Bulthaup b2 Minimalist Kitchen Design
23 February 2010
“Follow Your Bliss”
I don’t know if there is such a thing as tidiness envy, but if there is, I’ve got it in spades. Looking at the Bulthaup b2 kitchen we’re featuring here all I can think is that everything a person would use in a kitchen is right where it belongs. No, no, we can do better than that. Let’s do it the way Ed McMahan always did for Johnny Carson. Everything a body could ever want, right here, in this kitchen, neatly put away, as complete and orderly a place as it is possible for ANYone, ANYwhere EVER to imagine. Right HERE. in this kitchen.
But all kidding aside, if you have, as I have over the years, wrestled with a kitchen that is too small and too cluttered, then you know what I’m talking about. The only saving grace that kitchen has is that it is not mine, so I only have to work in it occasionally, which is the little pep talk I give myself every time I am called upon to help out. And even then, it is all I can do, at times, to refrain from spraying it with kerosene and lighting a match. Honest to goodness, it’s that bad. Well, then, if that is your background, I say, and if the kitchen space you have is equally truncated, then why not do something else with the space? Because, really
now, think it through. What is it that you need with your kitchen?
You want a stove, refrigerator, sink, a little counterpace for food preparation, and storage space for dishes, canned goods, and cooking utensils. Well, then, why not, if space is at a premium, keep it as neat and as organized as it is possible for such an item to be? And with that we have introduced you to the Bulthaup b2.
Bulthaup, as its name would indicate, is a German company that is working to revolutionize kitchen design by starting with the necessary functions and then looking for designs that best accomplish those ends, a process they call “Poetical Analysis.” They asked themselves questions like, “How much storage space is actually required?” and “What quantity of cooking implements, crockery and household appliances is really needed?” Then they took the process a step further and designed the most compact cabinetry possible. The result is a kitchen in its most elemental form, something that is both timeless and modern, and that can be changed at will.
There are only three elements in the Bulthaup b2, two cabinets and a workbench, and these items can be re-combined, moved and added to whenever one wishes. Truth to tell, the b2 resembles nothing so much as a woodworking workshop, which is in keeping with the philosophy with which they approached this kitchen design, to make it a “‘kitchen workshop’ in its original meaning, comprising a workbench, kitchen tool cabinet, and appliance housing cabinet.” Open the two cabinets and the entire contents of a well-equipped kitchen are at one’s fingertips.
But the other thing, the essential thing, the main thing is this: the Bulthaup b2 is a kitchen that can be put into any kitchen space a body happens to have for it, even including that kitchen I so dislike working in. But a kitchen like this, despite its compactness, is still what its makers designed it to be, a kitchen workshop, which I would define as a place where a person can go to actually create a wonderful meal, as opposed to banging into jutting cabinets and confined spaces, and inadequate food preparation areas and, and, and. Sorry about the hyperventilation! But maybe workshop is the wrong word for a place where a person can enjoy the ancient art of cooking for one’s family. For me, in that kitchen, it would very much be finding my bliss.
Joseph
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