Berlin – Industrial designer Dirk Biotto has created a modular kitchen worktop with flexible components to make home cooking easier for disabled and elderly people.
The ChopChop workspace is made of a wooden counter top and steel frame with adjustable tubes that allow the counter to sit at whatever height is comfortable for the cook. Considering the mobility difficulties of older people, Biotto moved traditional kitchen storage – which is normally on high shelves or in low cabinets – onto the worktop, creating perforations on the splash panelling for easy hanging of pots and pans, and a storage area on hand. The worktop also has an embedded grater – making grating a much easier task than using the awkwardly shaped grip of most commercial graters – and an extendable hose that makes filling vessels from the sink a much simpler task.
While older people no longer want to be sidelined as geriatrics, there is still a recognition that they have different physical needs. For more on how designers are making products for the elderly without patronising them, read our Flat Age Design microtrend.