Europe’s largest kitchen and bathroom buying group for independent kitchen specialists, DER KREIS, actively promotes young talent in the kitchen industry. In 2009, the DER KREIS ANJA SCHAIBLE STIFTUNG foundation was set up to inspire, excite and attract young people into the specialist kitchen and design industry*.
Together with kitchen specialists and partners from the kitchen industry, the foundation initiates and encourages study projects at universities and colleges that focus on the kitchen, and all of its facets. The most recent projects, exhibited at LivingKitchen in Cologne, saw students from three universities in Germany** develop ideas for the kitchen of tomorrow.
In order to gain a broader basis for developing their ideas, a survey was conducted on the needs and desires of future kitchen buyers***. Key survey findings include:
- A preference for a family kitchen was identified among respondents under the age of 25
- Around 60 per cent of respondents preferred to cook with others
- Roughly two thirds believed that controlling cooking elements by touch was useful
- Over 60 per cent of respondents stated online recipes were important or very important to them
The projects resulted in two very different concept kitchens, the ‘connected’ and the ‘solid-wood’, which were both displayed at the exhibition.
The connected kitchen
This concept creates a space for experience, where the consumer can use technology to play games, watch films, as well as cook and communicate with real and virtually connected friends. The connected kitchen follows the assumption that most people enjoy cooking in the company of others. The kitchen is therefore T-shaped, allowing people to cook while facing each other.
The solid-wood kitchen
The aim of this design was to create a cooking space in which all of the essentials are readily to hand, just like the classic workbench used by a carpenter. The use of natural materials and solid wood make the kitchen highly energy efficient. For example, the ‘Eco-Cooler’ operates without electricity. Water condenses on the earthenware slabs and the subsequent cooling effect creates the optimal conditions for storing fruit and vegetables.
Bill Miller, Managing Director, Kitchen Bathroom Buying Group (KBBG), part of DER KREIS, comments: “It is vital to understand what aspects of the kitchen are important to young people, to create a more knowledgeable and creative industry, and raise professional standards. The kitchen of tomorrow project unearthed two very interesting concepts, along with key statistics from the survey, which we hope will be beneficial and influential to our members when designing kitchens in the future.”
For more information on the KBBG, call Bill Miller, Managing Director, on 02382 021347, email b.miller@derkreis.co.uk or visit the website at www.kbbg.co.uk
Ends
Image captions:
- The connected kitchen creates an experience space where the user can cook and communicate with friends
- The solid-wood kitchen is inspired by a carpenter’s workbench. Robustness, honest and natural materials are key to the design
- The Eco-Cooler is a zero-current, modular cooling and storage system based on natural physical processes that use the evaporative cooling principle to cool fruits and vegetables
- Bill Miller, Managing Director, KBBG
Note for editors:
* Ernst-Martin Schaible, DER KREIS, is Managing Partner and the founder of the DER KREIS ANJA SCHAIBLE foundation
** Wismar, Stuttgart and Furtwangen universities
*** Students of Applied Health Sciences from Furtwangen University of Applied Sciences conducted a survey of over 800 people between the ages of 18 and 75
The foundation:
The DER KREIS ANJA SCHAIBLE STIFTUNG was founded in 2009 by Ernst-Martin Schaible, Managing Partner of DER KREIS, to make kitchens part of the interior architecture course – a subject that had previously been neglected. The foundation’s engagement serves to create well-educated new entrants for the kitchen industry and it also helps to implement young people’s innovative ideas for the kitchens of the future.
About KBBG:
The Kitchen Bathroom Buying Group UK is an organisation set up to support the business of the independent kitchen and bathroom specialists. Part of the renowned DER KREIS, Europe’s leading kitchen and bathroom buying group, the company has forty years’ experience and a turnover in excess of 3.4 billion Euros. Currently operating in nine countries with 3,000 members, the group provides a range of exclusive tailored benefits and services to support and increase the success of each independent kitchen and bathroom specialist in an effort to stay ahead of the competition and to promote the success of individual businesses.
For further press information and/or images please contact:
Tessa at jmm PR
T: 01536 414555
19th February 2019
