What is probably the world’s most famous kitchen-maker started out furnishing high-class “daughters’ rooms” in the pared- down Werkstätten style. In 1905, when Jugendstil was already passé, the company brought out a kitchen cabinet with a separate upper cabinet standing on small legs. This was already an early precursor of the linear kitchen that would one day replace the traditional buffet. In the 1920s, when the gas range and electric appliances were on the rise and living space was at a premium, Poggenpohl developed the “reform kitchen”, a clearly a rticulated white cabinet cube whose signature feature was the semi- circular “functional handle” with a round glass plate as base. The program – like Bruno Paul’s “growing apartment” – was an example of the transposition of the “Neue Sachlichkeit” (New Objectivity) onto German everyday life. This is the era when the ten layers of paint applied to every kitchen cabinet became a seal of quality. The principle of the “add-on kitchen” finally prevailed at Poggenpohl in the late 1950s. Under Walter Ludewig, who directed the company from 1940 to 1987, it transformed itself into one of the leading international kitchen manufacturers and one of the best-known brands in the furniture industry. In the “Economic Miracle” years, the add-on programs were expanded and perfected, for example with the introduction of the grip rail. The experiment of the “spherical kitchen“ (1970) by Luigi Colani was a tempting utopia, but remained an isolated episode. At the end of the 1980s Poggenpohl was purchased by a Scandinavian corporation. The kitchens are still produced in Germany, however, by a workforce of almost 500. A total of 75% are destined for export, well over the industry average. With programs such as +Integration, an effort to fuse design, high-tech and new media that was introduced in 2004, new visions are now explicitly geared toward a design-conscious target group. Along with Bulthaup, Poggenpohl is today jockeying for the leading role in terms of conception. The central theme that has crystallized out is the kitchen’s gradual shift in meaning from a monofunctional room to a focal point of the home with versatile uses. In 2005 this idea was given concrete form in Plusmodo designed by Jorge Pensi of Spain, a program that stands as a model for the finely orchestrated dialectic of presentation and concealment. A recently published design study has now confirmed that the kitchen will soon take on the role of the living room, with daily life revolving more and more around the dining table. The Porsche Design studio is already working on applying findings like these to creating the luxury kitchen of the future.