ABSTRACT

Contemporary kitchen is an indispensable part of every household. As a result of technical progress, the domestic kitchen has evolved into the most important functional area in the apartment. The diversity of solutions and models of contemporary domestic kitchen gives unlimited possibilities of designing. However, what features should the kitchen have in order to fulfill the expectations of the more and more demanding users? The answer to that question is:

the friendly kitchen – adapted to individual needs of a diverse group of users; people of special needs, mentally and physically fit and disabled;

the intelligent kitchen – thanks to devices equipped with information and response systems, which are able to choose and take up previously programmed functions and intelligent reactions in specific cases. Thanks to the so called “intelligent” system, efficient managing of the entire household and controlling the individual devices efficiency is possible;

the ecological kitchen – equipped with devices saving water, electricity etc., designed with care of the natural environment and the users’ “pockets”;

the safe kitchen – designed in such way to limit and eliminate accidents and health hazard by applying “safe in use” devices, equipped with all kind of security systems, with ergonomic, easy to use shapes and control panels, with care for the safety of the youngest users and those with special needs (disabled and advanced in years);

the open kitchen – most frequently connected with the living room area, creating one shared multifunctional area, or partly connected with the living room by 4an opening in the wall. “The openness” of the kitchen makes it possible to introduce interesting, trendy and well designed appliances and accessories on the market, which are willingly exposed by users.

Characteristic features of the above mentioned kitchen types fulfill the ergonomic guidelines of designing the functional area. It is possible to apply a particular type of kitchen as separate solution, however, only grouping together the distinctive features of friendly, intelligent, ecological, safe and open kitchen, makes the formation of the most desirable kitchen possible – the kitchen adapted to users’ expectations and complied with the ergonomic designing criteria.