Quick Dips

Dream Kitchen for 2010

Slaving over a hot stove could literally be a thing of the past thanks to an international award-winning kitchen design from Massey University's Consumer Technology department.

Self-contained cooking vessels with audio recipe instructions are just some of the innovative futuristic features of the design.

An international competition to design a kitchen for the year 2010 required entrants to use new technologies and materials, and environmentally conscious energy forms and waste disposal systems.

Within four weeks, Professor Peter Robertson, head of the Consumer Technology Department, had assembled a six-person team, made up of staff and students with specialist skills in product development, industrial design and graphic design, which had put together an entry that edged out over a hundred of the world's most experienced designers. What was even more remarkable is that most of the international designers had spent over a year preparing their entries.

Robertson said the team approached the challenge by asking what life would be like in 2010 and how people would use their kitchens. Rather than being frustrated with technology, emphasis was placed on creating a user-friendly, flexible environment, individually customised to "take the drudgery out of cooking while enhancing the ceremony of cooking," he said.

Exciting features include a voice-activated interactive screen which controls all cooking processes and kitchen facilities. This includes menu planning, interactive cooking instructions and recipe guidance. For example, by voice entering the make-up of a dinner party group, menus are suggested which take into account guests, time constraints, availability of ingredients, and cooking ability. The database can also give nutritional and dietary advice, and electronic shopping.

An important feature of the design is flexibility. Professor Robertson said the kitchen can be changed to suit a variety of needs from social gatherings to outside cooking, and can also be packed up and taken with the rest of furniture when shifting house.

Despite its almost fantastical array of features, he added that the technology to build such a kitchen is currently available.