Concept Kitchen 2025: A Table for Living from IDEO on Vimeo.
After spending part of Thanksgiving week in New York City, Iâve been thinking a lot about the future of food and food waste. The quote in the post below is the one that IKEA asked as part of the IKEA Concept Kitchen 2025.
IKEA basically decided to put into practice the concept of futuring and see where they end up. Itâs a bit like our Newhouse Trendspotting class but with a focused design aspect to it. Considering design consulting firm, IDEO was a partner that makes sense. IKEA and IDEO enlisted the help of some design students from the School of Industrial Design at the Ingvar Kamprad Design Centre at Lund University, and the Industrial Design department at Eindhoven University of Technology to physically envision that future.
One of the winning ideas was this living table that is a multifunctional surface. It offers everything from play to prep to plate. One of my classmates is focused on the development of the camera from something for professionals to a more automated approach that takes some of the professionalism away and lets mechanics take over. This surface (because itâs more than a table), uses a camera and exhibits some of those features albeit in a kitchen focused vein. The mechanics of this camera allow it to understand what it is âseeingâ on the table and adapt accordingly.
The Living Table truly is a prediction of whatâs possible in the next few years.









