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New Visions, Part 4

There's no shortage of concept kitchens that feature a built-in herb garden or a water-free dishwasher; while such innovations often advance the design discussion, they don't always address the bigger picture of the kitchen as both an independent and inter-dependent ecosystem. The Microbial Home by Philips does that in a number of ways, one of which is the harnessing of methane that's produced by composting organic substances. The gas fuels the cooktop [located on the Bio-Digester Island in the foreground] and light fixtures [along the overhead pipe], and is instrumental in cooling food that's stored in the Larder [the unit in the background of the photo]. There's a bathroom component to the concept, too, that serves to complete the circle.