A pile of contemporary herbs has a manner of changing into a a lot bigger mission as soon as the chopping begins. Leaves unfold throughout the board, little items escape the blade, and abruptly you’re gathering the whole lot again into the center for an additional cross. It’s a small kitchen annoyance, however precisely the kind of factor that deserves a considerate design response.
NUO, a knife-and-cutting-board set by Münire Çalışır, addresses that acquainted scatter by giving the slicing floor a shallow hole. Developed as a scholar design mission at Burg Giebichenstein College of Artwork and Design Halle, the set treats the board and blade as companions. I like that the concept begins with the interplay between two on a regular basis objects relatively than one other gadget demanding counter area.
Designer: Münire Çalışır
The ash board’s recessed floor is meant to maintain substances gathered whereas guiding the knife’s rocking motion. It additionally gives a resting place for the blade. That provides the melancholy a convincing motive to exist past trying sculptural. A flat board leaves all of the coordination to the cook dinner. Right here, the floor is designed to take part, encouraging the substances and the slicing motion to remain in the identical space.
Visually, the pairing is placing with out requiring a lot clarification. The darkish, round board has pronounced wooden grain and a substantial-looking edge. Above it sits a silver knife that resembles a folded metallic disc, with an open middle and a broad grip throughout the highest. Within the equipped images, the distinction makes each items straightforward to learn: a darkish floor beneath, a vivid slicing software above.
The knife begins as a water-jet-cut sheet of chrome steel. A central urgent operation provides it a three-dimensional type, bringing the deal with and blade collectively in a single element. The method images are notably satisfying as a result of you may observe the connection between the flat clean and the completed object. The deal with doesn’t seem as an adjunct connected afterward. It emerges from the identical piece of fabric that turns into the slicing software.
In response to the mission description, the leading edge’s radius helps a pure rocking movement, whereas the knife’s personal weight reduces the trouble wanted to chop. These are design intentions relatively than advantages I can verify from utilizing it. Nonetheless, the connection between the curved edge and the hollowed board makes the proposed motion comprehensible. You’ll be able to see what your hand is meant to do.
The {photograph} exhibiting the knife in use helps right here. Fingers curl by the opening beneath the grip, whereas the thumb rests alongside its higher floor. The hand sits above the slicing space relatively than extending from a protracted deal with to 1 aspect. To my eye, that provides NUO an approachable high quality, regardless that its silhouette initially seems extra like a small sculpture than kitchen gear.
I’d have an interest within the grip over an extended prep session. An all-metal deal with can look fantastically resolved, however images can’t inform us the way it feels with moist palms or how completely different hand sizes match the opening. These questions matter greater than whether or not the set seems good beside a bowl of substances. A specialised software must earn its place by the duty it performs.
The board raises one other helpful consideration. Its concavity is central to the concept, so I wouldn’t decide it as a alternative for a big, flat prep floor. I’d contemplate it for centered jobs involving herbs, the place preserving a small pile collectively is the purpose. That narrower position is sensible to me. Kitchen instruments develop into much less convincing after they promise to deal with each potential dinner.
My favourite alternative is giving the knife someplace to relaxation throughout the working floor. It acknowledges the pauses between cuts, once you attain for an additional ingredient or flip towards the range. NUO’s attraction lies in that spotlight to the entire process. The sculptural form will get your consideration; the small lodging for an abnormal kitchen second provides it a motive to carry it.
