Mandemakers Kitchens

With Eurocucina just around the corner, some big kitchen industry news - In an official statement, Thursday, Feb. 25th, 2010, Nobia AB chief, Mr. Preben Bager announced that Nobia (the world’s largest manufacturer and seller of kitchens), sold the Pronorm brand and their 50% shares of Culinoma to the Dutch retailer Mandemakers. The price - 493 million SEK, the equivalent of just under 50 million Euro and a book value loss of 77 million SEK(!)

Nobia AB Group

The announcement did not come as a total surprise - according to KBB Review, the Nobia Group’s sales for its 2009 financial year, which runs from January to December, came to SKr 15.4 billion (£1.36 billion), down 4% from the same period in 2008. Also, its loss after tax was SKr 79 million compared to a profit for 2008 of SKr 529 million - a 115% drop! The company blames this on the declining market demand, particularly in the Nordic region, and the cost of restructuring as it closed various factories

Pronorm Kitchens

The other major brands of the Nobia Group include HTH and Invita in Denmark; Novart with the brands A la Carte, Petra and Parma in Finland; Norema and Sidgal in Norway; Marbodal and Myresjokok in Sweden; Optifit, and Poggenpohl in Continental European countries.

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The Countdown to Eurocucina Has Started!

A decision has been made not to include the biennial SaloneUfficio, the International Biennial Workspace Exhibition this year, in an endeavor to further underpin the synergy between the kitchen and bathroom worlds and to establish a direct link between the office and lighting worlds. SaloneUfficio will therefore return in 2011.

Eurocucina / International Kitchen Furniture Exhibition

The 313,385 public presences in 2009, consisting of operators, general public and the press, who were proof of the quality of both the commercial offering and the exhibition system, provide the catalyst for this year’s event.

Salone Internazionale del Mobile

Alongside the trade fair proper, the collateral event that has long been the icing on the Saloni cake will be particularly important: a journey into the world of “gathering round the table”, dismantled and celebrated in its various incarnations through its settings and its utensils.
The biennial SaloneUfficio has refocused greater visibility on the office space. The Office as Creative Hub project provided schemes designed to enhance the human and creative dimension within the workplace.
Lastly, at SaloneSatellite, 570 young designers and 22 international design schools with 220 students showcased ideas and projects inspired by creativity, ecology and sustainability.

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The IMM Cologne show

Yes, the show that we have already given up on and became just a faded memory, is trying to make a comeback - according to IMM, the orgenaizers, in 2011, parallel to the imm cologne, the cathedral city will be playing host to the LivingKitchen® fair for the first time next year.

The international kitchen trade fair will take place as an independent event every two years. It will have three Public Days and aims to bring together renowned national and international exhibitors from the entire kitchen industry. LivingKitchen® won’t just be showcasing kitchen furniture and fitted appliances but sinks, fittings, kitchen worktops and accessories, lighting and kitchen-related services as well. A year before the fair opens its doors, around 30 leading companies have already registered to take part.

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Besides to stainless steel and stone, he used rare and precious fossil durmast oak

One of my personal all time favorite kitchen designers is Marco Gorini - at the Milan Design Week, in 2009, Gorini has done it again. He introduced the Strato 031 concept – another great kitchen design with a new twist. In the Strato 031, Gorini searched for unique designs, combined with the use of very unique materials. Besides to stainless steel and stone, he used rare and precious fossil durmast oak – the unusual wood, which isn’t originating from deforestation but rather form the subsoil, fruit of the course of nature which gave it its special smoky look.

the Strato 031 concept – another great kitchen design with a new twist

Strato 031 is made up of two units: a pantry area, against the wall and an island that is also doubling as a table. The tall unit (pantry) is made up of a satin finished stainless steel structure, with integrated fossil durmast oak doors. The two central doors are fitted out with foldaway opening (pocket doors) and integrated electrical appliances. The two side pantry cabinets are used for storage - their interior structure is finished in brown stone and the shelves in glass. According to Strato - the finishes and the luxurious touches must not be found only in the exterior parts, but also on the interior parts that may be seen only by us.

The island is special and complex, both in terms of its appearance, as well as its functionality

The island is special and complex, both in terms of its appearance, as well as its functionality. Stainless steel structure, covered top and fronts panels in fossil durmast oak and stainless and wood interior to match. The worktop is covered by three panels - two of them are sliding and allow access to cooking and washing area (note the special folding faucet that allows that). One of the panels becomes a table, when pulled out.

