New American Contemporary

Simplicity and elegance are key elements to New American Contemporary design, which takes its cues from a wide range of international influences.

For that reason, the study of 21st-Century international Contemporary design would be incomplete without considering the elegant rooms created by English and Italian designers, who are reinterpreting the pared-down, sleek look long associated with the word "Contemporary."

While many designers rush to over-complicate kitchen spaces in a misdirected effort to define the essence of beauty, students of interior architecture have long appreciated the classic appeal of sumptuously simple spaces.

In the 1970s and 1980s, German and Italian manufacturers introduced this styling to the American public, typically specified with crisp, hard-edged materials. For example, gloss acrylics and polyesters as well as vibrantly colored cabinet fronts were the norm. These spartan Contemporary interiors emphasized shape and form first, rejecting unnecessary detailing. A key element then, and now, is the importance of lighting (both natural and artificial) to define the architectural elements of the space and capture the visual intersection of the various planes created within the room.

Today, this styling continues to make an important contribution to kitchen design. While great designers work throughout the globe with both domestic and international manufacturers creating products suited to these rooms this article will focus on the Euro-Cucina Show held last spring in Milan, Italy, as well as the impact of London Minimalism on these powerfully unified, innovative compositions.

ITALIAN STYLE
Designers have asked me, "Why is Italy such an important part of the international design community?" Our appreciation of Italian design was summed up in Interior Designers Magazine's April 2002 issue, which said, "Italian design is sleek, innovative, meticulously crafted and beautifully realized. The practical is beautiful, and the beautiful superbly functional.

"From the first decades of the 20th Century, Italian design was prominent in furnishings and craftsmanship... Italy's post-war reconstruction, with its economic and political renewal, was reflected in the home, as well as in the public sphere. In the '40s, Milan was Italy's showcase, presenting influential exhibitions that exemplified the ideal of practical, flexible and efficient interior design.

"By the '50s, Italian design was recognized internationally for its innovation and quality. Playful plastics and the exuberance of experimentation with revolutionary forms and colors mark the designs of the '60s. It epitomized what was modern and what was called Modernist. With abstract forms, new materials and flawless surfaces, it was an elegant style.

"In the next decade, reacting to economic and social change, designers responded to the times with what was known in Italy as anti-design in North America called Post-Modernism. There was a great emphasis on the quirky and the handsome, odd scale and juxtapositions of form, assertive color and width. Today, colorful and innovative works are international in inspiration, but essentially Italian in artistry."

At last year's Euro-Cucina Show a sense of global design continuity was evident as the Italian-styled designs echoed the long, low horizontal forms seen in Asian-inspired design. New products abounded throughout the exhibit, with a special product launch introduced by the Italian cabinet manufacturer, Snaidero.

In addition to these specific kitchen products, exciting ideas seen on the show floor in Milan included the following: