LIVING KITCHEN

Veneta Cucine is a leader in making the changes which are occurring in the way the kitchen is conceived and experienced.
In the Ansaldo area at Eurocucina 2008, Veneta Cucine is presenting Living Kitchen, a project developed in cooperation with Domus Academy, Francesco Morace/Future Concept Lab, Andrea Branzi, Dante Donegani & Giovanni Lauda, and Paolo Rizzato.
The project is developed along two different levels of study.
Ten students in the 2007 Master program in Design and Design Interaction at Domus Academy (from Italy, Turkey, Korea, Spain, Japan, India, Lebanon and Peru) have interpreted the kitchen according to new functional standards involving their own cultural roots and diverse ways of preparing and consuming food.
Andrea Branzi, Dante Donegani & Giovanni Lauda, and Paolo Rizzato have elaborated the theme of the kitchen and its relative area using three concepts that are very different, yet complementary.

Incubator, the project by Andrea Branzi, is based on two innovative ideas.
The first is the concept of a “habitable kitchen” where you can sleep directly on top of machines (appliances, TV set, printer, fax, etc.) contained into a single storage unit, thus leaving the surrounding area free for activities that have not been planned (or designed into the arrangement).
The second idea consists of an elastic kitchen framework made up of two modules which slide one over the other so that the length of the kitchen can be adapted as needed.

The Territorial Kitchen by Dante Donegani and Giovanni Lauda can assimilate languages and rituals from different lands and traditions, and even invert their values and meanings. It’s a kitchen that “cooks” established images, sensorial inputs and habits, and transforms them into new recipes. It’s a “habitable” kitchen, but not the kind described in classified ads, which has its own dedicated space and its own architecture; rather, it’s a territorial system whose original potential (for cooking, working, storing, eating and drinking) is expanded to include new pleasures and new forms of habitability.
The design “language” used is one of simplicity; that is, it’s an alphabet of only a few formal elements. The storage units are built like wooden crates, and the shelves (which look like racks or pergolas placed on the countertop) are equipped to distribute electricity and to accept elements providing additional functions. Also, special columns for storing wine, water and vegetables are created by placing unassuming kitchen tools on top of one another...

The idea of Paolo Rizzato is a kitchen module stripped to the bare minimum in terms of size, yet complete as far as functional components are concerned. The project is based on the concept of reduction: reduction in size, reduction in models offered, reduction in the difficulty of assembly and connection, reduction in costs.
In this kitchen project, a series of appliances offered on the market are merely chosen, assembled and then arranged intelligently in the simplest, most compact, most economical way possible.
When closed, the module looks like a simple parallelepiped that is slightly detached from the wall and almost suspended in space. It’s actually a large sideboard whose central opening is shielded by a shutter that opens to reveal the work surface. The surface, in turn, is an integrated, multi-purpose, fully equipped cell with appliances, a system for separated waste collection, and storage units placed all around.
This integrated kitchen module has been designed and sized for the traditional kitchen in the home, for a kitchen corner in a one-room flat, for a small kitchen in a residential hotel, for a suite in a regular hotel, and for a kitchen in the office; that is, for any situation (including a normal kitchen in a normal apartment) where you must deal with small areas and the resulting problems involving space distribution, dimensions, functions and utility systems.

The work of the students at Domus Academy and the prototypes shown at the Ansaldo stand are an important source of ideas for Veneta Cucine, which can apply them to help produce kitchens that suggest and interpret the needs of the consumer.

The project was also made possible by the involvement of Electrolux. The company has believed in our idea and made a substantial contribution to its success.

Also presented at the exhibit will be a publication on this study, which was produced by Francesco Morace, Dante Donegani and Giovanni Lauda.

Veneta Cucine
"A business concern that is a constant happening": to define Veneta Cucine in this way is definitely appropriate. The group, which started out as a local firm, has achieved international status with its brand, in line with the growth that the modular kitchen market has seen over the last three decades, and is now a leader in Italy and a benchmark for those in Europe and the world who choose "made in Italy".

