Perhaps 2025 is merely a decade away, however much can change in that short period of time, especially the exponential advancement of technology. Technological advancement doesn't just give us smaller smartphones and faster cars, but it carries over to all aspects of our daily lives, including our kitchens!
Swedish furniture firm IKEA and students from Einhoven University of Technology and Lund University have joined forces to create a vision of the future kitchen. Groups of students were each asked to send IKEA their ideas. Four of the students were chosen for internships at IKEA so they could create a full-scale model. The students have taken proven methods from the past and intertwined them with visions of the future to create a visualization of the kitchen we may all have in our homes someday in 2025.
As more people begin to move to cities, we will be faced with the issue of high population density. This mean we must create small, minimalist, yet efficient living spaces for everyone. Packed metropolitan areas also bring up the problem of waste - how do we best handle people consuming so much each day?
Designers tackled this challenge by accounting for water shortages and a decline in meat based diets. The future kitchen is designed to minimize waste, reusing water and material as much as possible.
One of the most integral devices in our kitchen today, the refrigerator, will become obsolete. This is because refrigerators are highly inefficient devices that waste far too much energy and water to be practical. They'll be replaced with naturally insulating materials, such as cooling ceramic, which will keep items fresh without the need for refrigeration. Food will be stored in clear sealed containers with reminders when to consume it before it expires. Instead of making weekly restocking trips to the grocery store, drones will deliver our food fresh and on demand.
Our sinks will divide water into two categories, black water and grey water. Grey water can be reused while black water is contaminated and will move to sewage facilities for treatment. Modern kitchens send all water to the sewers, reusable or not.
The centerpiece of every future kitchen will be the smart table. This table will scan whatever ingredients are placed on it to suggest pairings, recipes, and other ways to best use various foods. The top of the table will be a screen, displaying various options, as well as highlighting and identifying foods when they are set on it. If you're stumped on what to cook for the night, or your food is expiring, you could simply place foods on the table and have the hard work done for you.
The kitchen is merely a concept, however IKEA intends to use it to base their future designs off of. The display, launched at Milan Design Week, will be up for public viewing six months at IKEA Temporary. As advanced as this kitchen may seem, it could mirror the kitchens present in our future homes in 2025. Only time may tell, but great things are coming.
