I can’t speculate on whether it’s a modern phenomenon, or a more recent consequence of open interior designs, but the life of most contemporary homes is certainly centered on the kitchen. Just yesterday, in fact (and while sitting adjacent to the kitchen, I might add), some friends and I were discussing the antiquated concept of the formal dining room—that space that seems to remain a veritable vacuum, vacant of life for approximately 363 of a year’s days. Leave it to the avant garde design strain in Germany to take the next step in acknowledging the millennial reality of the kitchen as social nexus: Siematic’s S2 kitchen not only encourages the proliferation of people into and throughout the cooking space, it integrates all the technology we each carry in our wake.

S2 Multimedia Cabinet. Designed by Siematic.

Spacious Storage and Programmable Perks

The S2 builds on the concept of the earlier S1 to bring all those gadgets and geegaws into your company as you fry the morning’s eggs or prepare the evening’s roast. The idea intends a synthesis between form and function, a concept that translates into minimalist design with maximal functionality. To that end, the S2 features all the storage perks and aesthetic potential of the S1 (to name just a few—handle-free, auto-opening drawers and doors; dual-compartments on doors; rubber strips on drawer interiors for slip-free storage; PUR lacquer in high-gloss or matte; high-quality laminate; beautiful wood veneer; or 1,950 colors of paint) along with the latest refinements in multimedia technology. Thus, the centerpiece of S2 is the central, tall multimedia cabinet, a monolithic power center that “turns your kitchen into living space.”

This means whatever you wish it to mean, but ideas and examples abound in the possibilities: high end audio/video (including iPod dock, CD, DVD, and satellite radio), a “smart grid” that allows wireless communication, a control strip that lets you activate any appliance in the house. The integrated screen in the center of the tall cabinet projects on a swiveling arm, thus facilitating viewing from any corner. And no square inch of potential is lost, as the screen conceals a “useful storage space for technical utensils.”

That last sentence just about sums it up. The S2 indeed represents the happy junction of technology and comestibles, the fortuitous confluence between the life of the kitchen and the wireless life of the new millennium.

Via TrendsUpdates.