During Clerkenwell Design Week in May, Cosentino shared insights into the kitchen of the future from a new report by The Silestone Institute, ‘Global Kitchen’. Speakers included international multi-award winning interior designer, business consultant and SBID founder Vanessa Brady OBE; architect and designer Daniel Germani and marketing vice president for the Cosentino Group, Santiago Alfonso.

The report, entitled ‘Global Kitchen: the home kitchen in the era of globalisation’ is the result of a collaboration with 17 experts from the worlds of design, cooking, domestic technology, sociology, nutrition and sustainability. In addition, a survey carried out in over 800 kitchen studios across the world provides data on the importance consumers afford to this room in their homes.

The five key trends

The report included the following predictions:

•  The kitchen will be a hyper-connected, multifunctional space for work, leisure, health and relaxation.
•  It will incorporate techniques and smart devices normally found in professional kitchens, such as vacuum cooking and packaging.
•  It will further cement its role as the centre of the home; the largest and most invested room in the house.
•  The kitchen will develop as a multifunctional space in all countries and is expected to disappear as an independent room.
•  Its design will not only take aesthetics and function into account but also emotional value and it will strengthen its use as a space for relaxing and well-being.
•  Connectivity and smart appliances will be managed from mobile and wearable devices and will not only make shopping and laundry easier, but ensure endless access to information from the Internet of Things.
•  The worktops will be able to cook, make calls, broadcast TV or provide access to the internet. They will be height adjustable, contain recipe databases where chefs will guide the user through the method as well as offer ingredient information and the ability to weigh food.
•  The refrigerator will offer permanent access to nutritional information on screens.
•  Kitchens will be sustainable, with appliances being solar powered and will be aligned with ‘Multi- R’ thinking – Rethink, Redesign, Repair, Reuse, Remanufacture, Recover.
•  Intelligent lighting will be variable to match the time of day, mood or the type of food being cooked.

Vanessa Brady OBE, architect and designer Daniel Germani and Cosentino marketing vice president Santiago Alfonso

In addition, 842 kitchen professionals from eight countries took part in a survey to supplement the Global Kitchen Report. The report assesses the evolution of kitchen space in terms of use, design and equipment:

• 87% said that the kitchen would become more relevant as an activity and meeting place.
• 81.5% said that it will be a single space combining dining and living rooms.
• 92.3% said it will be used to get together with family, to work and do homework (60.9%) and surf the internet (62.4%).
• 43.1% expect cooking will be directly on the worksurface.
• 41.7% predict that the worksurface will integrate a control panel for appliances with access to the internet and device connection.
• 25.3% imagine the worksurface will incorporate weighing scales and nutritional analysis.

Australia and Brazil agree that the new cooking methods will be the most important development, while the UK and Italy prefer smart appliances. In contrast, Spain and the US value connectivity above all.