Rethinking Kitchen:
Open Source cooking system

A minimalist kitchen setup with open shelving and storage. The kitchen includes a small oven, a sink, a pot with a plant, and various kitchenware and utensils organized on the shelves and around the space.

Year: 2025
Supervision: Prof. Gerrit Babtist
Focus: open Source | repairabilty | individualisation | system
Designers: David Leucht, Leopold Slenczka

Kitchen is dead.
We have Killed it.

A minimalist kitchen with wooden frame shelving, a small stove with oven, a sink, and various kitchen utensils, dishes, and a potted plant, all set against a plain white background.

Contemporary kitchen design is intended for the few. Show kitchens are becoming standard, marble counters are as important as new rims on a sports car.

Design work flows into expensive kitchens, while research and design only work for one class. The ‘kitchen’ is degenerating from a place of life to a place of representation and exclusion.

What is behind this? What is missing? What do we really want, what do we need? What must design achieve?

The concept on display is intended to stimulate reflection and discussion.

Sketch of a kitchen counter and cabinets, including a stove with four burners, a sink with a faucet, and open shelving above the counter.

From Sketch…

Corner of a wooden table secured with metal clamps, showing a close-up view of the joints and hardware.

…To Construction

The smart construction only consists of parts available at the hardware store. It’s easily and quickly assembled, producable only with a table saw.

A wooden frame structure built with light wood, featuring a platform at the middle and surrounded by horizontal wooden slats, appears to be a work in progress set up in an indoor space.

Kitchen is dead!
Long live the kitchen!

Individualisation, Open Source, Adaptability, social Value, etc.

Six people in a kitchen preparing food, with various cooking utensils, ingredients, and plants on the countertop.

The System is adaptable to different needs. It can be combined into big kitchen situtations for cooking together in communitites.

The measurements allow the system to be used standing as well as on it’s side.

AI-generated illustration, based on self-made photos. Generated Using Gemini 2.5 Imagen.

Two people in a minimalist kitchen with light-colored walls and wooden shelving, preparing vegetables at the countertop.

It also works in different housing situtions!

AI-generated illustration, based on self-made photos. Generated Using Gemini 2.5 Imagen. Module on the wall added with image generation.

A 500ml bottle of De Cecco Natives Olivenöl Extra (extra virgin olive oil) placed on a store shelf with a red edge, against a background of a blue price tag or informational display.
A shelf with a computer keyboard, a plant, and various supplies.

Aluminum rails allow for individualisation to all needs you can think of! Adaptability integrated!

A price list table comparing costs of building materials and construction components with and without taxes, including items like wood, sheet material, countertop, sink/faucet, aluminum, tensioners, feet, oven suspension, screws, and working hours, with a total sum of 351€ with taxes and 284.31€ without taxes.

With ~351€, one module that can already be used as a kitchen is much cheaper than other models on the market at the time of publication.

A schematic diagram of a modular kitchen setup with labeled components including knee lever clamps, storage net, suspension system, spice shelf, phone holder, power outlets, oven, leveling feet, storage and cutting boards, sink with Naber faucet, modular shelves, and a small rethinking Tripp Trapp chair, all arranged against a plain white wall.
Two men preparing pizza dough and topping pizza in a small kitchen with ingredients and utensils on the counter.

The Project was done in collaboration with David Leucht, on the right!

This project is a free project of the year 2025, supervised by Prof. Gerrit Babtist.

It's open source! Download the plans here!