The group employs over 500 persons in the 60,000 sqm industrial floor area divided between the production/management complex of Biancade (TV) and the wood working facilities of Codissago - Longarone (BL). With the help of these workers, craftsmen, technicians, clerks, designers, managers and directors, the group organises, makes, runs, manages and guides the manufacturing and putting onto the market of 50,000 kitchens a year, divided into 40 modern and classic models made in more than 150 versions. Veneta Cucine has an extensive distribution network for its products, with 1,000 highly competent dealers/retailers in Europe, Asia, Africa, North America and South America.

PRODUCTS
Backed up by a highly developed business sense, Veneta Cucine manages an extraordinarily wide-ranging production with high quality standards, which incorporates the latest technologies and the most skilled forms of craftsmanship. Reliability and beauty are the values that distinguish a range divided into areas of style that look to the most recent aesthetic forms and evolved functions while remaining true to the heritage of traditional quality. All this results in economically accessible products that are always abreast of changing trends in lifestyle.



Electrolux
Electrolux is a global leader in the appliances sector, both for domestic and professional use. It is present in 150 countries around the world with sales of over 40 million products per year, under such prestigious brands as Electrolux, Rex Electrolux, AEG-Electrolux, Zanussi, Frigidaire, Zanker, Molteni and Zoppas.
It is a company that is highly focused on customer demands, always striving to make innovative products, that are both functional and of excellent design and with total focus on the potential impact on the environment.
In 2007 Electrolux received the prestigious Sustainable Energy Award from the European Commission. This prize acknowledges the on going commitment of the company in reducing energy and water consumption of the manufacturing plants, of the products and of the manufacturing processes.

With regards to the built-in appliance sector, Electrolux is recognized as the absolute leader, especially in the development of new and innovative product features that improve quality of life in the home and of the people living in it.

Veneta Cucine and Electrolux have been working together in a synergistic co-maker relationship, exchanging experiences in fields such as research and development of new products and technologies. The collaboration on the Domus Academy initiative is a part of this project.





Domus Academy
The Domus Academy was founded in Milan in 1982 as an open project centering on Italian design and fashion. Over the years, DA has established itself as a school in the fullest sense of term, as a place for postgraduate training, and as a laboratory for studying industrial creativity, aesthetics, consumption, space and time relationships, and forms of public and private services, as well as the radical changes that are resulting from the expansion of the Web. Deeply rooted in Italy, Domus Academy also accepts students from all over the world to enrich, disseminate and update the culture of the project, which expresses advanced know-how in visionary projects.
In 1994, the Academy received the Golden Compass award for the quality of its teaching and its publications, as well as for its constant attention to cutting edge themes ranging from the humanization of technologies to the exploration of the nexus between design and fashion, from a reflection on the sociology of a project to design management and the design of services - all of which make Domus Academy a major player in developing the Italian talent for design.

Andrea Branzi
Architect and designer Andrea Branzi was born in Florence in 1938, where he earned his degree in 1967. He currently works and lives in Milan.
From 1964 to 1974, he was a member of Archizoom Associati - the first avant-garde architectural group to become internationally famous. Its projects are conserved at the Study Center and Archive of the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris.
Since 1967, Mr. Branzi has been active in industrial and experimental design, architecture, urban planning, teaching and cultural promotion.
He is an Associate Professor at the Milan Polytechnic Institute’s Faculty of Architecture and Industrial Design No. 3.

Dante Donegani & Giovanni Lauda
Architects and designers Dante Donegani and Giovanni Lauda have worked together in various areas of project design. They have created layouts for exhibits, as well as home and office products for companies such as Edra, Luceplan, Radice, Rotaliana and Viceversa. They teach at the Domus Academy in Milan and have held meetings and seminars at a number of universities in Italy and abroad. In 2001, they produced the “home” section in an exhibit entitled, “Italy-Japan: Design as a Lifestyle”, which was put on in Kobe and Yokohama. In 2004, they displayed several works called “Metamorphosis” at the Biennial of Architecture in Venice.
Their projects have been shown in museums such as The Design Museum in London, The Pompidou Center, and The Vitra Design Museum. Their “Passepartout” chaise longue created for Edra has been included in the permanent collections of the Milan Triennial and the M.O.M.A. in San Francisco.

Paolo Rizzato
Born in Milan in 1941, Paolo Rizzato earned a degree in Architecture at Milan Polytechnic in 1965. He now works as a freelancer in the fields of architecture, interior design and design from his studio in Milan. In 1978, he founded Luceplan together with Riccardo Sarfatti, and he has designed projects for Arteluce, Artemide, Luceplan, Alias, Cassina, Nemo, Danese, Fiam, Molteni, Knoll, Kartell, Philips, Montina, Thonet, Poltrona Frau, Mandarina Duck, Guzzini, Serralunga, and Lensvelt. He has also held conferences at universities such as Columbia University in New York, The Milan Polytechnic, The Cranbrook Center in Detroit, Washington University in Saint Louis, The Architecture Institute in Moscow, The University of Palermo, and The IUAV in Venice. Mr. Rizzato’s works have been published in magazines, catalogues and publications in Italy and abroad. His projects have been presented at seminars and expositions on architecture and design, and have been included in the permanent collections of numerous museums and foundations such as The Milan Triennial in Milan, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and The Museum of Science and Technology in Milan. His works include “Tecniques Discretes” Musée des Arts Decoratifs” at the Louvre in Paris, “Mutants Materials” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and “Exercises in Style” in New York and Tokyo.
His many awards include the Golden Compass in 1981,1989 and 1995, and he won the international design competition for the “Darsena di Milano” award in 2004.

Francesco Morace
Sociologist, writer and journalist Francesco Morace has been working in the field of social and market research for 25 years and is the President of Future Concept Lab.
A strategic consultant for international companies and institutions, he has held conferences, courses and seminars in Brazil, China, Colombia, Korea, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Great Britain, Holland, the United Kingdom, Russia, Spain, Thailand, Turkey and the United States. He is also an instructor at the Domus Academy in Milan and the author of numerous essays that include “Countertrends” (1990); “Metatrends: Paths, Products and Projects for the Third Millennium” (1996); “PreVisions and preSentiments: Styles of Thought for the (Now) Near Future” (2000), “The Strategy of the Hummingbird” (2001), “Happy Societies: The Death of Post-Modern Style and the Return to Traditional Values” (2004), and “The Meaning of Italy: Instructions for the Third Italian Miracle” (2007). Mr. Morace is also the co-author of “Living Trends: 5 scenarios and 10 Trends in Domesticity and Home Living” (2005), and “Real Fashion Trends: the Manual of the Coolhunter” (2007).
He runs a blog entitled, “PreVisions and preSentiments” for Sole 24 Ore’s Nova100 and writes numerous features on current trends for specialized publications such as Dove, Adv, Gap Casa and Il Bagno.

Future Concept Lab
Future Concept Lab is a strategic research and consulting institute that has distinguished itself as one of the world’s most advanced centers of marketing research and the prediction of consumer trends.
With its operations and clients in Europe, the USA, Asia and South America, Future Concept Lab is a global project; although its headquarters are in Milan, it has 40 agents in 25 countries around the world. Its goal is to propose new concepts of products, publicity and distribution on the international level, whose purpose is to tackle both advanced and emerging markets using “passwords of the future”. The Lab carries out integrated research projects with specific methodologies, which leads to the development of scenarios in particular sectors. It also offers consultation and training services, and drafts publications based on work completed in its own laboratory and international observatory. It works with some of the largest companies in the world such as Nike, Procter & Gamble, Beiersdorf, Nokia, LVMH, and the World Gold Council, and with Made in Italy firms that include Benetton, Illy, Branca, Alessi, Ferrero and Unicredit.