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kuechentrends-2009

In spite of the above, one small show in Munich, Germany, is fighting to establish itself as an authority in the industry. Since 2008, around March/April, they have been meeting for a couple of days, in Munich Germany, in a trade show format, with stand exhibits and industry panel discussions.  

küchentrends (Kitchen Trends)

For 2010, küchentrends (Kitchen Trends) will be featuring a few new products, together with brands that have been displaying in previous years, covering more than 6,000 square meters of exhibit space. True, 6,000 square meters is approx the size of one or two big stand at Eurocucina, in Milan, but we can all agree that size doesn’t matter, even when it comes to kitchen trade shows - level of exhibits and quality of the content and information/ideas obtained is key to a successful trade show.

We wish küchentrends all the best and who knows, this may be the next big industry trade show…

“STARCK BY Warendorf”

The AFG Arbonia-Forster Holding AG together with the Warendorfer Küchen GmbH published a press release on the 23rd of September making the announcement official. 

According to the company, the “…many innovative features it has been specifically designed to create buying incentives: Yellow mirrored glass as a new front material and attractive trumpet feet for the new functional tables. Above all this new kitchen concept represents a massive departure from the traditional, made-to-measure, built-in kitchens of the past. Moreover its variably combinable elements permit its adaptation to any size or style of room.”

“Warendorf” will replace “Miele KITCHENS”

A preliminary presentation of the Philippe Starck design organised by Warendorfer Küchen GmbH for the retail advisory committee prior to the brand name change was greeted positively: “Sales-led design that will appeal to a broad range of customers.” The basic message of the event in Bielefeld was clear: A new force is emerging from Warendorf and is also called “Warendorf”. 

Yellow mirrored glass

We do not publish opinions and always remain neutral - we just report about industry news and design trends - what do you think about this new product line?

“Sales-led design that will appeal to a broad range of customers.”

Philippe Starck will design exclusive kitchens for AFG

According to a press release from Arbon (Switzerland), from 16 January 2009. - AFG Arbonia-Forster-Holding AG, Arbon, one of Europe’s leading building products suppliers, has concluded an exclusive partnership agreement with French star designer Philippe Starck. In the first instance Philippe Starck will design exclusive kitchens for AFG, which will be marketed to an equally exclusive group of clients through the company’s existing distribution network. These Philippe Starck kitchens will complement AFG’s existing range of premium kitchens. The plan is to present the first models at the “Küchenmeile A30″ kitchen furniture trade fair in Germany in September 2009, and then to launch them on the market from October onwards. The kitchens will bear the unmistakable design hallmark of Philippe Starck, many of whose creations have won the world’s most prestigious design and architecture awards and today enjoy cult status.

AFG Arbonia-Forster-Holding AG produces around 20,000 kitchens every year at its production facilities in Switzerland and Germany. With its Piatti, Forster Küchen and Miele Die Küche brands, this makes AFG one of Europe’s leading kitchen manufacturers. “Together with Philippe Starck we are reasserting our claim to be an industry leader in terms of our products’ design, user-friendly functionality and distinctive identity,” says Edgar Oehler, Chairman and CEO of AFG. “With Philippe Starck and his charismatic qualities as a designer, we are setting new standards for exclusive kitchens”.

According to the European-kitchen-design.com exclusive sources, the reason for this partnership is due to the agreement AFG Arbonia-Forster-Holding AG made with Miele 3 years ago - starting at the end of 2010, AG will no longer be able to market its kitchens under the Miele name. Without the Miele name, AFG’s kitchens will become the most expensive ‘no brand’ kitchens in the world… AFG hopes that the partnership with designer Philippe Starck will replace the Miele brand name and will allow them to continue marketing their products at the high end price range.

