Eurocucina 2012: Technology and style together

The benchmark kitchen event is back at the Saloni from 17th to 22nd April at the Rho Milan Fairgrounds, along with all the trend-setting market leaders and brands. Added value comes with the collateral FTK (Technology For the Kitchen) event.

Many high-end sectorial players – such as Italy´s Binova, Effeti, Minacciolo and Strato- along with other major Italian and foreign manufacturers, with Germany strongly in the lead, and mark the global launch of Fendi kitchens, the 19th edition of Eurocucina, with 150 exhibitors ranging over 27.000 square metres of exhibition space in Pavillions 9-11 and 13-15, is showing these days in Milano (within I Saloni) the latest trends in kitchen furniture, electronic appliances, decor and table-setting.

300.000 buyers from 160 countries are expected to descend on the Rho Milan Fairgrounds. There are all range of goods: from classic kitchens to design kitchens made from a wide range of different materials -from metal to brick to wood, with the accent on natural solutions.

In line with Eurocucina, the collateral FTK (Technology for the Kitchen) displays avant-garde built-in electrical appliances and cooker hoods from 30 of the sector´s very best brands. It is, as always, a sectorial point of reference for products of the future, from energy-saving, user-friendly devices to those that speak the same language as PCs, mobile phones and tablets.

Kitchen Icon, by Ernestomeda

What we like

Kitchens become one of the most complex, structured and technology-rich parts of the house. Elisa and Stefano Giovannoni´s Frame, for Veneta Cucine, takes de focus of the kitchen away from the walls, bringnin it centre stage, right into the middle of the room, enabling dual access to the equipment.

The destructuring of the canonical unit has now become an accepted and much-welcomed development. It has been replaced by both free-standing, single-function components (such as the Liberi in Cucina range from Alpes Inox), and looser, less joined-up designs that do away with the traditional wall cupboard/base combination (HD33 by Massimo Castagna for Rossana, for instance.

Finishing materials take functional properties into account. For instance, Giuseppe Bavuso´s Icon for Ernesto Meda, is covered with inconconcrete an environmentally-friendly material that looks like cement.

Light is everywhere, overall visual impact as naturally possible, without compromising on resistance. We like Paolo Piva and CR&S´s Artex for Varenna. Thinness has become another trend, as in the work counter in Ludovica and Roberto Palomba´s Slim kitchen for Elmar.