If we don’t change our habits soon, we’ll face imminent shortages of food, energy, and resources. Transforming our consumer, corporate, and societal habits is vital for our planet’s well-being and our own lives.
For many, the kitchen is the heart of the home. A place of gathering and warmth where the family comes together and connects. What will the kitchen of the future be like?
Whether you cook or not, the kitchen is a part of your daily life: it’s where you store your groceries, unpack restaurant orders, and serve drinks to your guests. Regardless, it is undeniable that the kitchen has a unique ability to promote sharing and bring people together. This is even more true if you come from countries where food plays a very important role in family interaction.
The kitchen adapts to the inhabitants of a home, as well as to the needs of each era, evolving from being a mere space for preparing food to becoming one of the most trafficked areas in a house. Spaces have opened up, the walls that once hid it have come down, and it has merged with other rooms in the home, such as the dining room. Today, the kitchen even serves as a workspace or entertainment area, with larger environments that invite people to stay and interact.
Just as the concept has changed, the kitchen has also aligned itself with technological innovations, presenting increasingly functional and intelligent equipment that facilitates household tasks, even becoming elements of design.
But is it adapting to new eco-friendly trends? Is there an environmental approach in the kitchen? What can we expect from kitchens in the future? Well, thanks to the report from the Cosentino Group and its Silestone Institute of Research, we can glimpse what this space will be like in the next 25 years.
There are many aspects to consider when addressing these concerns. Therefore, to facilitate their identification, we will divide them into 2 categories. The first one will be “external”, meaning those things over which we don’t have direct control to bring about change. These are things that as average consumers we cannot alter or whose change transcends beyond ourselves. These changes have a weight that falls on the industry itself and what it will be able to offer. For example, materials for kitchen construction, energy consumption of appliances, or their manufacturing. Meanwhile, the second category, or “internal”, will be the practices that each individual maintains in their home; those things we can directly manage such as plastic usage, waste separation, or the choices of purchases and detergents we want to use.
External aspect
Kitchens will continue to be the centerpiece of the home, with spaces that create great comfort and versatility, serving the different individuals while remaining the bond that unites them. Moreover, this importance will be accentuated, so their design and construction will receive greater attention for space distribution in new homes.
Some kitchens will be more compact, given the continued rise in real estate costs and the trend towards smaller spaces. However, this doesn’t mean they will be less important. On the flip side, demand for space-saving, multifunctional kitchen equipment will rise to balance value and space reduction.
Beyond aesthetics, design is based on experience and functionality, and just like technology, it must adapt to changing times and new demands. The prevailing idea today (and will be in the future) is the kitchen as the most important room in a house, a place to share and spend most of the day, so providing that feeling of attraction and comfort will be important to reflect the kitchen of the future: a place that is no longer just for passing through or storage, but for living together.
Certainly, in our kitchen of the future, aesthetics are also important for the user. Noble materials will prevail, whether they are naturally or artificially obtained, seeking that warm and welcoming effect that represents home, family. All of this without causing environmental harm, it will not be created at the expense of the planet. Additionally, it’s expected that more professional-grade options will be integrated, resembling restaurant kitchens, while maintaining a homely aesthetic and clean finish.
The adaptability of elements is another point that is interesting for the customization of spaces according to use or time of day. Such as dynamic spaces that allow for easily modifying the structure or changing the color of kitchen surfaces from your phone (similar to what can be done today with room lighting) so that the area provides a feeling of well-being and joy according to the preferences of the current user.
Similarly, technological trends in the kitchen of the future are expected to prioritize connectivity and the intelligence of appliances, but there will also be innovation in more sustainable solutions that allow for more efficient use of water, energy, and waste. Here, simplicity of use will be essential, as well as safety, to ensure the user’s overall well-being. Appliances like refrigerators and ovens will expand their functions to monitor health, predict dietary needs, and offer suggestions for better food utilization.
Currently, we can already observe increasingly intelligent appliances that facilitate kitchen and household tasks in general. In the future, this trend will only continue to increase. Functions that allow appliances to learn about the user and predict their needs, devices that adapt to different routines, and are as flexible as they are precise to provide suitable solutions to the user and the situation. The kitchen of the future must be able to adapt to the different generations living in a household. It should be useful for each of them according to their habits.
The kitchen will be the space in the home that will shape people’s consumption habits, habits that will be much better than they have been until now.”
Gastón Acurio
Internal factors
The decisions we make, no matter how small, help shape the future, and the kitchen is no exception. What we choose to buy or not buy, the changes we make in our routine, everything will have an impact on the planet. It depends on us whether it’s positive or negative.
In the aforementioned Silestone study, the opinions of various experts are consulted, such as architects, designers, gastronomes, or sociologists, to provide a perspective from their professional field. One of them, Gastón Acurio – a Peruvian chef and one of the leading figures in Peruvian cuisine – predicts that “in the next 25 years, the kitchen will reclaim its place. We will resume the dialogue and decide correctly what we will buy and why, what things we will cook based on what is good for the body, for the soul, for the environment, the local economy, the people around us, and life in general.”
With the boom of organic foods and the preference for less processed foods, the future envisioned by the chef doesn’t seem far-fetched. After decades of ultra-processed foods dominating supermarkets, we can already see brands focusing on healthier products today. Pesticides and chemicals not only harm the environment but also endanger the health of living beings nearby and pose serious risks to human health when ingested.
Furthermore, people are increasingly concerned about their health and physical well-being. We can observe this with the numerous applications available to track calories and proteins, the demand for vitamins, dietary supplements, and alternatives to sugar, as well as exercise routines, facial and body care. We want to look and feel good. Thus, food digitization and tracking will enhance to offer precise information about our needs.
Similarly, there are many issues of which we may not be aware at the moment of making purchases. We often overlook product waste, distribution inefficiencies, labor conditions, and carbon emissions tied to our purchases, yet they significantly impact our choices.
Be mindful of what, how, and when to buy
Domestic and everyday decisions can also trigger significant changes. Through information, the household kitchen can change the world.”
Gastón Acurio
For example, avoid buying foods out of season. If we stick to what nature dictates, it will be better for both nature and us. Demanding fruits out of their season means overexploitation of resources, increased carbon emissions (as they are transported from places where it is their season), and higher energy expenditure to refrigerate them and ensure they arrive in optimal condition. Buying locally benefits both the environment and your city’s economy.
Let’s not be too demanding about color or size either. According to Acurio, 40% of what is produced is discarded because it doesn’t have the right size or presents some blemish. Can you imagine how many baskets that discarded fruit or vegetable would fill? How many hungry children could be fed with that amount? And not to mention the amount of energy and water used to produce something that will then be thrown away. A total waste. Here, as in all areas, companies and industry players must find more sustainable and efficient ways to operate.
The same should happen with our waste. Our goal will be circularity in all aspects of our lives to prevent our actions from continuing to harm the earth. Thus, we will learn to reuse our waste to make the most of the resources we have. We will be able to use kitchen waste as compost or fertilizer in our own gardens in a more optimal and easier way than currently. We’ll discover better methods to eliminate single-use plastics and sort waste for proper recycling, based on its origin.
Grow everything you can. What better way to ensure that your food is fresh and of quality? You don’t need a large garden to start. If you don’t have much space in your home, you can grow in small pots whatever you use the most or some herbs to season your meals. Not only will you save some money, but you’ll also have more life in your home, improve your mood, and even have cleaner air. Mint, basil, green onions, oregano, or rosemary are some plants you could have at home.
These are just some of the thousands of small things we can incorporate into our lives to help preserve nature. In the future, we’ll be more mindful of our actions and respond to global circumstances accordingly.
