With SieMatic Kitchens Words
by Joshua Sinfield

‘Designer’ is a tag that’s often used, and equally often without much thought. After all, any artefact that sees the light of day is designed – the critical question is whether it’s designed well. This has to do with vastly more than appearance, and nowhere is this better demonstrated than in the kitchen.

What you see in a kitchen is essentially – almost necessarily – superficial; the surfaces, doors, and other facings that meet the eye. Façades, in other words, and nowadays there’s a strong sense of deceit contained in that term, summoning images of Western studio lots, Potemkin villages, a coat of paint to cover up a crumbling wall. But as with all things, what really matters is what lies beneath, and that it is not merely beautiful, but has integrity and lasting quality that survives changing tastes and fashions. The world is full of products with superficial, fleeting design appeal. Good design that lasts for decades must be well thought-out and well made.

Founded in 1929, SieMatic conceive and build bespoke kitchens with the timeless elegance that denotes true beauty. Elegance of appearance, undoubtedly, but also elegance of function. Throughout its history SieMatic has been setting standards in interior quality and organisation systems for the kitchen to provide spaces that are more flexible and functional than ever before, finished to the highest craft standards, to precisely match the needs and aspirations of each client.

For the thoughtful designer, a kitchen is a demanding challenge. It is an important living space, but one that must perform a number of demanding physical tasks with optimal ease and efficiency. Which is why, above all else, SieMatic understand the critical importance of their clients’ lifestyles. Not just how the kitchen is used as a space, but other aspects such as attitudes to wellness, technology, materials, colours and social influences.

“spaces of special personality and timeless elegance.

This includes matching not just the temperament and mindset of its user, but also the immediate architectural environment to ensure that function and form blend in unobtrusive harmony. Ulrich Siekmann, CEO and descendent of the company’s founder August, is dedicated to preserving this tradition. “For us, this means developing innovative functions and designing them to fit almost invisibly into the design language of the furniture. SieMatic Kitchen Design can be perfectly integrated into any kind of architecture without its functionality being on display. This creates spaces of special personality and timeless elegance.”

SieMatic has long been recognised as a pioneer in high quality design, not least as the first to present the handle-free kitchen, and continues to set benchmark standards with regard to aesthetics, individuality, and functionality; innovations such as its unique ‘Multimatic tracking’ and accessories that increase storage space by 30%. Quality that is shown as much in respect for durability as in the painstaking attention to detail in construction and finishing that distinguishes every SieMatic product, and which has won it numerous prestigious awards for its sophisticated and innovative product design – from the iF Design Award and the Good Design Award to the Red Dot: Best of the Best Award, and the German Design Award in Gold.

In 2019, under the banner ‘Timeless by Tradition’, SieMatic celebrates its 90th anniversary after nine decades of constantly asking the question August Siekmann demanded of his team: “Always ask yourself how we can make it better”. To mark this, it launched three collections, Pure, Urban, and Classic, that in the company’s own words ‘leave the realms of pure furniture design behind and enter the world of holistic space utilisation concepts – kitchen interior design that adapts to the personal lifestyles of homeowners and provides orientation’.

Fancy talk indeed, but in truth expressing no more than the beliefs to which SieMatic has always held, ideals which have ensured its long-term success. That a kitchen can be stylish, but that style is the beginning not the end. That kitchens are spaces in which many elements – working areas, storage areas, furniture, machinery, open spaces, lighting – meet, and should do so in harmony. That achieving this in a custom design unique to each user and the space they occupy is a task that requires an equally challenging blend of experience, inspiration, craft, and technical ability. And that, if you are contemplating a new kitchen, you haven’t properly completed your research until you’ve consulted SieMatic.