The island has long reigned as the most fashionable favorite for kitchen layouts around the world—but not all islands are created equal.
Below are kitchen islands that will inject modernity into any home with design ingenuity and connected intellect.
K7 Kitchen Island
A kitchen island can be many things—food prep center, dining table, social setting. The K7 Kitchen Island allows your island to flourish in its many roles with a few simple features—chief among them, height control. Owners can adjust the height of the K7 Kitchen Island anywhere between 2.4 feet to 3.7 feet via patented, noiseless lift technology, operated by a flush-mounted control button. So set your island high for the cocktail party, low for cooking and somewhere in the middle for enjoying brunch. The K7’s sleek design also aids its all-purpose functionality. Owners can fold the faucet head into the basin and hide the basin with a seamlessly integrating cover for a full surface experience—one buoyed by the K7’s flat, digital cooking element.
The K7 Kitchen Island comes with a wide variety of customizable options, including wood type and colored glass mat. More information is at team7-design.com.
Oppein Swan
If you’re looking for an island that’s out-of-this-world, the Oppein Swan will more than suffice. Comprised of an eye-shaped island with a slender, curved, swan-like (hence the name) neck that houses the overhead hood, the Swan would not look out-of-place on an intergalactic vessel. In addition to its decidedly starship-esque design, the Swan includes a number of futuristic features, such as a smart tablet holder in the base of the overhead hood neck for hands-free recipe—or entertainment—viewing, and a charging tower that will keep your devices fully functional and can descend into the island when not in use.
Visit OppeinHome.com for customization and pricing.
Toncelli Invisible
What’s the peak of minimalism? Invisibility—or rather Invisible. Built by Italian designer Toncelli, Invisible strips the kitchen island down to its basics. A thin, black glass surface atop a grooved, white marine wood base, the Invisible appears to hover in space like a simply drawn line. But in the absence of anything, the Invisible is hiding something pretty wonderful. A portion of the island’s glass countertop is a Wi-Fi-connected touch screen—allowing users to read, watch, email and more, all without the concern that they might spill water on their computer or smartphone.
More information on the Invisible can be found at toncelli.it.
Boffi Cove / Z-Island
It’s hard to talk about futurism in the home without mentioning Zaha Hadid, and the late architect’s design firm does not disappoint when it comes to kitchen islands.
The Boffi Cove, a collaboration between Zaha Hadid Architects and Italian furniture company Boffi, features Hadid’s signature curvaceous, yet sleek, style and adherence to high-quality materials. Standing like a solid piece of functional art, the Boffi Cove includes an alcove for seating and chair storage, seamlessly integrated cabinets on the sink-facing side and a flat-top digital range.
The Cove comes in two sizes and will be included in kitchens at Zaha Hadid’s 520 West 28th project in New York City. Visit Boffi.com for local dealers or to download the catalogue.
If you want more smarts with your Hadid styling, there is Z-Island, a 2006 concept collaboration among Zaha Hadid Architects, DuPont and ernestomeda. Comprising two free-standing islands—one long and slender cooking station and one hexagonal washing station—the Z-Island kitchen is replete with interstellar style and intelligence.
While the washing island features a sink and storage, the main island—the cooking island—includes a dining portion with over 2,000 programmable LEDs in the surface, three scent dispensers for creating on-the-fly aromatherapy, a heating station built into the white corian countertop to keep prepared foods at the proper temperature and an induction cooking flat top that can be controlled via centrally-located space-age touch-panel. But that’s not all, the cooking island goes from horizontal at one end to vertical at the other, where an LCD TV is embedded in the surface, allowing users to watch television or surf the web while cooking. And if your eyes need to be focused on the task at hand—preparing food with sharp knives for example—the Z-Island also includes a mini Mac for enjoying iTunes.
More information on the Z-Island can be found at ernestomeda.com.