Technology and design for complex ecosystems at the Salone del Mobile.Milano 2024

Text by

Elica - Ph. Diego Ravier

When it meets technology, design creates unique systems and products capable of improving and simplifying everyday life. The 62nd edition of the Salone del Mobile.Milano, as in a photograph, presents a synthesis of the state of the art of collaboration between technology and design that looks at smart objects, artificial intelligence and innovative systems

It connects, simplifies, collects and exchanges data, managing it for us and with us. This is the technology that this year is featured in the Salone del Mobile.Milano 2024 in EuroCucina / FTK, Technology For the Kitchen. In the kitchen, technology meets design to create pure innovation capable of simplifying, improving, and innovating, not only the preparation of food but also the room itself, which can be experienced as a place of pleasure rather than a service space. Integration of technology marks the turning point, and design acts as a mediator. Because, after all, this is what designers have been doing for almost 200 years, ever since the first industrial revolution. They look and try to understand technology, to domesticate it and transform it into innovation, to return it to the world in practical and exciting forms and ways. In the kitchen and especially home appliances, design manages to give its best by designing technology. It does so by adding functionality where it did not exist.

The innovations presented at this 62nd edition of the Salone del Mobile.Milano follow two main directions. The theme of AI is central, being present in the products and stands at the event, combined with the connections between household appliances, which are becoming increasingly intelligent, together with the theme of technology used to simplify and improve work and our lives.

Artificial Intelligence and smart objects

In the recent past, objects were only connected; today, in addition to this, they are getting smarter. We are only at the beginning of what we will be able to discover in the coming years, when the development of artificial intelligence reaches such high levels as to substantially change our habits. Today, we see a learning phase; companies use machine learning algorithms to collect data from the habits of those who use systems in which artificial intelligence is present.

In its large stand at EuroCucina / FTK, Technology For the Kitchen, Samsung presents an entire ecosystem of today's intelligent and connected devices through its secure Knox platform. On this base, it has created the Bespoke AI system, a series of appliances, including ovens, washing machines, refrigerators and dishwashers, capable of understanding our habits and helping in the kitchen and with housework. This series includes the new Bespoke Dual Cook steam series 7, an oven equipped with a camera and an artificial intelligence algorithm capable of recognizing the dishes inserted and recommending cooking times and methods. Then the oven also comes equipped with internal sensors connected to the web. It can send notifications to the user in the event of problems or changes in the preparation of the dishes. The Family Hub Plus refrigerator is equally intelligent, capable of understanding its users’ opening and closing habits and setting energy-saving programs. And, being equipped with a camera, it records incoming and outgoing food, reporting expiry dates and recipes for food consumption. To the same line belongs the Anyplace AI cooktop, which has a seamless surface capable of continuing to cook dishes wherever a pan is located on its surface. It is also equipped with a tablet screen, so that you can control the cooking in the oven, watch a TV series, read recipes and listen to music from its speakers.

Tubes Radiatori also speaks through AI. In its stand designed by the Palomba-Serafini studio, it installed a video work created by Alessandro Gomiero, who used AI algorithms to make it. The work merges technology and design from the world of Tube radiators, playing with forms and creativity.

salonemilano, haier — Haier - Ph. Diego Ravier

salonemilano, bora — Bora - Ph. Diego Ravier

salonemilano, tubes radiatori — Tubes Radiatori - Ph. Alessandro Russotti

salonemilano, LG — LG - Ph. Diego Ravier

salonemilano, caimi — Caimi Brevetti - Ph. Andrea Mariani

salonemilano, whirlpool — Whirlpool - Ph. Diego Ravier

salonemilano, nobilirubinetterie — Nobili Rubinetterie - Ph. Alessandro Russotti

Technology that simplifies

Technological development is here for a purpose, clearly to simplify our work and our lives. So here's how companies and designers exploit it for this purpose.

For this edition of EuroCucina/FTK, Miele brings the best of its offering to a 900 m2 space and presents a series of new features. One is Laundry Aerium, an innovative walk-in closet that sanitizes and removes odours from clothing.

Whirlpool uses sensors and inserts the Food Sensing Probe in its new WCollection oven. This is a probe capable of monitoring the cooking of food, mixes and liquid bases such as those of a cake or lasagna, and solid foods such as meat, fish and much else.

LG Electronics leverages personalization mediated by technology, this year presenting LG InstaView with MoodUP, a refrigerator that can change colour. The refrigerator door has a large screen that can changed its color through the LG ThinQ app. And if that's not enough, the refrigerator can change its mood to suit the rhythm of the music playing from its built-in speakers. Just knock on the door, without opening the fridge, and the InstaView technology uses a built-in camera to show you what's inside. No more wasted energy.

Haier presents its ovens with Bionicook technology, equipped with a camera that recognizes foods, advises on recipes, and enables you to remotely control cooking with the hOn app.

Bora takes its integrated extraction system cooktops to an extreme with M Pure, a hob equipped with a “bridge” function that enables you to enlarge the cooking surface for outsize pots and pans.

Elica focuses on the miniaturization of technology to present Lhov, an appliance that contains a hob, oven and extractor hood. A unique combination in the market that clarifies the company’s new positioning.

The latest product from Caimi Brevetti, the Oversized lux panel equipped with air purification technology, speaks of technology in the service of well-being. In keeping with the company's tradition, a sound-absorbing panel is fitted with an LED light source, allowing the dissipated heat to create an ascending air flow that passes through an anodized silver ion filter. Integrated technology in the service of people’s well-being.

It is not just digital technology that Nobili Rubinetterie adds to its new Sorgente tap. A kitchen mixer in four different alternatives: Filtra, Bolle, Frizza and Frizza & Bolle. The first version of Sorgente filters the water, the second automatically heats it to 90° with a saving of time and energy. As if this were not enough, Frizza enables you to obtain sparkling water directly from the mixer, and thanks to the built-in app you can choose the desired degree of carbon dioxide and keep the components under control.