Yanko Design » Lifestyle

Ten Fantastic Kitchen Concepts

Radhika Seth — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:00:18 +0000

I know how enthusiastic most of our readers are about cooking, so this round-up should have been my top priority. Better late than never, they say. So here’s a list of Ten Innovative and Creative Kitchen Concepts seen on YD. Some may beg to differ, but that’s ok, we are all allowed to have our opinions. Point is, we all love to cook in a classy, futuristic kitchen!

10) Kitchen Drawer by Nojae Park

Compact and all-inclusive with a fridge; I can see this kind of kitchens being sold in the future, touted as height of modularity! There are four main parts to this set: a stainless plate for warming up food, an electric stove for cooking, a dish drawer for storage, and a mini-fridge.

9) Aion by Antoin Lebrun

You have to hand it out to designers for trying to incorporate the “Green” element into their designs. For instance, this kitchen features specialized plants that were developed by the aerospace industry for their filtering and cleaning properties. If it has to be Green, then it may as well be the Aion.

8 ) Transportable Kitchenette by Aurelien Banerjee & Olivier Picard

This kitchenette was designer for outdoor usage by charitable organizations who do a lot of field works and require nourishing their charges. A simple electric socket is all this needs to get it going.

7) Mood Kitchen by Scavolini

Who doesn’t like a chic sophisticated kitchen, with oodles of space and charm!

6) Lift Modular Kitchen by Michel Cornu

Lift is a kitchen concept that has truly captured the essence of the word modular. It’s tough to explain this in words, which is why I am showing you all the images for it here. It’s a kitchen with several modules mounted on the wall, and can slide up and down, as per usage.

5) L’Evoluzione by Giancarlo Vegni for Effeti

Another chic kitchen with the essentials neatly tucked into drawers and special nooks. Something that we always dream of having, but alas, always out of reach.

4) All In One Kitchen by Sebastien Poupeau

The mother-of-all Single platform kitchens! One slab and that’s it….you don’t need anything else to call it your cooking space. It houses a main work top, which is height-adjustable, food cutting area, digital screen, dining table, induction hobs and an oven, a sink and its drying rack, dishwasher with two separated racks! What more could you want.

3) Outpost Kitchen by Simon Kingston & James Rennick

Sized as filing cabinet with extendable surfaces, this is the ultimate in modular kitchen. It may lack in glam-quotient; but for all practical purposes, this is a fully functional cook-spot that can operate anywhere…office, home, backyard….anywhere!

2) Grandma’s Kitchen by Melanie Olle & Ilja Oelschlägel

A series of latches and slides helps you to transform this wall unit from a kitchen to a dining table and back. An interesting way of going from cook-mode to dining-mode in a jiffy.

1) Multifunctional Kitchen by Wiwat Pitakpongsanit

Another single-slab module kitchen, but the difference is that you can customize it as per your needs. This versatile space can be reconfigured; depending upon what you want where. Totally Awesome!

Book Of Lights

Radhika Seth — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:00:29 +0000

First glance you can pass this off as a book of matches, but that isn’t what the “Five Minutes” is all about. A book of 10 small candles that comes handy in many everyday situations! Why, I can think of 3 situations right this instant: 1) When you bring in the cake but forget the candles. 2) Emergency lights-out. 3) In my travel bag, right next to pocket matches and paper-strip soaps! How many tricky situations can you come up with?

Designer: Poketo [ Buy it Here - $6 for 4 packs at the Yanko Design Store ]

The 5 Minute Candles (4-Pack) is available for $6 at the YD Store.

What Does Design Work Smell Like?

Chris Burns — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:01:11 +0000

Mine smells like a cat, and sneezing. It’s kind of like a survival course. But for Vivian Chun-Yen Wang as a design student, it’s the school’s natural odor, of course! Her project here deals with the olfactory portion of everyday working in a non-culinary environment. Why non-culinary? Because they’re basically the only ones that already have their smells mastered!

What this project consists of is a nice wooden box and five vials of smell. Fragrances. Each one “smells like” something from the school for which they were made, HDK. Three are made of scents extracted from materials found in HDK, while the other 2 were inspired by the atmosphere in the school.

Stink or no stink?

Smells good!

Special thanks to: Åke Nilsson and Demeter Fragrance Library

Designer: Vivian Chun-Yen Wang

Awesome Cuteness In A Cup

Radhika Seth — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:58:12 +0000

On the lookout for something super cute, delicate yet functional to add to your walls? I’ve found you the right stuff! Hookmaker Teacups add grace where it is lacking; it holds your knickknacks and trinkets, and has a hook for you to hang your keys. I’d like to hang a bunch of these together, just for their dramatic effect.

Designer: Kegan Fisher [ Buy it Here - $30 on the Yanko Design Store ]

The Hookmaker is available for $30 on the YD Store.

Grilly Willy

Chris Burns — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:10:48 +0000

Yes! This is a grill by one of the longest-winded design team names in the business, or at least that I’ve ever seen: Liebschaften Möbelgestaltung. They’ve made this lovely little grill and have titled it “Longgrill.” It’s the missing link between grill and fire bowl! One simple slider’s all it took, all it takes, all it will take when you’re out camping like a real trooper!

In response to those who wish to be free of their decision between a blaze and a glow, designers at Liebschaften Möbelgestaltung have conjured this magnificent amalgamation. Barbecue and start things on fire, all at the same time!

The top frame slides easily, as I’m sure you can see. The carrier is made of scaled steel, the grill is made of stainless steel, and the fire bowl sits upon three basalt stones.

Easy to use, easy to clean, easy to justify to your significant other.

