About islands, cities, plazas, and endless little worlds...

From the successful partnership between designer Nevio Tellatin and architect Anita Brotto, comes the brand-new Tai_O by Key Cucine, created as a concept of space, as evolution, layout and synthesis.
Tai O, which literally means “large bay”, is a city of fishermen, situated in part on an island on the western side of Hong Kong. The name refers to the mouth of the water courses that come together and merge as they move through Tai O.

Like the city from which it takes its name, the new kitchen by Key Cucine, develops out of an island, around which all the other units gravitate. Tai_O is an invitation to observe, a continuous discovery, where lines and shapes work together to create a rational, balanced space, capable of surprising you with every detail revealed to your gaze. The island, enclosed and protected by wooden modules that, serving a practical, functional purpose, create a delicate aesthetic effect that adds its movement to the whole layout - an L shape that separates and distances the living area from the work area (kitchen). All around is a plaza bordered by fitted tall units and wall panelling, in elegant combinations to frame a superbly refined setting. This plaza is accessed from decentralised corners that offer new and always different perspectives.

The central L-shaped unit consists of two new wooden elements facing outwards: an architectural counter that looks like a display case, a cornice that can be customised, and a system of suspended doors that conceal another storage space and lighting on the other side, conceived to optimise work in the kitchen. Both of these elements are made in millennium fossil oak, with its special dark colour that comes from the oxidation of the wood. On the opposite side, it encloses (or even reveals, from the inside), the cooker element in bronzed pewter and Clauzetto marble, a special limestone with pale grey base colour and characteristic fossil pattern. The mastery of Key Cucine is revealed, as well as in the choice of unique, precious materials, including in the detailed workmanship: the joints in the marble between the top and door fronts, finely worked and almost invisible, the marble sink recessed into the top, the doors on the fitted tall units and the wall panelling, ribbed in solid wood.

A vital source, overall, is the architectural element, the island, which is based on a very important urban concept. “From the Spoon to the City”, an expression coined by Ernesto Nathan Rogers in 1952, which can be summed up as the way in which urban planning should start, from the more intimate dimensions of everyday living, to gradually expand through to influencing the city as a whole. From large to small scale, Tai_O is like a little city, moving around its centre.

“In Tai_O, as well as the practicality and utility of the single element, a lot of attention has gone to the influence this element has on the surrounding room, and the overall experience of the kitchen in everyday life, through to also defining a part of the living area. While the operating module has been designed down to the tiniest detail to meet the practical and aesthetic needs of the user at an individual level (‘spoon’), the broader setting of the kitchen has also been considered, a home space in its entirety (the ‘city’)” - say Nevio and Anita, now part of a consolidated team with Key Cucine, thanks to the excellent relationship, exchange of ideas and shared vision with the company.

Tai_O is therefore about an island, a city, a plaza, and a whole world encompassed in a kitchen... or even in a spoon.