In parallel with the Milan Design Week, the Ikea Temporary Store has opened in Milan, one of the thousand large and small, important and less important events, fruit of the creativity and design that have inaugurated de facto the six-months of Expo in Milan.

And it is precisely the temporary store of Ikea, which will remain open until the end of September (only Scandinavian presence in the Expo period), that contains Kitchen Lab,  the result of several years of work on the intelligent use of the kitchen, carried out in collaboration with students from the Eindhoven University of Technology and the Ingvar Kamprad Design Center of the University of Lund, with the coordination of the London-based incubator Ideo.

Here, reflections on the kitchen of 2025 are proposed, involving the entire eating chain, because it contemplates passive and induction refrigeration systems (i.e. without the refrigerator), household waste compactors, a composter that produces dried compost tablets while the liquid extracted, full of nutrients, is used to water the house plants and a seed incubator. And, above all, a table that contains an induction hob hidden inside on which to cook directly. Through a food recognition system with cameras and projectors positioned on the ceiling, usage suggestions and recipes are projected on the table.

But the Temporary Store contemplates many other proposals, always linked to the kitchen and food: the restaurant (Food Lab) with the famous Swedish meatballs, also in vegetarian and chicken version, the study of a kitchen for children by Matali Crasset, the kitchen space designed by Paola Navone, new models and new products, all characterised by the idea of sustainability, like the cork table and stools. Obviously it’s a real store where you can buy or design your own kitchen.

“There are four reasons behind the opening of this space”, explains the Director of External Relations of Ikea Italia, Valerio Di Bussolo, to inStore. “The opportunity to present the work carried out in recent years on food and the kitchen in line with Expo is the first. The second reason is the search for city formulas for stores. We have a 35,000 square metre city store in Hamburg, in the shower area, and we have just opened a pick-up store in Pamplona. In short, we are trying to identify the different formulas most suited to the type of urban fabric chosen. Here in Milan, for example, it would be difficult to open a large area (even if it is not a problem of location, considering that there are so many barracks), essentially due to the traffic and environmental sustainability.

The third reason is the focus on food and the kitchen, not only as a product, but also in terms of planning and design (hence the projects Navone and Crasset), because we have always been accused of proposing a conformist and standardised offer. Finally, a marketing presence, to intercept that part of potential customers who still do not visit our stores”.