Designer: Liebschaften Möbelgestaltung

Convertible-tastic Train

Chris Burns — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:00:17 +0000

Let me ask you something. Have you been on a train before? Have you been on a mass transit train? Have you been on a mass transit train during rush hour? If you have, you know the difference. You KNOW what I’m talking about. It’s madness. Madness I tell you! There’s every kind of body, sight, and smell you can imagine. The only thing you wish you had more of is space… that’s what we’ve got here!

Welcome to the Suburban Train. One train that does not take time of day for an answer. This is the best way to convert. That’s what it’s aiming at.

As you can see below in the pics, this train car system allows for the conversion of seats for the masses. Folded down, they’re pretty much generally nice seats. Folded up, they’re half seats, good for leaning.

As always, one worries how well they’ll stand up to mass-use, especially in the urban part of the suburban ride. If it’s breakable, someone is gonna break it! Beyond that and graffiti (from an artist’s point of view, these folding chairs open a lot of space for opportunity), these are lovely!

Designer: Jun Yasumoto

Ten Way To Get Your Fix – Coffee Machines & Kettles

Radhika Seth — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:58:32 +0000

As the winter sets in, more of us are going to be downing the liquid gold, just to keep out the chills. Coffee! A warm mug to curl your hands around, just as you watch the first snowflakes hit the ground. Here are Ten ways to get your fix; machines, coffee sets and kettles. I like mine instant coffee with milk and strong; how about you?

10) Birch-wood Coffee Set by Andrea Branzi

Kicking off this countdown is an elegant silver and birch-wood coffee set designed by Andrea Branzi. Made from silver dipped in acid to get the rustic look, the set is quite a collector’s item.

9) Muji Non-directional Coffee Maker by Kazushige Miyake

I don’t get what a “Non-directional Coffee Maker” is, but I’m willing to hear your opinion on it.

8 ) Kahva by Lina Fischer

Technically Kavha is the Kashmiri way of preparing tea, with saffron and cardamom; so it quite surprises me that a coffee maker has been christened thus. Any ways the Kahva is a beautiful way to brew your coffee.

7) The Barista by Patrik Pettersson

Perfect solution for multiple coffee addicts in an office, this machine dispenses many cups of coffee at one go.

6) Coffee Maker by Tom Metcalfe

This one’s for the serious brewers who go to any lengths for their cuppa java! I love the video in this post, do re-visit and check it out.

5) Cocoon by Jan König

Made of twin-spherical bowls, in the Cacoon, the water is heated via induction in the outer sphere and a pump in the handhold transports the warm water to the filter and finally the ready coffee drips into the inner sphere. The resulting cavity (where the water was before) between the both spheres, now serves as a natural insulator and keeps the coffee warm.

4) Nespresso by Jeremy Myrier

A service tray that doubles up as coffee warmers! I can pictures us warming our hands over it!

3) Enjoy It While Flying by Balazs Millete & Telekes Tamas

Enjoy It While Flying is a concept brewer of Nespresso that is to be enjoyed abord your private aircraft, as you jetset from one glam destination to another. Strictly for those with the moola; Plebs please endure the airline trash you get.

2) Pearl by Andreas Diefenbach

This Ceramic Coffee machine is refined with a gilded touch, and is quite an exquisite creation.

1) Untitled by Brice Genre Hanika Perez

Thanks to its thermo-sensitivity, artistic patterns appear on the surface of this coffee machine when hot water runs through it. Almost like have an art piece hanging up on the wall.

Media Centers: Not Just for Nerds

Chris Burns — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:01:01 +0000

Let me tell you what a media center is, first of all: it’s a computer. It’s a computer from which you have a bunch of cords and plugs and bluetooth and everything running into and out of so you can, from that one machine, run your whole media experience in your home. What have we got here? “Mod Systems’ GreenPlay” system from Samuel Hoang with Teague – a media center without all the keyboards and mice!

A) Mod System’s GreenPlay software engages your main system with your “set top boxes” and storage units throughout the house for easy management. Music, movies, tv shoes, and photos. It’s connected to Mod Systems online library from whens mass amounts of media can be purchased or rented.

B) The online library of Mod Systems is a fully interactive customer and administrator user interface designed just for the GreenPlay system.

Digital content galore!

C) The GreenPlay Set Top Boxes connect to high definition televisions and other networked devices (such as speakers, your PC control station, etc.) Designed at the same time as a digital interface and a physical object, this is made to fit into the home in more ways than one.

The full integrated experience is what this is all about.

Designer: Samuel Hoang with Teague

Rugged Lamps Now Refined

Radhika Seth — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:00:11 +0000

It’s quite funny actually when you think about it; products that you use in extreme conditions, when refined and gilded, suddenly become prized possessions and artifacts. For example the oil lanterns that the electricity-deprived population uses, becomes an iconic possession for the fortunate one. We don’t really care much about the construction lamp found in the garage, but if Form Us With Love decides to glam it up and give us the “Work Lamp”; WE WANT IT!

Available in Gold and Chrome plated versions and refined with a dimmer incorporated to the design; this “Blue Collar” lamp is rightly called the one lamp that rules it all!

Designers: Form Us With Love [ Buy it Here ]

Aromas Of China

Radhika Seth — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:06:00 +0000

The Tea Drinking rituals of China are quite intriguing as it has a lot of hierarchy practices to it. For instance a Boss will never pour a cup of tea for his juniors and the youngsters pour tea for the elders in the family. Even apologies, thanksgiving and peace offerings are made via tea. The cha.t Chinese Tea Set is crossbreed of contemporary equipment with these conventional values in mind. On one hand the kettle, cups and intentions are traditional. The tray on the other, is infused with modernization by including a heating element to it.

Designer: Ning Ning Li