Architectural Influence: Naoto Fukasawa

Naoto Fukasawa is an internationally recognized industrial architect hailing from Japan, who has designed home, office and retail interiors for such companies as Matsushita Electric Works, Boffi, B&B Italia and more. His design style has even influenced top designers at Apple, Intel and HP (Bloomberg). His kitchen designs are always modern, minimalist, and extremely efficient.  Today, though we take a look at his most recent contribution to the kitchen design world: countertop appliances. Incorporating minimalist design with smooth, edges and soft textures, Naoto Fukasawa’s “no name” appliances have made a huge splash in Japan, across Europe, and recently in the US.  

Let’s take a look at his design inspiration. “When I design electronic products, I think about the distance between the wall and the human body. People use their hands with a coffee pot, so it has to be a little bit organic. It shouldn’t be just another box. When I design things, I think suitable, or appropriate. But if a product is well designed, your body will already know how to use it. The design will dissolve into the behavior,” (Interior Design). Small kitchen appliances over the last decade have been relegated first to appliance garages and more recently to oversized appliance drawers, due to their bulkiness in taking up valuable counter space and their sometimes disorderly appearance. With Fukasawa’s practically sized, organically designed line, we find ourselves asking, what if small kitchen appliances were beautiful enough you actually desired to decorate your counter with them?  

We predict more organic features, such as texture and rounded edges, will influence kitchen appliance design. It may be in the future that countertop appliances regain the worthiness of their name, and once again sit atop our kitchen counters.