We are family: The Maris line from Franke

‘Make love like you‘re on camera’, I read recently on a dating site. We’re living in super-digital, high-definition times, where, it seems, we’re expected to look the part constantly – even when engaged in the most intimate of activities that should just be about ourselves and how we feel. As if life weren’t hard enough.

Cooking is certainly one of those daily rituals that also has that potential feel-good factor. It delivers on two fronts: it’s a practical necessity, of course, but it also serves a social function, reinforcing bonds between family members and friends. In spite of the increasingly spectacular nature of food in the 21st century – think celebrity chefs and competitive Instagram images of boundary-pushing gastronomic creations – the joy of cooking, of togetherness, of taking pleasure in the here and now is, well, still here and now. And, thankfully, requires no cameras.

Leading kitchen manufacturer Franke’s user-friendly and intuitive Maris product line has been developed specifically to help bring families together – however patchwork they and their lives might be – to rediscover the pleasure of preparing and enjoying food together. A uber-functional modular system, as flexible as the way its users increasingly live, Maris combines clean, yet friendly, aesthetics with reliable performance and easy operation.

Induction hobs with simple-swipe touch controls and pre-settings personalised to each individual user, easy-handling hoods, architectural taps, and pared-down sinks in stainless steel, Fragranite (quartz sand in an acrylic resin) and Fraceram provide the planning building-blocks for a kitchen landscape that’s no show-off, but, instead, part of the family. And, fittingly, it doesn’t require the biggest of financial outlays.

But it’s time to set another place at the table. There’s a new addition to the Maris product line in the form of a range of Swiss-made, ultra-rational bowls in matt brushed stainless steel, designed to dovetail perfectly with the existing collection’s sleek formal language. Satisfyingly reduced (no integrated drainer means more work surface) and with the neatest of radii, the 13 differently sized models – from a compact 190mm to a generous 700mm – offer single and double-bowl variants.

An optional recessed tap ledge allows further space-saving when planning, while a hidden overflow ensures optical purity. In short, this is one smart and durable product. No wonder, really, given the robustness of the company that makes it; it might surprise you to learn that this quality-driven Swiss brand has been in business for over 100 years. It’s built up an unparalleled know-how over generations.

But let’s focus on 2018. There’s something cooking. Visitors to this year’s edition of Eurocucina at that mecca of design, the Salone del Mobile in Milan, will be able to discover the aesthetic and technical smarts of Maris, along with its planning potential, at the Franke stand. Centre-stage will be the presentation of a red-hot collaboration with Israeli-born, New York-based architect and designer Dror Benshetrit: a special trend line called Maris Free.

Here, Dror has intervened in the contemporary, seamlessly integrated kitchen landscape by introducing, as a counterpoint, layers of visual and literal texture, inspired by nature. With surfaces more haptic and forms less rational – think rippled taps and ribbed hob rings, cast-iron grids and non-round buttons, executed in a mix of materials – Maris Free generates a sense of the familiar, of the warmth of home, communicating a handmade quality.

Franke has certainly got it going on in the kitchen.


Discover Maris at Eurocucina 2018 – Hall 09, Stand B05–C06

© Architonic