An exclusive project of strategic and conceptual innovation, conceived by the team effort of Arrital designer, Franco Driusso, and chef, Andrea Berton, to take the functionality of a professional kitchen into peoples’ homes, enriched by contemporary design.
The name is AKB_08 (Arrital Kitchen Berton_08) where the “B” indicates the partnership between the north-Italian company Arrital Cucine and chef Andrea Berton. It is the first time that a home kitchen has been designed and built according to a top chef’s needs in terms of efficiency and functionality, while never compromising on Arrital’s characteristic design, simplicity and compositional elegance. From the appliances and spatial organization, to the fittings and materials, everything has been chosen with utmost care and under the watchful eyes of the chef and designer, who have shared all of the design steps, each contributing with their own special, unique creativity.
Functionality
Multifunction “Twice” work-top
Among the innovative features of AKB_08 is the multifunction “Twice” work-top, a solution that lets users increase the work surface if necessary or, by lifting it, exploit the ergonomic stainless steel equipped space, with its essential accessories and tools for all the food-preparation steps.
Pull-out “AKB_Board” cutting-board/tray
A unique and new creation inspired by the chef’s functional needs is the pull-out “AKB_Board” cutting-board/tray. This smart system has a wood or Teflon cutting board that rests on an easy-to-clean removable steel tray that can be used to serve at the dining table. The system has spaces for a knife and spatula.
Focus on design lighting system
To ensure enough lighting to meet the chef’s needs in all the various stages, the AKB_08 has “Focus on”, the design lighting system with a sliding track that provides dynamic lighting movement above the work zone. The battery of the LED lamp can be conveniently recharged after sliding it to the runner-end, in switch-off position.
AKB Case
When space is at a premium, the “AKB Case” comes in handy as a two-level container that works also as a divider.
Design
“floating core” solution
As with all of Arrital’s kitchen systems, the prominent features are always the doors, as essential parts that characterize the style and functions of every kitchen. In this new project Franco Driusso, Creative Director and designer at Arrital, has used the frame door concept, as with the Ak_04, developing its design in a new “floating core” solution where clean lines match the structure’s robustness, creating a contemporary design that goes with the various accessories: the “AKB_Board” tray, the shelves, and the innovative “Majestic” solution of the extractor hood designed specifically for the standalone solution and coordinated with the raised-edge sink, which lends expressive strength to the washing area, and is a useful functional solution for catching water and splashes.
Sink
It is by thinking of the convenience of all who work in the kitchen that the compositions of Akb_08 have roomy shelves and work-zones, thus moving closer to the needs of professional kitchens.
AkB_08 is Arrital’s latest creation – explains Christian Dal Bo, Marketing Manager at Arrital – It fits in among the top-line products of the range and aspires to become an iconic model of evolutionary communication, creativity and ‘contamination’. The prestigious cooperation for the brand with Andrea Berton – not as testimonial but as a genuine design consultant – introduces new paradigms and meanings for those customers who want modernity, and who see the kitchen as a new expressive concept of ‘design living’ wherein they create dishes through a ‘performance’, aspiring to the feats of top chefs.
I am grateful to Arrital – adds chef Andrea Berton – for involving me in this project, which has come up with a product that squares the functionality needs of professional kitchens with domestic contexts, thus reaching out to the increasingly-felt needs of cooking enthusiasts.
After Arrital’s challenge of 2011 – “I have changed my kitchen and I don’t know how to cook” – today the company transforms kitchens into mini-theatres, where creativity is about formal and functional design, but also about flavours, excellent taste, style and elegance, by appealing to delicate, sensorial sensitivities and expressive skills.
Arrital
Founded in 1979 at Fontanafredda (Pordenone, north-east Italy) producing specialized modular kitchens, Arrital S.p.a. has become a leading manufacturer of kitchen furnishings. It entered the export market in the late ’80s and raised the brand’s profile to become synonymous with safety and reliability. Today Arrital reaches customers in 30 countries, presenting itself as a well-consolidated firm with 190 employees and a production unit of 55,000 sq.m
Superb Italian craftsmanship matched with the ability to stay ahead of market trends through significant research efforts into innovative materials and design, allows it to deliver utmost flexibility in its solutions.
The passion for quality and innovation also includes the relations Arrital has with the environment, which it is committed to safeguarding through sustainable choices by both using recyclable materials in production, and by equipping its Fontanafredda facility with a photovoltaic system that makes it almost fully self-sufficient.
Since 2012, Arrital has also been manufacturing the Altamarea brand, dedicated to bathroom furnishing. The brands of Arrital and Altamarea are currently among the very few in Italy to have received 100% Made in Italy certification from the Institute for Safeguarding Italian manufacturers, which allows the company to guarantee the Italian origin and quality of its products.
Euroluxe Interiors in Chicago is a proud distributor of Arrital for the U.S. consumer market.