices, there is always the chance your microwave might actually become your best friend. But beware. As Simone Rebaudengo’s cheeky design for Brad (www.addictedproducts.com) – the toaster with self esteem issues – reminds us, you don’t want your appliances getting jealous.

TOP | The June smart oven is an internet-connected countertop system that can recognise foods and automatically cook them for you MIDDLE | Moley has created the world’s first robotic kitchen. Featuring an advanced, fully functional robot integrated into a beautifully designed, professional kitchen, it cooks with the skill and flair of a master chef ABOVE | That means that the table of the future will be designed to do so much more: it’s our preparation surface, hob, dining table, work bench and children’s play area

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The new Florim Ceramiche Group brand for interior design professionals as the protagonist at the Cologne event.

Nature and technology are skilfully blended in FLORIMstone, the new Florim brand for interior design professionals, previewed at LivingKitchen. Porcelain stoneware slabs in a single large size (over 160x320cm), easily cut to size and produced in several finishes and three different thicknesses (6, 12 and 20 mm), made available for the first time to interior designers, with unbeatable versatility and creative flexibility.

After the Magnum Oversize large slabs– show-stoppers at the exhibition’s last edition in 2015 – Florim has chosen Cologne to present the Group’s latest innovations on a stand of about 90 m2 (Hall 5.2 – Stand B033).

Showcased alongside the latest collections from the historic brands (Floor Gres, Rex, Casa dolce casa, Casamood and Cerim) are the exclusive FLORIMstone materials, featured on the stand as a kitchen worktop and dining-table (in the 12 mm thickness), and as flooring with thickness 6 mm. The FLORIMstone brand is the end result of the company’s constant investments in research and innovation, intended to extend the offering with products and solutions targeting segments complementary to the traditional distribution channel. For the first time, FLORIMstone combines the performance and exquisite appearance of the Magnum Oversize largest-size slabs with a choice of thicknesses, opening out new prospects for contemporary architecture and design. The material’s quality, the attention to details and technical and aesthetic performance are guaranteed by the more than fifty years of experience and know-how of Florim, an international leader on the ceramic coverings scene.

On the Group’s stand - designed to resemble a complete home – the new brand is accompanied by products by Floor Gres (Black Cosmic, Black&White and Industrial collections), Rex (I Classici, Alabastri, La Roche and Ardoise), Casamood (Neutra 6.0), Casa dolce casa (Stones&more and Wooden Tile) and Cerim (Timeless).

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ph. G. De Vecchi

New Imperial Collection Imperial family is the surface that exalts the veins.

The gains of the slabs are clearly visible thanks to the bold colour variation, they add elegant contrasts and a slight sense of movement to the design. Imperial is perfect for every kind of surface: kitchen and bathroom counters, facing and flooring. www.quartzforms.com

ph. G. De Vecchi

New Soul Calacatta The soul of the most iconic natural stone materializes itself into quartz. Soul Calacatta interprets and shows the elegance of natural veins in grey tones while combining it with the technical qualities of engineered stone. Beauty, resistance to dirt and stains, durability and ease of maintenance in a unique surface. www.quartzforms.com

berbel PRINCIPLE

DISCOVER KITCHEN IDEAS

Come and visit us: Hall 4.1 Stand A-043

THE INTERNATIONAL KITCHEN SHOW 16.01.-22.01.2017

Skyline – a genuine revolution. There has never been anything like it:

Ceiling lift hood: Skyline Edge

A ceiling-luminous object that can be lifted to the desired working height and thus to its full berbel functioning. The berbel principle: with centrifugal forces without grease filters! Simply open, wipe out and it is clean again.

Literally a shining example: Unique performance, unique designer piece, unique ceiling lift hood.

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