It’s somewhat fitting that I start the week off with the ubiquitous Philippe Starck‘s foray into kitchen design, not least of all because just last night my exceedingly lovely wife was walking a tightrope between praise (“this omelet of Italian sweet sausage and braised asparagus is delicious!”) and incredulous disapprobation (“how do you manage to so thoroughly trash the kitchen every time you cook?!”).

Starck K kitchen sink. Designed by Philippe Starck for Duravit.

Guilty as charged. But there’s nothing like a back-handed compliment to point me towards mending my wayward ways: Starck’s brand-spanking new Starck K—a sleekly contoured double sink that purposes an organizational strategy as much as a kitchen element—would surely be a great place for me to start. Ever-mindful of the organizationally challenged, Starck’s piece is an opportune synthesis of geometrical aesthetics and streamlined functionality. In furtherance of his abiding principle—what Duravit refers to as a “poetry of reduction,” Starck has whittled K down to the bare essentials, leaving us with a pair of simple rectangles (“parallelipipeds,” if you count the sink’s deceptively spacious volume) whose only apparent ostentation is a raised rim. The look works: it provides textural interest without overwhelming the subtlety of the whole. But the feature is exceedingly functional as well. Not only does it contribute extra volume (certainly a boon for washing over-sized pots and rinsing summer’s bounty of bushy greens), but also funnels overflow to the companion half next door. Speaking of which, the “rimless” half accommodates any of four Starck K wooden cutting boards, thus setting up an extremely efficient processing station: a swift pass of the knife consigns detritus to the disposal below. And the unit also works with K’s colanders, the elevated rim suspending them at an ideal height for draining pasta or rinsing veggies.

The collaboration between Starck and Duravit—begun some 15 years back with Starck’s storied “Barrel” bathroom vanity—continues to be auspicious. Manufacturer and Designer appear to concur that, as Starck says, “We are getting tired of the materialistic way of life; we can’t stand it any longer; it’s stifling us. Everywhere, we are surrounded by superfluous objects. We must get back to the basics.” Starck’s K sink exemplifies the sentiment, demonstrating yet again that superb design and high-functionality necessarily go hand in hand.

Starck K is available in a variety of sizes, variations, and finishes, including white, pergamon, anthracite matte, and chestnut.