Cylindrical hood’s design takes cues from lighting
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Electrolux creates a light with a hood ,instead of a hood with a light
Most people think of a kitchen hood’s primary function as taking grease and fumes out of the air and then possibly to illuminate the workspace and then to light the kitchen. But Electrolux has turned that thinking upside down with hood designed like a hanging lamp.
The result is bold, innovative and based on studying consumers’ needs and rooted in the company’s Scandinavian heritage. “Our goal is to be a ‘Thoughtful Design Innovator,’ meaning that all our innovations and designs are about meeting customers’ desires for better quality of life with products that have strong emotional designs and are more efficient,” says Thomas Johansson, Design Director for Electrolux Major Appliances Europe.
Launched at Eurocucina and available exclusively in Europe, the design for the innovative hood is based on studies of how people use their hoods in today’s kitchens. “Society is changing constantly and we are always trying to see new needs,” Johansson adds. “We spend a lot of time observing people to see how they use their everyday appliances.”
Because the lights in a hood are often the most important ones for illuminating the kitchen while socialising or during a meal, designer Eva Holzgreve and the design team at the Electrolux Design Center in Porcia, Italy, decided to draw the hood’s cylindrical shape from the design language of lighting.
Holzgreve says that she was also inspired by a lampshade given to her by a friend many years ago. “It comes from her parents’ bakery and café,” she explains. “Wherever I’ve lived I adapted it to my surrounding. It is a work in progress.”
With that as the emotional starting point, Holzgreve went about designing the hood in harmony with the simple, Scandinavian elements of the Electrolux Bright kitchen. “It’s nice to work with the language and elements of Bright,” she says. “It is a very straight, very clear language .”
The horizontal light bars of the appliances, for example, are present, but turned vertically. The finishes, stainless steel, white and black, match the doors of the appliances.
Of course, it also performs well, as one would expect from a premium hood. With a three-speed fan, it’s capable of filtering 560 cubic meters of air per hour.
Photos at Flickr
