The Future Kitchen by TEKA
Task
To explore how the future of kitchens could look like.
For this project, kitchen appliances company TEKA contacted us to envision how the future kitchen may look like. To do so, we researched many trends to finally focus on homegrown food. Teka’s future kitchen is a glimpse of how our kitchens could look in the near future, presenting a set of five different farming modules that allow the user to grow veggies and herbs, but also algae, mushrooms and even mealworms!
The world population is growing fast, especially in cities. At the same time, the global outpost of fresh produce is expected to decline due mainly to the climate crisis. There are also other issues, like the carbon footprint of transporting food from fields to supermarkets and an increasing interest in health and nutrition. In this context, producing our own, homegrown food may become a common scenario in the future.
Homegrown food is not only beneficial for the environment and our global carbon footprint but also for our health. Homegrown food doesn’t need pesticides and is much more convenient (and cheaper!) to just pick some strawberries from your kitchen countertop than visiting a supermarket. But… how to grow food at home, especially in cities, where flats and apartments without outdoor spaces are the norm?
The concept of this project is to create a full ecosystem inside the kitchen: a set of different speculative appliances to produce food inside everybody’s homes. Their measures are standardised and they are modular and easily combinable to make it easier to integrate into most kitchen spaces, no matter how small.
In order to reduce waste and energy consumption, they create a living ecosystem. This means that you can feed your mealworms with the peels from your homegrown tomatoes or use the heat and humidity of your algae tank to passively warm the mushrooms module.
Hydroponic farming is a type of horticulture that grows plants without soil inside an aqueous solvent. It needs a special nutrient solution and a wide range of fruits and veggies can be grown this way, including strawberries, blueberries, cherry tomatoes, peas, peppers or chilies.
Some of the advantages of hydroponics include a faster growth rate (up to 30% faster than in soil), an outpost of up to 80% more produce, the possibility to reuse and recycle the water inside the system, as well as a more efficient use of light and resources.
Aquaponics is a food production system similar to hydroponics but including aquatic animals like mussels or fish. It consists of a symbiosis between animals and plants, and therefore the waste generated by fish is used to provide plants with nutrients, thus filtering the dirty water so fishes always have a clean environment. Mint, rosemary, coriander, pak choi or lettuce are only some of the foods that you can grow this way.
Herbs grow extremely fast, producing more than enough for an average domestic consumption, it doesn’t use pesticides or herbicides and water is constantly being reused. Fish can be both edible or merely decorative, creating a beautiful marine landscape inside your kitchen.
Besides being tasty and of great gastronomic value, mushrooms are full of proteins and nutrients. They are easy to grow, only needing a mild environment and a dark atmosphere. Maitake, shiitake, oyster, enoki… these are just some of the mushrooms you might grow!
Some of the advantages, besides being a source of proteins and minerals, are the easy and seamless user experience of this particular one. In addition, it can also act as a waste management system: coffee grounds, cardboard and organic waste can be used by mushrooms to grow and thrive.
Algae are a huge trend right now, and not without a reason. They’re a perfect source of proteins, vitamins and minerals. From microscopic algae like spirulina (or even plankton) to fully grown seaweed like nori or wakame, this module will expand your culinary horizons for good.
Spirulina, for example, has around 200% more proteins than beef, vitamins A, E, D, B1, B2, B3, B6, and B12, omega 6, beta-carotene, and minerals like iron, zinc, folic acid or calcium. They also reproduce fast and are easy to grow and harvest. What’s more, they produce more oxygen than plants and trees, so they’re a great addition to your home’s air quality!
Insects are one of the most nutritious and healthy snacks out there. Despite being regarded as “disgusting” in certain parts of the world, the fact is that they’re not worse than other foodstuffs we’re more used to, neither nutritionally nor gastronomically. Besides mealworms, snails or chapulines can be easily grown inside this module.
Among the benefits, it is important to point out that 200g of mealworms have around the same amount of proteins as 200g of meat, albeit with a much lower water and energy consumption. In addition, and just like mushrooms, they can help with regular kitchen waste management by eating scraps, rotten vegetables and so on.
All of the modules are easily integrated throughout the whole house. The two sizes (standard and compact) will integrate perfectly in everybody’s rooms, whether it’s an office space, a living room or, of course, a kitchen!
They’re all connected to Teka Home, a great way to keep track of all your harvest, their needs and expected pickup time! Our aim was to make the growing and harvesting process as easy and seamless as possible, and in the age of the Internet of Things, Teka Home will keep you updated and notified of your new living flatmates!
