I feel like I should apologize. Two weeks have passed since my return from the thrilling LivingKitchen show in Cologne. In my defense, a week’s absence has meant a week’s worth of email to read and respond to, and there’s nothing like a move (from the eighth floor to the 15th) to add a little spice to the task of putting out an issue.

Nevertheless, I wanted to jot down a few words about the show and share a few images I took while there.

First, wow. And on so many levels. Although this was not my first European show, I was still impressed by the booths, many of which showcased their wares with dramatically black walls, strategic lighting and a variety of artistically chosen and placed accessories.

Equally impressive was the amount of traffic in the three halls. The final tally, according to a post-show report, was 138,000 visitors in total for both LivingKitchen and imm Cologne, which is equal to a 38 percent increase over last year’s event. This, along with the sheer energy in the air, seems noteworthy, given this was LivingKitchen’s debut. After all, aren’t we in the midst of a global economic downturn?

And then there were the products. Yes, the cabinetry was sleek, contemporary and gorgeous, tending toward neutrals—black, white and taupe—and warm, unabashedly textured woods in natural, honey-toned finishes. If not textured, the wooden doors boasted dramatic graining oriented horizontally or vertically.

Not a great photo, but the cabinets in the background have ceramic doors.

Like the color?

Appliances were neatly built in and/or displayed in a line, keeping the look streamlined and exquisitely clean.

One of the more interesting appliances was a Gaggenau induction cooktop that allows users to place cookware anywhere on its surface. Once it senses a pot or pan, a display appears that enables users to scroll through a series of numbers corresponding to power—or so I was told when I asked. Pretty cool, huh? Needless to say, the cooktop garnered a lot of interest from show-goers.

Gaggenau’s booth was pretty cool, too, with its factory-like theme.

There was also a dishwasher from Siemens and Bosch with a side tank that stores water from a wash cycle’s last rinse and uses it in the first rinse the next time you run the dishwasher, thus reducing water consumption. The unit also incorporates a mineral (whose name escapes me now) that, when in contact with humidity or moisture, absorbs it and gives off heat, reducing energy usage. A less vague report will follow once I’ve had a chance to go through the many press kits I collected.

Finally, I don’t know if it was just me, but I couldn’t help noticing the wide array of ventilation products on the show floor. Naturally, these included retractable downdraft systems, wall and island ventilation hoods, as well as air recirculation units. What made many of them memorable, however, were their striking forms and finishes.

The following three are from Berbel, a German manufacturer:



Here’s an interesting design (on the left) at the Franke booth

and another from Gutmann, which, as it turns out, is now owned by Elica.

Of course, there were probably a great many more interesting features to these and other products I saw but alas, some of them were lost on me because of the language barrier. Hopefully, my press kits will yield some missed information.

In the meantime, here are some additional images I snapped.

From Blanco, a retractable faucet (whose name escapes me right now):

Gorenje showed some appliances designed by Karim Rashid, as well as these colorful refrigerators:

This washer was at the Smeg booth:

Someone suggested that I check out a company (again whose name now escapes me) that does a lot of interesting countertops and he was right. Here’s one in glass:

Yet another in glass (I think):

This one is ceramic:

I snapped a great many more photos but unfortunately I’m not the greatest photographer, especially when surrounded by crowds. I’ll see if any more are up to snuff once I finish the issue.

Stay tuned…

—Alice Liao

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This entry was posted on Friday, February 4th, 2011 at 6:00 AM and is filed under Miscellaneous, Products, Universal Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.