The Z.Island by Zaha Hadid is a concept work that shows how a futuristic kitchen island might look like. Besides the gorgeous looking design, there is actually quite powerful technology powering the whole system. It is currently for sale but will only by built on a case by case basis.

Corian®: a new form of malleable material

You will notice that the shape of the kitchen island has many curves. One the reason why this can be accomplished is due to a new material called Corian®, that is very malleable. It is tranlucent in nature and has a very smooth surface. More importantly, it allows designers to free up their imagination and create curvy designs that might not be possible in the past.

Kitchen island to be a multi media center?

Beside the futuristic material, the Z.island comes with all sorts of multi media capabilities. With a LCD screen, a mp3 player, a DVD player and 2 USB port, it can replace any computer devices for pure entertainment functions. We can imagine our wives playing recipe videos on the LCD screens while cooking their way to heavenly food. There is even a scent disperser to create the perfect aroma in the kitchen.

The touch panel screen

With the iphone, everything has to be gesture based and the Z.island is no exception. Featuring a touch panel screen, it allows the user to control not only the lighting for the kitchen but also the scent disperser. Behaving almost like a DJ music mixer, this touch panel can be used to set different moods and atmosphere for the kitchen. I wonder if there is any preset moods such as romantic, family, cosy etc that takes the pain of finding the right lighting to be used.