The kitchen as living space: BULTHAUP

For 70 years, BULTHAUP has been developing kitchens designed for people – and creating living spaces where they can get together and communicate.

By bulthaup for

bulthaup

February 11, 2019 | 11:00 pm CUT

A passion for detail: bulthaup’s kitchens and living space systems are designed to enrich people’s lives

In the world of kitchens, bulthaup is regarded as one of the industry’s pioneers. Driven by a dream and plenty of passion, Martin Bulthaup launched the family-run company that bears his name in 1949. Today his grandson Marc O. Eckert is the strong hand that guides the kitchen trendsetter’s fortunes. Martin Bulthaup’s dream of creating “the best kitchens in the world” lives on in Eckert.

Handcrafted: people are capable of creating things that not even the very best technology can produce (top); Marc O. Eckert (above)

To this very day, bulthaup continues to stand for quality and the use of authentic materials. “People are touched by what they touch,” says Eckert. “If you stroke the surface of a table or worktop, you understand that the human hand can produce a special kind of perfection that no machine can achieve.” The people who work at bulthaup have a special connection to materials and quality, to the authentic and the simple. “We don’t do things because they’re easy but because they’re right. We love what we do and we love our products,” says Marc O. Eckert of the company DNA handed down to him by his grandfather. “We have to acknowledge the slow side of life, the quiet but deep side of things – the human aspect.”

bulthaup b1: intelligent minimisation can simplify and improve many things in life

This focus on what really matters is exemplified by the bulthaup b1 kitchen line. Intelligent minimisation can simplify and improve many things in life – that’s the underlying principle behind the purist, ergonomic design of the b1 collection. It’s also apparent in the deliberate use of just a few authentic materials and carefully selected colours. The linear forms are echoed inside the furnishings as well, adding up to an organic overall effect that allows people to concentrate on the important things in life: family and friends, communicating and enjoying themselves.

Precious moments: the table is both the epicentre of domestic life and the centrepiece of the bulthaup b Solitaire collection (top): Breadboard: sophisticated craftsmanship featuring traditional finger joints (above)

But for Marc O. Eckert, there’s more to respecting tradition and heritage than preserving values; he believes it calls for constant evolution so as to be equipped to face the challenges of the future: “Today the focus is no longer on the cook and their kitchen as a product. The kitchen is a communicative, individual part of the home – the kitchen is living space. Moments when everything is just right are what people are looking for – now and in the future. At moments like that, people are totally in touch with themselves. At bulthaup, we create places where time spent with friends at the kitchen table is cherished and appreciated. And if in future we combine an appreciation of food, of cooking as a communicative element, of the all-important issue of health and the absolute essence for life – quality, not quantity – we’ll have all the ingredients we need: the perfect recipe for creating the kitchen of the future.”