One of the most profound transformations in the conception of domestic space has unfolded through the kitchen. What was once a service area has evolved into an experiential core, an environment that participates fully in the life of the home, shaped by active relationships with oneself and with others. This shift can be traced back to paradigmatic moments in modern architecture: the kitchen conceived by Charlotte Perriand for the Unité d’Habitation by Le Corbusier in Marseille, where the absence of partitions allowed conversation to flow between those cooking and those at the table; or the spatial continuity of the Case Study Houses in Los Angeles, including the home of Charles and Ray Eames, where kitchen and dining area merge into a seamless interior landscape that opens onto the surrounding garden.

A transformation of this magnitude has also reshaped the philosophy of the kitchen within Japanese culture. Once relegated to the colder, more secluded northern rooms, the kitchen has gradually migrated to the living heart of the home, acquiring a new warmth, both literal and symbolic. It has come to embody the very idea of an “anima”, a soul, a living essence that Meisdel places at the centre of its vision of “new luxury.” This vision finds its most accomplished expression in Anima 01, debuting at the Milan Design Week 2026 within the Tortona Design District.

A Japanese leading brand specializing in bespoke kitchens, Meisdel seeks to integrate those experiential values that a century architecture articulated through space with the fundamental dimensions of perception and the craftsmanship rooted in the spirit of place. Its notion of new luxury is “borderless, spiritual and customized”: it dissolves distinctions between professional and domestic use, reframes cooking as an emotional process, and conceives the kitchen as a made-to-measure environment tailored to the individual.

This vision is embodied in the work of Ito Chiharu, head of design at Meisdel: “In designing Anima 01,” she explains, “I moved beyond the pursuit of balance, proportion, and technical perfection to give form to a spiritual dimension. Within this kitchen coexist tension and silence, strength and introspection. The visible – material, structure, precision – and the invisible – spirituality, vital energy, an enduring soul – advance together.”

Anima 01 is conceived as a single sheet of stainless steel, articulated through a choreography of curves, straight lines, openings, closures, and shadows. The result is an expressive object, reminiscent of a grand piano, that asserts its autonomy from conventional kitchen typologies. Its character is further defined by the dialogue between steel and different materials – wood, quartz, ceramic – layering tactile and visual depth.
The kitchen envisioned and realised in Anima 01 is, in essence, a chef’s kitchen: a space that can host a professional preparing a signature dish, or invite its inhabitants to step into that role themselves, supported by an environment that enables both performance and pleasure.

Here, Meisdel’s “new luxury” takes on a tangible, operative form. The design is discreet, functional, articulated through a timeless language grounded in the poetics of detail and the processes behind its making. This ethos is deeply rooted in Japanese material culture and embedded in the brand’s very name – combining Meister, master craftsman, and Edelstahl, stainless steel – as well as in the 80-year heritage of the Tanico group to which it belongs.
While being the first in its sector to purchase steel coils directly, Meisdel has integrated a high level of artisanal expertise into its production processes. This results not only in superior material thickness – 1.5 mm, double the standard – but, more importantly, in a philosophy whereby each individual sheet of steel is conceived and crafted as a finished piece. This principle becomes crucial in the design of over one hundred steel components that come together in products such as Anima 01.

Ultimately, it is in the primacy of detail, in its decisive role, that Meisdel’s concept of new luxury fully emerges. A principle that has long underpinned the brand’s work, it gives rise to a borderless domestic ecosystem, where the home itself defines the parameters of luxury, integrating the durability, hygiene, and high performance of professional-grade solutions into everyday living.