new spaces 10 EN

18 Kitchen Love “ The Modern Kitchen Is Superbly Equipped but Invisible” Why Ben van Berkel has a sofa next to the cooker Interview: Kerstin Schweighöfer What role does the kitchen play for you as an architect? The living room used to be the most important meeting place in a house — as a semi-public, semi-private space. Now the kitchen has taken over that function. It’s the most important place. You don’t just cook there; you can sit down and relax. In the modern kitchen you don’t fi nd only tables and chairs; there’s also a sofa you can stretch out on while someone else makes the meal. A sort of lounge-kitchen? Yes! No one’s created that yet, but it’s something that really should be designed! After all, in the year 2011 the kitchen is multifunctional. It’s a combined cooking, eating, sitting, and living space. And what does it look like? The modern kitchen is becoming less and less obviously a kitchen. In America, I recently designed a loft where you no longer even recognise the kitchen as such. The sideboard became a table, and the gas cooker was integrated into it too. The modern kitchen is equipped with the best and most modern appliances, but it’s invisible. And this means that the cool, cold and sterile character that kitchens used to have has disappeared. What does your own kitchen look like? I don’t yet have a lounge-kitchen either. But at least we already have a sofa in the kitchen, so that together with my wife and daughter I can sit back and feel wonderfully relaxed while one of us cooks. Do you cook too? During the week I’m travelling and I have to fl y quite often. But at weekends and early in the week, I try to be at home. Then I cook. Preferably Italian food, but not just pasta — fi sh and meat too. And lots of vegetables and salads? Defi nitely! Maybe it’s because I’m getting older, but I do tend to eat more and more consciously. I eat breakfast too, and now I even take time for lunch. The days when I would just keep working with a bread roll in my hand are over. I sit down at the table for lunch. I do still treat myself to a good glass of wine, but no more than one. There’s no other way to keep up the pace and deal with the pressures of work. Wouldn’t you like to design a kitchen yourself sometime? Ben van Berkel (53) and his wife Caroline Bos run You’ve now proven yourself as a designer as well as an the architectural fi rm UNStudio in Amsterdam and architect. You’ve designed a lounge chair for Walter Knoll (RIGHT) Shanghai. A native of Utrecht, van Berkel fi rst became and a tray for Alessi. The tray is just as multifunctional as OCHS widely known as the architect of the Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam, called “the Swan” by locals. UNStudio the modern kitchen... BENNE gained international renown with the Mercedes-Benz Yes, because you can turn it over and use it as a deeper serving (LEFT), Museum in Stuttgart, shopping centres in Seoul and dish — both ways, in other words. That’s why it’s called the China, and the faculty building of the University of BREUKEL “Switchtray”. I’d also like to design a few wine or cocktail glass- Music and Performing Arts in Graz. Last year UNStu- KOOS es. And for a long time now I’ve been looking for an electric dio designed the “NY 400 Pavilion” for New York City in honour of the founding of New York 400 years ago kettle that you can also use as a teapot. Kettles like that haven’t by Dutch merchants, who called it Nieuw Amsterdam. been made yet. I think I’ll have to design them myself. PHOTOGRAPHY:

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