When it came to renovate our kitchen, I knew that I wanted it to be urban, minimal, bright, pristine, sustainable, and laboratory-like. In short, I sought for the platonic perfection. While standing on its own as the traditional kitchen is set apart in those New York towers built in the interwar era, it was clear that the kitchen has to be an integral part of the whole, as stylish and sophisticated, as colorless and elegant, as refined and sleek as the entire home. The kitchen, to me, has to combine gastronomic adventures with design experience. Because in our family, the kitchen has a key role in bringing people together, family, friends, and colleagues, those who know good design, those who appreciate great food. With this image in mind, it was clear to me that the surface which dominates our kitchen will be nothing but the famed Pure White quartz surface by Caesarstone. The purity of this material has captured my imagination a long time ago, and thus came to be one of the two sources of inspiration in designing the kitchen; the other is the bathrooms which Mies van der Rohe, the great German modernist designed in his Seagram Building in New York (1958), rooted in his structural design principles and the pure functional utility that he formulated. The cabinet is light gray, the glass tiles in cream, and the stainless steel appliances have resulted in bending the simple and the sophisticated, in providing peaceful and calming atmosphere, like a metaphor to the type of cuisine we love to cook here, to the type of dinner party we love to host, manifesting our taste. We love our new kitchen. All photographs by @Costas Picadas.
