Island Kitchen

CONCEPT DESIGN:

The house was conceived of as a series of interlocking, angular forms and for the architect, the kitchen needed to be a continuation of these thematic ideas. As well as the sculptural quality that is found in both the form and the kitchen, materiality became essential in creating continuity.

Fisher & Paykel's philosophical approach to the social kitchen - a kitchen thought about in zones rather than a rigid working triangle - influenced much of the approach to how the kitchen was laid out and how it was integrated with the rest of the house.

When organising the kitchen layout the clients took a focused approach to considering how they would use the kitchen in the future, role playing multiple steps for different tasks like making a cup of tea or preparing dinner. What resulted is an efficient grouping of zones within the kitchen.

The cooking zone along the back wall has the 90cm Built-in Oven and 90cm Gas on Glass cooktop, with a practical stainless steel benchtop which allows hot pans to be placed here, as well as ample prep space on either side of the stove.

The storage zone consists of the walk-in pantry, the integrated refrigerator and the CoolDrawer™ opposite within the island. The CoolDrawer™ is most often used like a bar fridge, but Daniel and Ally use the CoolDrawer™ differently.

Using Daniel’s knowledge of temperature optimisation, the CoolDrawer™ is set to 12°C which is the perfect temperature for many fruits and vegetables like melons, tomatoes and capsicums, as well as for bread. They use their CoolDrawer™ then, like a larder, cooler than the dry storage in the pantry and warmer than the 3ºC of the fridge.

The family eats a lot of vegetables so this handy vegetable bin is well used. It’s placement just under the bench on the island means that vegetables can be taken to the bench, prepped and chopped with minimal effort.

The washing-up zone centres around the sink in the island. Here two 60cm DishDrawers™ sit side-by-side providing ample and flexible space for a busy family’s dishes. Rubbish bins fit under the sink.

DEVELOPED DESIGN:

Gerrad stresses that white kitchens, in his mind, demand the most attention to detail as any imperfections in the absence of other layers of colours and textures, become obvious. The clients were also extremely detail-conscious which has led to a design whose simplicity belies the rigour of every division and connection.

The attention to detail is no more apparent than in the delineation of the drawers. Here, inset aluminium Halliday and Baillie handles add a subtle additional material to the kitchen, underscoring a robust, industrial aesthetic as well as emphasising the horizontality of the kitchen. The strong linearity of the handles hash meant that the breaklines and depths of drawers became paramount.

Oak floors and concrete elements run throughout the house, and this continues in the kitchen with a concrete benchtop and faceted oak detailing on the island. Marble on the backsplash also has this similar concrete grey tonality. Inside the pantry too, you experience the solid concrete blocks which are an expressed architectural feature on the exterior. Above, on the ceiling, perforated white panels add another subtle texture to the space.

The custom-designed acoustic sheets help to define the kitchen within the open plan space. To emphasise this even more, black cedar from the exterior cladding has been brought into the interior to create a dark frame around these punctured panels. The cabinetry was lacquered in white to continue the simplicity of the white walls throughout the house.

DETAIL DESIGN:

The 480mm baseline of the Fisher & Paykel appliances, specifically here the 90cm oven and, on the island, the DishDrawers™ and CoolDrawer™ influenced the breaklines of the cabinetry. Other details like the sculptural island and the integrated fridge were designed to continue the clean lines of the kitchen and emphasise materiality.