kydex kitchen by kalkwijk sietze from netherlands

In the future... while time goes by everything evolves. So does our food preperation, but will our cooking facilities adept to our changing needs and lifestyle. Maybe it is time to redefine the kitchen. The Kydex Kitchen is a modular cooking facility, whereby the theme for each step of the design process was 'Health'. The principle aim while designing this 'kitchen' was to exclude conventions, façades and hidden functionality.

I started with the idea that there is a direct relationship between health and the ability to anticipate one’s surroundings whilst retaining one’s identity. This means more specifically that a form of existence, such as a structure or an organism, is healthy when it is able to endure ordeals from its surroundings whilst remaining undamaged. This is true for man and animal, but a healthy situation or “healthy design” may also be tested in this way. My final design therefore needed to satisfy man’s need to prepare food but was also required to possess a strong, unambiguous construction of its own.
With the help of a chef, I analysed the basic operations in a kitchen and thus determined the simplest and most efficient shapes and measurements. Fresh ingredients, their preparation and the supply of water and heat formed the basis for my design.

An important step was choosing the right materials and the processing method. After extensive research I discovered a recently developed synthetic material called Kydex. Kydex is a high-quality thermoplastic which can be glued onto a base by means of a variable membrane press, also a recently developed technique. This technique allowed me to cover the various shapes in MDF, which is easily manipulated. The cover is water-, impact- and chemical-resistant and conform the latest hygiene standards. This comes in an unlimited number of colours and many different textures.

The kitchen consists of four parts which are put together without means of attachment. Gas, water and drainage are easily and quickly connected by means of simple couplings and tubes which complete the kitchen visually and functionally.