11 April 2014
Three years after the disastrous tsunami, Japan appears to have changed decisively, and not just in its landscape and its balance of energy. The wave of devastation has been matched by one of solidarity, reawakening dormant human and relational depths. The new Japan is rediscovering its most fundamental and authentic values, appreciating, for example, that conviviality means not just a sharing of food, but also the exchange that goes with it. Starting out from this idea, Giulio Iacchetti has designed for the Japanese company CleanUp a kitchen that is a little big revolution, above all for the land of the Rising Sun. Convivio Kitchen is conceived as an island that is at once work surface, sink and hood, and can be converted when necessary into a table that seats ten. The inspiration came from transformers, those Japanese robots with which children of every country in the world have been playing ever since the seventies. A reference emphasized by the app control that complements the manual one. A movement of great scenic effect with an intelligent spinoff on the level of accessibility: its adjustable height makes it suitable even for people confined to a wheelchair. A feast for all, big and little, “a miracle of electronics, but with a human heart,” as the Italian version of UFO Robot Grendizer has it. The kitchen will be on display at the Spazio Urushi, Corso Garibaldi 65.
