Graduate designer Moritz Putzier has integrated gas burners into the centre of a multi-purpose wooden dining table to bring the kitchen into the heart of the home (+ slideshow).
When designing the Cooking Table, Moritz Putzier wanted to remove the "fancy tools" and electronic equipment used in contemporary kitchens and reimagine the act of preparing food as a social ritual.
"My work is focused on the creation of the experience not on the food itself," said Putzier. "Traditional and original values are picked up and transformed into the present time."
"The project calls the rigid conditions of our daily kitchen lives into question and suggests a new way of cooking and dining," he added.
He designed a flexible surface that can be used for preparing and cooking meals, dining, working or studying at.
The solid-oak surface is elevated to countertop height on white trestle-style legs and can be sat around on specially designed stools.
"The so called stoolbench is a combination of a slightly elevated stool and a slim shaped bench," said Putzier. "The unusual geometry allows a playful use either for sitting or leaning."
The table surface pulls apart to reveal a hidden track along the centre where metal gas burners can be inserted, with canisters attached underneath.
These can click into modules that slide along the strip, allowing a user to add as many hobs as needed and locate them wherever best suited.
A circular ceramic bowl with a hole in the centre fits around the burners to contain the heat and a metal support for the pan sits on top.
Three matching ceramic containers in different sizes form a set that can be used for storing chopped vegetables.
The wooden lids of the bowls double as chopping boards, while pans and utensils hang from metal hooks on rails at either end of the table.
"The thoughts and solutions I developed build a flexible interaction between cooking, dining and social cohabitation," said the designer.
The Cooking Table formed part of Putzier's diploma thesis, named Back to Tomorrow, Dining Culture through the Change of Time, and will be presented at this year's Biennale Interieur in Kortrijk, Belgium, from 17 to 26 October.
Photography is by Caspar Sesslar.