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to them and not wasting space was also a students with the top designs are offered
challenge. The second brief needed a good an internship with a KSA member
understanding of ergonomics and space. kitchen company. Our members have
They had to design for a couple living in shown great support of this project and
a loft apartment. The kitchen space had a are enthusiastic to assist young designers
double volume roof with exposed beams get a leg up and into the industry. For
and no ceiling. There was a large bank two of the designers who accepted an
of windows on two of the walls and an internship in 2021 this has led to full time We look forward to finding them a
unusual nib in the one remaining wall. employment with the KSA member. place with a KSA member where their
The clients they were designing for loved talents can be grown and shaped.
dining and entertaining, and the challenge We are excited present the top As for 2023 – work on the next project
here was to design a kitchen space that designers from the 2022 project. Our has already begun. We look forward to
could facilitate entertaining, cooking congratulations go out to: working with the IID again and hope
with little wall space. Innovative storage • Jo-Anco Esterhuizen – third that the tertiaries – Cape Peninsular
solutions were a must for this brief. year student from Potchefstroom University of Technology, University
To assist the students through the Academy of Johannesburg, Durban University
project we put together a multitude of • Celuxolo Mndletshe – third year of Technology, Tshwane University of
resources for them. The brief pack that student from Tshwane University of Technology, Greenside Design Centre,
each received contained links to video and Technology Inscape, Design Time, Vega, Nelson
written information on materials, costing, • Bongani Masinga – third year Mandela University and Potchefstroom
design, appliances and much more. KSA student from Tshwane University of Academy – will continue to support the
members assisted in recording video Technology project and allow us to work with them in
content and talks for the students that are • Abigail Bothner – second year developing the skills of the future kitchen
accessible via the KSA’s You Tube channel. student from Vega Johannesburg designers of South Africa. dw
Visits to KSA members' showrooms and to • Katya Goncalves – second year
supplier members to learn about materials student from Design Time Cape Town www.ksa.co.za
and manufacturing was also on offer. Each
participating tertiary also received a sample
box with multiple samples of various Abigail Bothner
materials used in the industry. Each sample
was carefully labeled with what it was and
how it was used to ensure the students fully
understood what they were looking at.
The biggest learning curve in the project
was understanding how materials were
supplied, and that not all materials used to
make a kitchen can be bought per square
metre. Students had to figure out that they
often would need to buy sheets or slabs of
material and then optimise them. This also
affected costing, with students learning they
could not base the costing solely on the
material, they had to allow for production
or fabrication too. They also had to figure
out their own value as a designer, estimating
their own time spent on the project, and
what they would charge for their design
skills, as well as what would be a fair price
to pay a skilled installer to take make their Katya Goncalves
design a finished reality in the client’s home.
Understanding that kitchen design was
about more than just aesthetics, but also
about function and cost was possibly the
biggest mindset change they had to make.
With the kitchen industry facing a
serious skills shortage when it comes
to designers, we wanted to ensure that
this project helped identify talent, and
encourage that talent to look at kitchen
design as a future career. As such,

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