IKEA Presents Kitchens of the Future

Courtesy of Concept Kitchen 2025

Think about how much kitchen technology has changed within the last 10 years. WiFi-enabled appliances, voice-activated coffee makers, touchscreen ovens, and dozens of recipes, timers, and tutorials available on your phone have all entered the realm of possibility. So what will be in the kitchen in the next 10 years? In 2013, IKEA and IDEO recruited design students from two universities—the School of Industrial Design at the Ingvar Kamprad Design Centre at Lund University and the Industrial Design department at Eindhoven University of Technology—to collaborate on Concept Kitchen 2025.

Students were tasked with imagining new kitchen technology that's unobtrusive, streamlined, and environmentally conscious. They were also pushed to think about how new technology can alter our behaviors around food. Prompts included: How will we dispose of trash and recyclables? How can new food storage methods and water faucets prevent wastefulness and lead us to become more mindful of our resources? How can the kitchen table become more than just a table?

With the help of professional coaches, each student brainstormed ideas and pitched prototypes to IDEO and IKEA. IDEO then brought the concepts to reality, culminating in a fully functional kitchen now on display at IKEA Temporary, a six-month pop-up exhibit in Milan. The project was also displayed as part of Milan Expo 2015.  

See pictures of Concept Kitchen 2025 below.

Courtesy of Concept Kitchen 2025

The Table for Living has a camera and projector over the table and induction coils beneath to sense movements, recognize objects, and display recipes and tips.

Courtesy of Concept Kitchen 2025

Storing Visually allows users to see all the food available, ensuring that everything gets eaten before it expires. As more people (especially city-dwellers) rely on food delivery or smaller shopping trips instead of a weekly supermarket sweep, massive refrigerators become burdensome instead of a necessity.

Courtesy of Concept Kitchen 2025

A prototype of the full kitchen layout.