Download the application and rules here.

Submission Deadline: 17-10-2008

This year, Electrolux challenges members of the architecture & design community to present innovative, thoughtful concepts of a kitchen that meets the changing needs of today’s modern family for a chance to win up to $75,000 in cash and prizes. The grand prize winner will also receive national exposure in Interior Design magazine.

To enter, submit a rendering of a kitchen design for a modern family, using Electrolux ICON™ appliances as your inspiration.

Requirements
- Kitchen design must be 20’ x 30’ in dimension
- Rendering must include a minimum of five Electrolux ICONTM appliances
- Budget is limited to $100,000, including all materials required for installation
- Entry is exclusive to this competition and may not be submitted to other contests

Prizes
- 1st Place
$50,000 cash + Electrolux ICONTM appliances worth
$25,000 and a featured spread in the July 2009 issue of
Interior Design®
- 2nd Place
Electrolux ICONTM appliances worth $25,000
- 3rd Place
Electrolux ICONTM appliances worth $10,000

Judging Criteria
Entries will be judged by our esteemed panel on the following criteria:
- How thoughtfully and boldly the kitchen meets the needs of the modern family
- Visual appeal
- Creativity
- Elements and principles of kitchen design
- Innovative integration of appliances

Alice Waters:

“The kitchen is way too small! In terms of space, it needs to be almost as big as the dining room. It has a fireplace —about four feet tall and five feet wide—that is like a regular open fire with just a chimney and a large opening where the grills and turning spits are. There is also a long table that the dishwashers have access to on the left side; the cooks are on the cooking line to the right. And of course there’s a table up front where we display some of the food we’re serving, like fruits and vegetables—whatever we have on the menu we put out on the table. The making of pastries should really be all in its own little room, but we’ve never had that luxury, so it’s kind of at the end of the kitchen. We also have a special room where we make ice cream, and we have another room that’s only for rolling out dough.”

Grant Achatz:

“I wanted to be able to put down ten, twenty, thirty plates at one time and have cooks surrounding them on all sides, working on them in groups. That told me I needed long islands to allow cooks to be on each side; so you see the two twenty-two-foot-long islands that run down each side.” 

Dan Barber:

“A lot of what we cook here is in sous-vide [ vacuum-sealed] bags. And then we steam it in combination ovens at a very low temperature. We’re cooking at 132 degrees Fahrenheit—it’s like a bathtub. This is highly technologically advanced; it’s the future of cooking. And ultimately what we’re doing is trying to create this dichotomy between the old-world agrarian ideals of growing your own food—and growing it sustainably, organically, locally, all of that—but then coming into a kitchen where there’s modern technology, and using techniques that are innovative and technologically advanced. Some people would view that as contradictory, but I see it as one and the same. “ 

Wylie Dufresne:

“Our kitchen is extremely functional. At first glance it doesn’t seem that different from a lot of others because it is laid out in the same way as a European-style kitchen: it’s broken down into multiple stations. The hot line is designed so that the four stations are identical in terms of the equipment that stands in front of the cook. Each cook has his or her own flattop, oven door, reach-in refrigerator, three doors of refrigeration, and two bays of countertop refrigeration. The idea is that regardless of the station, the mise en place [ingredient selection] changes but the layout stays the same, so you can move from station to station with a certain familiarity. That’s a very practical way of thinking about it. “ 

The article is a must read and includes some great photos. And check out Metropolis- they are leaders in journalism about Green building practices which will be a driving force in kitchen design and technology.

I’ve had two kitchens without upper cabinets and it is a very nice look. Innovations like those from Hansen help eliminate the bending over issues you get without uppers. Check them out.

If you’re interested send us a note at sammy at supernaturalagency dot com. Tell us a little bit about your project, where it stands, your design approach, budget range, etc. We’re looking forward to hearing from you!

*There’s a movement afoot to turn the word ‘dyson’ into a replacement for the word ‘cool’, as in Dyson (vacuum cleaner) sucks- opposite of which is doesn’t suck= cool. Whatever.

Step into the future with this kitchen designed by Poggenpohl and the Porsche design group.