Milan, Italy
“A kitchen must be perfect and precise, but also simple, cosy and inviting. Materials and the feel of the room are therefore becoming increasingly important. They help us to relax in the kitchen and leave our everyday lives behind us,” states Burkinabe-German architect Diébédo Francis Kéré.
Francis Kéré has designed an temporary, experimental pavilion, named “The Fireplace” in sustainable timber construction that combines his archaic and organic design language of the globally with the perfection and purist aesthetics of the next125’s premium kitchens.
For Francis Kéré, nights by the fire are part of the images of his childhood in Gando, Burkina Faso.
The architect’s sketches depict a cut-open round hut eight metres in diameter and four metres high, made from bundles of unplaned spruce trunks of different diameters and textures.
The Fireplace is organic and warm, enclosed and inviting at the same time.
It is a cleverly crafted structure composed of numerous natural spruce trunks, intricately interconnected to form a unique design that unmistakably reflects the architect’s African heritage.
Among other things, next125 uses the surface material Systemo, an innovative ceramic material with outstanding technical properties.
The cubic clarity of the kitchen, a central feature of the next125 brand, creates a maximum contrast to Kéré’s natural pavilion.
For the kitchen block to be presented in Kéré’s pavilion, Pfister’s team deliberately opted for a bronze mirror glass surface.
Mirror glass is the perfect material here – the surface visually dissolves the dimensions of the kitchen to a certain extent and allows it to merge with its surroundings.
Project: The Fireplace
Architects: Kéré Architecture GmbH
Lead Architect: Diébédo Francis Kéré
Client: next125 & Schüller Möbelwerk KG
Photographs: Courtesy of next125
