Sustainable architecture and kitchen design

Valcucine is presenting “Ecosophìa” during the Milan Design Week 2023. Eco as in eco-sustainable, Sophìa as in knowledge.

A reflection on how Valcucine imagines the present and the future of architecture and kitchen design in relation with the sustainability and innovation values that have always been an integral part of its corporate identity.

Timber architecture, vertical forests, passive homes, LEED-certified buildings, houses that merge with nature, redeveloped historical spaces. The outcome of an in-house lab, “Ecosophìa” is a new portfolio of kitchens, installed in sustainable and innovative homes; not in “impossible architectures” but in contexts that represent the new frontiers of contemporary architecture and are an ongoing source of inspiration to face current problems such as the climate and energy crises. They are inspiration for a better future.

For more than forty years now, Valcucine has been looking for a responsible development model capable of giving rise to the creation of projects, intuitions and solutions which - with a view to ongoing improvement while respecting man and the environment– have revolutionised kitchen conventions, to the extent of becoming truly groundbreaking.

Inside the Valcucine Milano Brera showroom in C.so Garibaldi 99 in the Brera district of Milan, during the Fuorisalone 2023 event the company will be presenting its new kitchen layouts – its characteristic “Special Elements” – which have become the distinctive trait and symbol of ongoing innovation with their “magical doors”, paired with new materials and wooden finishes designed to lend a warm feel to the typical, hi-tech design.

Together with the results of the company’s in-house collaborations, Valcucine also presents the results of externals labs including significant bodies connected to the design world, such as the Domus Academy International Design School and ISIA.  

Students of Domus Academy’s Master in Interior & Living Design have imagined new living scenarios and new retailer showroom systems, in addition to showrooms in line with Valcucine’s innovation and sustainability values. On the other hand, students attending the Design Course in the Pordenone branch of the Roman ISIA (in collaboration with MUVE, Foundation of Civic Museums in Venice, and the Graphic Design and Communications students of the Abate Zanette Technical and Technological Institute) have imagined new ways of customising the drawer of the Genius Loci collection, inspired by the glass manufacturing tradition of Murano. Thus, Genius Loci confirms itself as a means of enhancing the type of craftsmanship Italian culture was – and continues to be – famous for by wisely managing values, techniques and aesthetics.