If nothing else, Nostradamus was a man exhibiting a great deal of bravery. A large part of predicting the future involves self-confidence, because the future will happen, and it will illustrate how right-or wrong-you were. The same amount of fortitude is evidenced by German furniture and fittings giant Hettich, who recently unveiled their Kitchen Concept 2015, which offers "a trends forecast."

Back in 1999, Hettich released their Kitchen Concepts 2010, "which clearly confirmed Hettich’s innovative and future-focused development competency: Many of the forecasts from then now either form part of modern kitchens or are about to be included in them." This type of future-forward thinking started with Karl Hettich, a man who in 1888 set himself the task of improving cuckoo clocks and subsequently started a small workshop in the Black Forest (it all sounds like a fable, doesn't it?).

Kitchen Concept 2015. Designed by Hettich.

What's in the 2015 kitchen? The underlying idea that drives the kitchen of futurity is for the room to be "integrated in the home environment rather than claiming to be the centre of attention." Appliances hide behind smooth fascias; hardware is flush; faucets retract (thereby reducing water consumption); and "an extremely shallow sink discreetly blends into the forward-pointing kitchen landscape." Drawers of all kinds-from pot-and-pan drawers to dishwasher drawers-open on both sides of islands, "thereby making cooking with friends even more of a pleasure." For the cook's individual pleasure, Kitchen Concept 2015 features height-adjustable wall units: the bases can be raised and lowered individually to suit the ergonomic position of each user.

And nobody is forgetting the technological advancements synonymous with Jetsons-esque kitchens. Multimedia networking will let electrical appliances communicate with each other; internet, television, and "other building services" are "operated and controlled from a central point" that includes a large screen. Another exciting change may be the touch-controlled cooking hob designed with the "iPod generation" in mind: "individual zones of the hob are no longer firmly defined or switchable circuits but flexible areas that can simply be drawn with the finger to suit the size of the pot or pan being used." This idea goes against my childhood training, wherein I was instructed to avoid touching hot surfaces-but the picture of hipsters burning their gadget-controlling fingertips does give me some sadistic amusement.

Via Surface & Panel.