Hangout

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How can I make more use of a tiny apartment?

Hangout didn’t start with a prompt like “design a compact kitchen”, but instead a question “how do I improve small living spaces”. Therefore it was a decision made based on findings after talking to people I know, who live in small or shared apartments. This graph below shows people’s responses to “which area in your living space should have more space?”

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Development

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Hangout is a 2ft x 5ft kitchen system that is versatile but easy to use. There is no “folding something into something else” required and no core functionality of Hangout is hidden away.
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The system features 4 induction hobs.
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The 2 hobs on the right are attached to the countertop, but the left 2 sits on an island kart and can be detached.
The island offers storage space for cooking ingredients and the negative space under the cooktop allows for a secondary countertop.
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The island can be used as a table-side cooking station, a food-warmer, or just a kitchen kart. This enables a sociable kitchen experience, even in a small living space.

I made a 1:1 prototype for the island unit to better understand the usability and ergonomics factors.