Green Design Girl

Valcucine: Hability Kitchen

Given my Summer hiatus, it’s been a while since I’ve written about my fierce love for Valcucine, the hot Italian pioneers of modern eco kitchen design. They’re one of my favourite kitchen manufacturers and definitely satisfy my need for what I like to call “kitchen porn.” You think I’m exaggerating? Seriously. If you’re a design fetishist and have a special place in your modern heart for cutting edge kitchens, you could literally spend hours drooling over the eco beauties on the Valcucine site.

Furthering my love for their clean designs is the fact that they rank highly on all eco fronts, from production to post consumer use. Most of their pieces are designed with end of life recycling in mind. They’ve even been known to encourage the return of some models when customers are ready to make a switch, just so Valcucine can recycle the units themselves. You can read more about their eco philosophy and practices here or in my first Valcucine post here.

This time Valcucine’s sleek Hability Kitchen has caught my eye, a brilliantly designed space that is universally accessible and created with the wheelchair user in mind. As with the kitchen featured in the canühome exhibit at this year’s Green Living Show in Toronto, I am doubly excited when both eco responsibility and universal access are the priorities. Triple if it’s beautifully done — and this is definitely the case with Hability.

Of course, this smart kitchen can be used by anyone, but Valcucine’s site explains that Hability “provides freedom and ease to the differently-abled cook” and that the winning secret is “Easy Food, a work top cast in a single stainless steel die that allows the wheelchair user to wash, drain, chop and cook at one east-to-clean workstation.”

The clever work top is equipped with removable dish drainers and transportable sinks, along with a self-cleaning system that conveys water to the service sink. This thoughtfully allows the cook to have both hands free to fully enjoy cooking. Valcucine touts Hability as not only sustainable and universally accessible, but also “ergonomically accurate.” 

So are ya hooked yet? Uh huh. I knew you would be.