Compact All-in-One Kitchen & Dining
Form, meet function. Function, form. Designed to boldly display its purpose even when pushed away into a wall, this space-saving, fold-out kitchen-table-and-dining-room combination design by Melanie Olle and Ilja Oelschlgel is unreservedly Germanic, a brilliant blend of formal simplicity and ingenious engineering.
In its closed position, each element is carefully outlined like a line drawing on paper – the bolder lines denoting the essential elements of the lamp, table and seating objects.
Open or closed, preparations for a meal can be made using any one part (or combination of parts) that make up the overall design, cupboards and drawers closing and opening but seats and table also sliding in and out as needed.
Once ready for guests, the essential elements (outlined above) remain in play while the rest of the preparatory functions are hidden behind the smooth surfaces of a simple lined wall.
But why stop with a dining space design for your kitchen area? This kind of fold-away interior design idea could be applied all throughout a house to great effect, with slide-out fixtures and furniture of all kinds. A great initial concept, this could be transformed into an entire design approach or practice.
“The compact kitchen is the reinterpretation of the classic sideboard with a patented furniture decoration development. From an initially inconspicuous cabinet element with pictogram-like joint pattern is created by pulling, flipping or turning a complete kitchen for cooking. Once the work is done, everything disturbing disappears behind a coarse front flap. Table and seating for four people can be pulled out of the cabinet element using a roller blind principle – the table is ready.”
“Ilja Oelschlägel acts as product designer (diploma 2008, Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle) and mechanical engineer (diploma 2002, HTWK Leipzig) in the field of tension between construction, industrial design, product design and interior design. He gained professional experience as a designer at PORSCHE ENGINEERING SERVICES (Stuttgart) or as a teacher at Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle and at the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts (China).”
