Kitchen visions for the hub of the home

By Andrea Watson
Posted: 2010/08/20

ANDREA WATSON reports on amazing Ikea visions for the hub of the home.

ITS self-assembly furniture may be famous for driving most people to the brink of self-destruction but one thing Ikea does extremely well is make robust and affordable kitchens that last almost for ever.

Now the Swedish retailer has looked into the future with some imaginative geeks and come up with a series of somewhat alarming "kitchen visions" for 2040. Evoking George Orwell's Big Brother society, these kitchens may one day rule our lives.

The first is the Intuitiv, an emotionally intelligent kitchen designed to regulate not only our diet but our lifestyles. "It will be your personal trainer, dietician, psychologist and lifestyle coach. It will respond to your energy levels, nutritional needs and mood."

So, er, how exactly? Well, say you wake up with a hangover and head for the fridge. 'Mother Kitchen' sensors will "read your brainwaves" and select a nutritionally balanced breakfast before possibly locking the door to the wine cellar.

When you get home after a long day at work, a hologrammed chef will leap into action and offer some inspired recipe ideas. That is unless Mother has checked your calorie count and locks the fridge, too.

"The Intuitiv is a possible kitchen of the future with more than a third of the UK population expecting that by 2040 we won't even have to cook for ourselves, " said Carole Reddish, Ikea's deputy managing director.

Which brings us on to the second kitchen vision. Despite the fact that many people believe we will no longer have to cook, they will still want a slap-up, state-of-the-art kitchen. Enter the Skarp, a kitchen which as the name suggests is cutting-edge and even more scary than Intuitiv, with "synchronized appliances communicating through iPad-style devices".

Cleaning, recycling and energy saving will all be taken care of by Skarp, ensuring "efficient behaviour with devices like phone-apps which control our carbon emissions and thermostats which respond to our voices and fingerprints". Forget food preparation, just make sure you learn to download and don't breathe too much.

However, in case there are any primitive eaters out there in 2040 still hankering after a roast dinner, the geeks at the Future Laboratory have come up with a third alternative: the Elementara.

This kitchen goes right back to basics. It looks post-apocalyptic, with greenery creeping though the primitive furniture.

However, the great thing about the Elementara is you can actually cook in it. It will also encourage you to grow your own food and be self-sufficient with a mini-allotment and recycling facilities.

By 2040, I predict that it will be the clones created from Jamie Oliver's DNA who will be buying this kitchen.

INFORMATION:
For immediate 2010 kitchen inspiration visit thekitchen.ikea.co.uk