- design Piero Esposito 2007 - patented

Even if it originates from the family of concealed kitchens, Opening is more than an invisible kitchen. It is not simply a built-in kitchen unit that can disappear but a real Kücheraum, a “Kitchen Space”, which, whenever its job ends, changes its shape and volume and is adjustable for other purposes as a different object.
The German concept of Raum, hardly translatable with the English word “Space”, has been pivoting the twentieth-century architectural and artistic debate and, combined with the concept of “existenz minimum”, for some decades has oriented the research on modern home: how to conceive the space, how to match different spaces, how to make the best of them, how to organize smaller and smaller spaces in order to use them as wider ones, how to make them flexible and open to different suggestions and possibilities.
From this point of view Opening performs the evolution of contemporary living typologies, lofts, studios, lab houses, holiday houses… wherever it is, it lends itself to define different combinations of space by simply opening itself.
Put in two cases, once its four screws have been unscrewed, it becomes an “object” that can be easily carried away and this way it meets the increasing need for mobility of contemporary lifestyle.

A fine piece of furniture and a kitchen at the same time, Opening appears as a block of precious wood, totally smooth, absent and essential: when it is closed it does not reveal its being a kitchen, which however hides astonishing potentialities inside. As a matter of fact, once it is opened and thanks to its rotating and sliding devices, Opening proves to be able to create always different arrangements, convivial spaces where cooking becomes a shared experience while the wide sliding pull-out table can be, from time to time, something to lean on, to have dinner on, to talk around , to work…

Opening therefore allows to enlarge the living area starting from the stage of planning, which gets rid of the conventional kitchen room, by replacing it with a wooden piece of furniture which, when needed, becomes a kitchen, while otherwise it furnishes the living area with polished style, to the advantage of the spaces of the other rooms that are redefined in accordance with the planning choices.

Perfectly reclaimed old faucet

I love recycling (and I’m not talking about plastic bottles and cans, though that is very important too). I just love it when creative designers, like the team at Cousaert Vanderdockt from Belgium, find old “junk” and turn it into art, furniture and even kitchens.

Kitchens made of reclaimed materials put together geniusly

Though some of the furniture pieces are genius, this blog is all about kitchens, so I’ll focus on that. Their kitchen designs have so much character, so much wonderful texture and just that certain je ne sais quoi about them. The reclaimed wood, together with the antique stone sinks and the old world faucets are put together so cleverly that I just love every part of it. 

From the kitchen cabinetry, through the sink and even the faucet.

European kitchens are mostly cleaned lined and very minimalistic, creating the ultimate modern kitchens or the other extreme - old world English or French style kitchens, that are classic and traditional kitchens but in a very balanced and structured way, following symmetrical design rules.

The antique butcher block blends right in.

Cousaert Vanderdockt designs break all these rules and the molds all together - they are so simple and yet have a lot of depth to them. They feeling they create is just very comfortable and it makes me want to go out and build a house in this theme…

The patina on this stone counter makes it looks like it it's been there forever...

You Never Know What You’re Gonna Get!” – I love surfing the web and finding some really cool sites, on the other side of the world. Discovering companies and products that I would have never found any other way.

linear, light kitchen, lacquered, wood & glass with separated functional elements. Design: Kaell Architect

This time, I discover a really cool site, with very little information about the company (I’m guessing in Germany they don’t believe in web sites that have ‘About Us’ section…), but still I couldn’t skip this one – somewhere in Germany, near the boarder with Luxemburg, is this company that seems to be a custom wood shop (they also have an office across the boarder in Luxemburg). The name is Unikat.

kitchen, with high-gloss lacquer fronts and Corian, hidden worktop and electrical equipment in flush-mounted built-in cupboards.

If you are thinking of a contemporary kitchen remodeling and are looking for inspiration, this just may be the web site you’ve been searching for. Obviously, the cabinets alone will just not give you these wonderful designs – the designers and architects that are responsible for these  wonderful creations, have combined the contemporary cabinetry with the right contemporary appliances, contemporary kitchen faucets and sinks, to create the perfect picture contemporary kitchens.

Island like cubs with turn-able breakfast bar, that at the same time serves as a cover of the cook top. Architect: E. Krogull-Schliep

But they don’t just do kitchens - lots of contemporary custom cabinets for various uses – other then contemporary kitchen cabinets, (with really great contemporary concrete kitchen countertop) they also feature contemporary bath design, contemporary commercial woodwork and even contemporary furniture pieces.  All the spaces are very contemporary interior design settings and just simply some of the coolest contemporary designs I’ve seen recently. Did I mention these contemporary designs?

Straight lined kitchen, white lacquered fronts, without visible handles. Design: Besch-Da-Costa