Who Needs a Kitchen Stove When You Have a TILLREDA

When TreeHugger founder Graham Hill built his first LifeEdited apartment, there were very few things that he did without. One surprising omission was the range or stove. I wrote at the time:

Perhaps the most unusual idea is the range or hob; instead of a fixed range top that takes up 24 or 36 inches of counterspace, Graham uses three plug-in induction portable hobs. So if you just need one element in the morning to make your espresso, that is what you use. If you need three to do a dinner, you pull them all out. Induction units are so energy efficient that they don't need permanent piping or wiring, so why take up all that space when you don't need to?

Portable Cooking

When you think about it, it makes tremendous sense; the traditional range was designed for gas or electric resistance heat and got hot; induction elements do not, so why not treat them as a portable appliance like you do with a crock pot or kettle. Most of the time you don’t need more than one element, yet we often take up 30 inches of kitchen counter for something that we use not very often at all.

Now IKEA is noticing the market for the induction hob, and just got a Red Dot Award for it’s TILLREDA hob. The designers, People People, describe it as “a small portable induction hob that gives you the flexibility to cook anywhere you have a power supply. It’s sleek, affordable and functional, and will hopefully become a part of people’s home for many years to come.”

TILLREDA induction hob, designed by Johan Frössén and Klara Petersén from People People, is a product we love! It fulfills the five dimensions of democratic design. SUSTAINABILITY: Induction cooking offers the responsiveness and control of gas and the heating power of electricity but with less wasted heat. Making it better for the planet. FORM: Sleek and unexpectedly beautiful, TILLREDA is an appliance to showcase next to your iPad full of recipes! QUALITY: Stable and portable, this freestanding plug-in hob can be used for everyday cooking for years to come. FUNCTION: A portable hob gives you the flexibility to cook anywhere you have a power supply. It features 9 power levels for everything from boiling water to simmering a stew.

Compact and Easy to Store

Unlike Graham’s units, this is designed for easy storage. The handle is designed for wire management and it has built-in keyholes for hanging on the wall, to save counterspace when not in use.

Sometimes we see tiny houses where the designers are obsessed with installing kitchen appliances bigger than you would find in most European homes. But perhaps in this world of tiny houses and apartments, perhaps it is time to rethink the kitchen and dump the big old range.