Kitchen Within A Kitchen

A small news show covered new kitchen trends in an interview with Ellen Cheever, a well-known kitchen designer, educator, and frequent contributor to industry publications like Kitchen and Bath Design News. Cheever states that people need their kitchen to be expandable and collapsible..."On the weeknights, they need to be able to navigate their kitchen quickly when they're just warming up a simple meal. But on the weekends, they need it to open up enough so they can prepare a fancy gourmet meal and entertain a large group of friends while they are cooking."
To answer these needs, designers are creating quick prep areas, read: small sink, cutting board, and microwave. Larger kitchens use a small butler's pantry the same purpose, with an added small refrigerator (I can see this turning into a fridge drawer, once all the seal kinks get fixed). Cheever goes on to talk about islands with sinks in them["The days when kitchens always had one sink right under the kitchen window appear to be over...."], and that the kitchen counter height is becoming more variable in kitchens: taller counters that act as a bar between rooms and lower counters for kneeding bread- this reminds me of IKEA's kid's table set-up for their kitchen...which I, of course, can't find....
I guess that prep-cook triangle is long gone, too!

Non-sterile Kitchen

This picture was accompanied by a quote by Antonio Citterio on Dwell. The quote? “As the kitchen assumes its place as the most important part of the home, we are thankfully moving away from the idea of designing the kitchen as if it were a clinic or a sterile environment."

...Looks pretty sterile to me. After several interviews, I've found that another kitchen trend is a movement toward industrial equipment in the kitchen, and a desire for much much more than any one person or family needs. This picture says it all: does anyone need 6 ovens, really?

Pull Commerce

...Found an excellent example of new kitchen trends pulling the market into its trend direction instead of design pushing the market.... La Rinascente's Design Kitchen has recently finished its redesign of its kitchenware's floor. Look familiar? All modern and white.... clean and shiny and not so new.