Patricia Urquiola Design Commission for Scholtès Centre of Excellence in Central London

LONDON, June 15, 2011 -

The Forward-thinking Luxury Kitchen
Brand Chooses one of the World’s Most Influential
Architects and Designers to Transform
New Scholtès Kitchen Experience

With Photo 

The luxury kitchen appliance brand Scholtès, brings
professional levels of cooking and state-of-the-art appliance
design to UK kitchens this year. In doing so, Scholtès collaborates
with one of the world’s leading architects and designers,
Spanish-born, Milan-based Patricia Urquiola, to create Scholtès
Centre of Excellence. This inspired space will become a
‘flagship venue’ profiling the essence of Scholtès brand, whilst
fusing the worlds of food, design, culture and luxury.  The
ambitious, design-led project is due to open on London’s
prestigious Wigmore Street, W1 during London Design
Festival week (17-24 September 2011) and confirms the brand’s
continued spirit of innovation, as it promotes its excellence in
the UK.

Scholtès Centre of Excellence will be both surprising and
stunning. Urquiola’s design will ingeniously combine tradition,
practicality and sophisticated technology, influenced by
Scholtès brand values of Professionalism, Excellence and
Timeless Design. An engaging space for demonstrations,
masterclasses, private dinners along with a functional showroom,
will be the result of her interpretation of the brief.

Bearing in mind the holistic approach Scholtès is taking to
product design, customer selection and after care services, the
space will be inviting and interactive, providing a relaxed and
informative environment for customers to selects appropriate
appliances during the research and selection process of buying a
new kitchen.

At 300 square metres, the Centre of Excellence is set over two
floors (street and basement levels), and arranged thematically into
zones (reception, meeting room, and demonstration space) presenting
the iconic and modular Scholtès appliances against a beautiful but
functional backdrop. Urquiola has championed the use of iconic
materials such as copper walls and bespoke, stone like textured
floor tiles along with eco-features.  Mobile demonstration
kitchen workstations can be moved into different configurations and
allow the basement space to be used for theatre style
demonstrations, intimate private dining or a standing reception
function.

Commenting on the design Patricia says “the Centre of Excellence
space immediately inspired a celebration of the ‘primeval’ because
of its stark and industrial nature that provides the perfect
setting for the sleek, precisely-constructed and highly-refined
Scholtès brand essence and product collection to shine through. The
modular arrangement of the product dimensions, (60cm x 60cm x 60cm)
was the key to the design. When deconstructed the space is intense
and chaotic, but when assembled or reordered it is a dynamic
structure combining the old and the new.”

With an established set of masterful and creative Michelin
Starred Chefs already ambassadors for the brand and known as the
Scholtès Elite Team, the Centre of Excellence will become a
lively and theatrical hub with a buoyant programme of masterclasses
that highlight the impeccable design and functionalty of Scholtès
product collection. The UK’s Michelin Starred Sat Bains leads with
sessions on slow cooking and energy saving to foraging and
regionality during the opening weeks. There will also be a calendar
of tastings and workshops with luxury brand partners, as the Centre
of Excellence will engage and enliven the interacting public
henceforth.

As an official partner of The London Design Festival
2011, a limited number of spaces for these sessions will be
reserved for VIP guests of the festival. “Success, prestige and
innovation defines Scholtès”, says David Bigland, Director,
Scholtès UK. “It’s a pleasure to be working with Urquiola. The way
she has personified the very essence of Scholtès brand into this
building is highly inspiring. We hope the space will engender
performance and experience, as a domestic and professional kitchen
would. We also hope it will encourage people to come through the
doors and experience Scholtès first hand.”

Scholtès Centre of Excellence opens in September 2011
and is located at 98 Wigmore Street, W1U 3RH.
Scholtès product collection is available in
specialist, independent retailers throughout the
UK.

For more information visit href="www.scholtes.co.uk">www.scholtes.co.uk

About Scholtès

• The history of luxury kitchen appliances brand Scholtès, is
  one of visionary ambition and success, prestige and innovation,
  research and creativity - all accompanied by the passion that
  defines true professionalism.

• Established in Italy in 1922, Scholtès brings
  state-of-the-art kitchen design and professional level cooking to
  the home.  A rich heritage of extreme innovation has taken
  Scholtès on an experimental journey exploring lifestyle and design
  concepts that revolutionise the domestic kitchen space. Over the
  years Scholtès has built a strong reputation for technological
  innovation, professionalism and avant-garde design. As early as
  1923 Scholtès made the first enamelled steel cooker and in the
  following decades it created the first series of built-in
  appliances in Europe.

• From the 1960s Scholtès has been at the forefront of high
  quality kitchen design and avant-garde technology, typified by
  craftsmanship.  With its 360-degree approach to design, finish
  and holistic customer service, Scholtès represents the leading
  choice for luxury bespoke kitchens renowned for spectacular
  performance, aesthetically and practically.

• From the 1960s to the 1970s, Scholtès succeeded in a number
  of significant “firsts“:  In 1969
  it launched the first pyrolytic self-cleaning oven, in 1974 the
  first glass-ceramic hob and in 1979 induction cooking. Over the
  following twenty years the company has continued its technological
  development programmes, launching a “touch
  control“ hob with buttons in 1990 and the first
  “cold door“ oven in 1993.  

• Today, with its team of chefs, engineers and designers,
  Scholtès continues to offer progressive solutions, patenting new
  technologies, such as those that can automatically regulate cooking
  parameters with extreme precision. One of the most important
  innovations is “Multiplo“, launched in
  2008 it is as a revolutionary cooking concept, offering five
  cooking methods in one appliance and is destined to utterly
  transform the world of cooking.

Note to
Editors:

A picture accompanying this release
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