A kitchen that increasingly resembles a laboratory of experience, but also a place of socialization open to family and friends: a much more ‘intimate’ kitchen than in the past, a nest where food preparation becomes a daily appointment that nourishes well-being and relationships.
The new values and furnishings of the space dedicated to food today are shaped above all by Generation Z, which includes those born between 1996 and 2012: A very broad demographic category in fact, within which – especially when it comes to their relationship with food – the CreActives (20-24 years old) and ProActives (25-29 years old) tribes stand out, “two groups that grew up with talent- and cooking shows and are therefore the most inclined to experiment with new dishes and tell stories through recipes,” explains sociologist Francesco Morace, president of Future Concept Lab and co-author with Linda Gobbi of Ma quale Gen Z? (‘Gen Z: What’s the story?’, Egea), an essay that examines the attitudes, values and behaviors of a generation that defies clichés.
“We are faced with a user base that masters domotics, such as appliances that facilitate food preparation, and for whom being at the stove is a creative gesture, almost a form of empowerment.” Hence the need for multifunctional robots, extractors, dryers and planetary machines, to be kept within sight and reach in practical but elegant furnishings, preferably made of natural materials such as stone and wood treated to resist water, fats and acids, sometimes combined with timeless steel, aluminum or more experimental surfaces such as ceramic or concrete.
The trend towards modular and compact all-in-one kitchens, designed for studio apartments and urban open spaces, and the segment of monoblocks (or the ‘stove and sink’ duo) for the outdoors, for the terrace or garden, designed to withstand the weather but which can also be used indoors if desired, are developing rapidly. In any case, these are “clearly visible and liveable kitchens that dialogue with the living room and become an integral part of it”, says Morace, “and which, in a logic of vertical memory, are often personalized with a family object – a small cupboard, a table, the moka pot – that comes from adolescence and becomes a companion for a new phase of life”. In this way, the pact between the generations is welded once again around the most magical and ancient rite: that of eating.
