Home Kitchen

The evolution of kitchen appliances in an ageless environment

The “new” retirement would wisely be called “non-retirement,” an involved, active, decades-long life extension. The home will be the headquarters during this exciting stage of life, and the kitchen will be the command center. From non-traditional home styles to universal designs, the kitchen will be the first truly age-free space.

kitchen centered housing

Retirement age is steadily falling and even people in their twenties and thirties are anxiously contemplating their passage into the phase of life that used to mean the end of everything that mattered. Not so in the 21st century; Retirement can bring new freedoms, lucrative ventures, broader horizons, personal fulfillment, and global connections, all while sitting at the kitchen table and enjoying your morning coffee. Kitchens will continue to appear in all shapes, sizes and price ranges. They will always be loved as much for their flaws as for their charm and convenience. Housing styles and development patterns that isolate residents and create urban sprawl will be replaced with designs and plans that are environmentally sound and people friendly. One trend will shift couples and single homeowners toward compact, eco-friendly new homes and away from energy-hungry monster homes. These scaled-down residences will not only be smaller, but smarter. For example, some homeowners may concentrate food production in the kitchen through hydroponic or soilless cultivation in glassed-in expanses that also serve as dining rooms. Kitchen-centric multi-unit dwellings will become more common with home-like variations including:

  • clustered houses built around central patios that function as common areas for outdoor dining and vegetable gardens,
  • cohousing communities that integrate separate family units with common recreation and eating areas to strengthen community connections, and
  • Mixed-style high-rise units with private living rooms that radiate from central kitchens and living areas to offer affordable yet elegant living styles.

Our first age-free environments

Too often, thoughts about the future focus on how technology will change our lives, ignoring one important fact: We are going to change too. All aspects of life will be affected as the demographic revolution represented by nearly 10 million Baby Boomers moves through life. Kitchens will be our first age-free spaces as they transform into multi-use, multi-generational work and entertainment spaces where safety and functionality are paramount for all sizes, shapes and abilities of users. Children and grandchildren, parents and grandparents, people without disabilities and people with disabilities should feel comfortable socializing, cooking and eating at these activity centers. Age-Free environments have flexibility by design. Universal Design, an emerging concept that will soon become commonplace, emphasizes the removal of all barriers to functionality and enjoyment for all. These Age-Free features range from wide aisles, lever door handles and height-adjustable countertops to ergonomic design with visual cues applied to everything from control knobs to furniture. All of which furnish a kitchen that allows the joy of cooking to be the focal point.

Voice-activated home appliances with robotic capabilities for repetitive tasks like cleaning and equipment maintenance will be among future innovations that save time, effort and money. Comfort will be ensured by advances in products and materials embedded in computer chips, like chameleon-like surfaces on the walls that change color on demand to suit mood and weather, and heated floors that recognize the walker and they automatically adjust the room temperature to suit that person’s pre-programmed preferences.

Room for improvement

Homeowners and renters will continue to strive to strike a personal balance between affordability and luxury in their homes. Not all families or communities will have access to the same levels of technology and design sophistication; there will still be room for improvement. Here are some enhancements that may be available to you:

  • Grocery shopping will go from a time-consuming physical task to an automated electronic task. Appliances that continuously monitor freshness and inventory levels will automatically place orders with grocery stores and food distributors to ensure you never run out.
  • Bulk ordering and cooperative purchasing arrangements for food and other goods will lower costs and support essential local infrastructure within subdivisions, condominium complexes, and neighborhoods.
  • Systems and equipment will have backup capacity to protect food during power outages and failures. Some kitchens may be designed to function as a safe, independent living environment in times of natural disasters, pandemics, or municipal service outages.
  • Your refrigerator, through its wireless connection to the health monitor you’ll be using, can keep track of calories, salt, or other health issues for you and make suggestions or issue warnings when you open the door. Particularly outside of urban areas, online medical services will strengthen the connection between nutrition and wellness by using the kitchen as a hub of health. No aspect of home and living will see as many changes as the multi-purpose kitchen in the coming decades. Since the origins of the word “kitchen” relate only to cooking, these evolving spaces may eventually even earn a new name.