2000 RISD's Universal Kitchen Project
At its annual conference in New Orleans, Louisianna, IDSA honored Rhode Island School of Design's project for, "tackling the challenge of re-creating the kitchen to accommodate all people. In an unprecedented partnership between academia and industry, more than 100 RISD design students challenged the 50-year old assumptions about how kitchens are used. The team conceived of its Universal Kitchen as a "kit of parts," with interchangeable, modular components for refrigeration, cooking, water delivery and storage.

Because human needs are so different at various stages of life, the team designed three versions of the kitchen, which range from a small basic model to the deluxe, luxury edition. Flexible, adjustable, accessible and attractive, the rights to these concepts were recently licensed by Maytag Corporation."

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