Libera: the new outdoor kitchen by Elmar

15 July 2021

The outdoor kitchen is the object of desire of the moment. It is a structure that really allows you to move a good part of the day outdoors and to share the ritual of preparing food with guests, just like in an indoor open space but even more special. Elmar is a company specializing in the design of kitchens with a refined design and high performance, which is why it has chosen to create a specific project for the outdoors, entrusting it to the designers Marco Merendi and Diego Vencato. “We wanted a kitchen that relates to people as an open architecture, made of transparency and in osmosis with the surrounding environment: therefore, not a full volume, but a filter that lets the light and colors of the surroundings pass through” designers say.

Libera is a compact kitchen whose aesthetics reveal the brutalist inspiration behind the project confirmed by the use of concrete, a material that Merendi and Vencato have been able to interpret, giving it surprising grace and elegance. “When we talked to Elmar about the idea of ​​making a concrete kitchen for outdoors, we had a clear goal of creating an object with an autonomous language, therefore far from those products – already on the market – in which concrete had simply been substituted for other materials” they explain. Concrete is therefore the protagonist of this kitchen and its solidity is juxtaposed with the lightness of the openings in the grid panels that act as a lower shelf and screen.

This approach makes Libera a real architectural structure, going beyond the concept of furniture. And like all architectures designed with awareness, it manages to dialogue and merge with the environment in which it is inserted. This applies not only to the outdoors but also to the indoors.

The material used is decisive in making Libera versatile: Cementoskin®, a washable and high-performance cement, made with a single water-based artisan production cycle that makes it more sustainable than other similar materials. There are six colors available, all designed to blend in with the natural environment but also to integrate with an indoor space: rust, anthracite, mud, lichen, Mediterranean, cloud.

Steel and concrete are therefore the materials of choice for this kitchen which is presented as a single block with a homogeneous appearance. It has fixed dimensions and includes a cooking area with one or two stations, which can have an induction hob (with grill accessory), a gas glass ceramic hob or an induction Teppan Yaki plate. The concrete is washable and the kitchen is also illuminated by a led strip placed on the shelf, the light can be switched on through a wireless control. The kitchen has a sink with steel mixer tap and three drawers with closure equipped with a special gasket to protect the contents from rain and external agents.

Among the available accessories there are the teak cutting board, the vertical stainless steel mesh, the cover for the hob and the winter cover set. There are eight possible configurations and vary according to the type of hob and the accessories required, but the footprint remains almost unchanged with a width of 2470 mm.

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