About a year ago I went to an Ikea-sponsored panel discussion on the future of the kitchen in an age of dwindling resources. Fuelled by free booze and an open invite to the public, the event descended into glorious chaos as the hoi-palloi (not, to my shame, us journalists) loudly took issue with the ‘less is fun’ posturings of the very privileged designers and pundits on the panel. An honorable mention should go to Babs Chandler for crying dramatically “One could drown in a sea of self-responsibility!” in response to self-righteous TV architect’s assertion that we should all be investing in £20,000 bio-fuel boilers.

What infuriated me was well-to-do designers talking about design-led solutions, but not having any to suggest. So I was interested to read a piece in The G about this experimental kitchen concept by Philips. It’s a kitchen in which the central component is a bio-digester kitchen island. Is this sort of thing the future? I don’t know, but I like the idea of low-tech solutions. Recent design-graduate Christoph Thetard has created this hand-powered coffee grinder, food processor and blender.

And look at this! An electricity-free fridge on Toot As In Foot’s house boat. See here for her simple explanation of how it works.

For a more fulsome piece about how all this might be altering the dominant kitchen design aesthetic of the last 20 years for something a bit more homespun, check out The Guardian, here.