What if you could install a kitchen that is easy to renew and lasts a lifetime? The Circular Kitchen applies a plug-and-play concept, separating the kitchen into parts based on expected technical and cultural lifespan. To illustrate: after 20 years, instead of buying a whole new kitchen, you can simply replace outdated modules or parts that require functional replacement.
These replaced modules are collected, reused or recycled. This saves raw materials, reduces waste streams and halves the CO2 emissions generated per kitchen. The first prototypes of the Circular Kitchen are currently being tested in houses.
Prototype 2 of the circular kitchen
Pioneering circular transition
Together with Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), we're conducting research to limit the construction industry’s major contribution to emissions, resource use and waste production. Kitchens are replaced more frequently in comparison to other components such as roofs and facades, because a kitchen’s functional lifespan - how long it meets the user's (aesthetic) requirements - and technical lifespan - how long it functions as intended - are generally much shorter. As kitchens are replaced relatively often, the Circular Kitchen is an ideal pioneer in the transition to a circular built environment.
Together with industry
Scientists, builders and the market have joined forces to develop a circular kitchen. The Circular Kitchen is the result of a collaboration between TU Delft, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS Institute), kitchen manufacturer Bribus, Atag, Dirkzwager Groep and various housing associations.
When will the kitchens come on the market?
Currently a second generation of prototypes is being developed. These prototypes will be tested by residents in the houses of the project partners. In a follow-up phase, the design of the kitchens will be refined. Once the research project is completed in 2022, steps will be taken by the kitchen manufacturer to bring the Circular Kitchen on the market.
Website Circular Kitchen
To present the research project, the Circular Kitchen website has been launched. On this website you can find out exactly what a circular kitchen is, what makes the kitchen unique and why the research is relevant. There is also room for input and opinions can be retrieved via a survey.
Curious what the kitchen looks like? go to: www.tudelft.nl/en/thecircularkitchen/