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Though brand new and strikingly contemporary, Cantilever Interiors‘ latest kitchen design, the Tableau Kitchen System has been four years in the making.
Cantilever director Travis Dean describes the project’s development as slow and organic. In 2014, Cantilever collaborated with Melbourne architecture firm Design Office on the Kalex Townhouse project ‘Park and Raphael’, where a specific spatial configuration required innovative solutions for the kitchen design. Travis describes being inspired by Design Office’s conceptual strength of ‘relating function and form to spatial dynamics’, and the emphasis on user experience.
As a result of this project, Travis and his team invited Design Office to collaborate further, using the ‘Park and Raphael’ project as a platform for the development of what has become Tableau, Cantilever’s brand new kitchen system. The collaboration plays to the strengths of each firm, with Design Office taking the lead on the conceptual and aesthetic elements, and Cantilever applying their expertise in material development, prototyping and practical application of the design.
With its soft lines and tactile forms, the Tableau has a sculptural quality, and a distinct lack of ‘chunkiness’ (we love that!), amplified by an intense attention to detail. Travis particularly highlights the unique handles used in Tableau, which was the result of six distinct designs and twelve iterations of the prototype! (These guys really do not do anything by halves!).
Part of the cleverness of the design, too, is in its flexibility, as the system is comprised of Bench, Block, Shelf and Store functions, to ensure adaptability according to space and individual needs.
For Travis, the strength of Melbourne’s manufacturing industries provides an ideal environment for this type of experimental prototyping. ‘Melbourne’s diverse cultural heritage, inherent creative and trade cultures and “isolation” has fostered grass-roots business to get established, and generational companies to emerge,’ he tells. We couldn’t agree more!
Tableau is currently available. For more information visit Cantileverinteriors.com.
