The kitchen is the new heart of the home

On the morning of April 18th, Andrea Pauisco, R&D and Category Management Vice President of Franke Home Solutions, has been one of the protagonists of the second domusbreakfast@bocconi, the morning roundtables series dedicated to design thinking, organized by Domus at the New SANAA Campus of the Bocconi University during Milan Design Week.

Paiusco has shared the stage with Domus Editorial Director Walter Mariotti, the Director of the BA in Economics and Management for the Arts, Culture, and Communication Stefania Borghini, and the Vice President of Design Experience at Dassault Systèmes Anne Asensio. It has been precisely Asensio’s initial consideration on the recent crisis and the role of design in managing disruptions to provide Andrea Paiusco with the opportunity to reflect on how the Covid period has radically changed the way we live our homes and, in particular, our kitchens: “The pandemic crisis, with everything it has entailed, has put houses back at the center of our lives and it is in the kitchen, in particular, that we have found a renewed sense of conviviality,” the vice president has explained. “For this reason, today consumers strongly focus on three aspects: aesthetics, functionality, sustainability.”

The theme of sustainability raised by Paiusco has prompted both Asensio and Borghini. For Asensio the time of humans using nature as they like has unquestionably come to an end, while Borghini, following her market analysis, has confirmed that new generations have definitely introjected respect for the environment as a value in their shared ideals.
But how does this new vision of the world reflect in Franke’s job? Paiusco has further explained: “We are witnessing a change in consumer culture. Continuously replacing an item is not a value anymore, as it was, in fact, in the past. Consumers today look instead for something that will last over time, that will not quickly become waste to be disposed of. It is a new way of understanding consumption, which, despite being at different stages depending on the place, is basically universal, and unstoppable.” These new habits cross with the current topic of gender, as pointed out by Walter Mariotti. Even in the kitchen. And this topic was precisely the focus of Andrea Paiusco’s last consideration: “Everyone wants to be part of the food preparation process now, as it is more and more a way to express one’s personality and to explore cultures and traditions, even distant ones. In other words, cooking is not a mere and simple operation anymore, but both a personal and collective experience.” Following this new paradigm of living and inhabiting, Franke has recently undergone a deep redesigning process of its business model for the kitchen department. Paiusco has concluded: “Starting from our name, which has moved from Kitchen Systems to Home Solutions, today we want to channel the idea of kitchen as the heart of domestic life, opening and communicating towards all different parts of the home.”