The kitchen is a place for communal interaction: preparing and cooking meals together offers plenty of opportunity for informal conversations and informal exchanges. Accordingly, the kitchen should not just be a side room in the house, but the real heart and center of gravity. The new owners and developers, who had purchased a detached house in Düsseldorf, thought along the same lines: instead of a somewhat cramped cooking and dining area, they wanted a generously proportioned kitchen that was separate from the dining area, with plenty of storage and movement space, lots of light and a high-quality, yet natural design. To achieve this, the double garage, which had been built as a boundary development, was to be rededicated and converted. DK Architekten from Cologne turned the former outbuilding into an individual "kitchen house" attached to the dining area, which was designed in a restrained color palette based on natural materials.

In order to optimize the lighting in the former garage, a generous floor-to-ceiling window front with flexible sliding elements was created in the outer wall facing the terrace. A wide skylight was also installed in the open space of the pitched roof, allowing plenty of daylight to flood into the room and creating an open window to the sky at the same time. The centerpiece of the approximately 40 m2 room is a solid kitchen island made of white Portuguese marble - crafted from a single piece. The two kitchen units are grouped around it, together with a concealed pantry, creating a warm contrast with oak fronts. The fluted details of the door handles set into the fronts, together with the oak slats, create a decorative relief that breaks up the surfaces and gives them a subtle rhythm. Matt lacquered fronts, fittings and built-in appliances have been kept in a dark shade to harmoniously complement the color palette of the raw natural materials. The artistic, sculpturally designed glass lamp from Italian manufacturer Bocci hovers above the arrangement as a special eye-catcher and, in combination with the skylight, creates a dynamic interplay of light and shadow. The design suggests simplicity, but surprises with sophisticated details. It is ready for the family to start cooking at any time.

www.dkarchitekten.com

Photos:

Burg + Schuh
www.palladium.de

(Published in CUBE Düsseldorf 01|22)