Design Freedom – New Premium Integrated Refrigeration by Fisher & Paykel
The release of Fisher & Paykel’s latest range of premium integrated refrigeration is designed to complement and extend the Series 9 Column Refrigeration models launched in 2018. The Column models introduced an unparalleled standard of quality into the kitchen and offered architects and designers a new level of design freedom. Now, two new products – the Integrated Refrigerator Freezer and Integrated Column Wine Cabinet – take the emphasis on customisation and flexibility even further.
The thinking that led to the development of the Series 9 range was grounded in the Fisher & Paykel design team’s holistic approach, which emphasised that each product must not only be a highly functional and beautifully detailed standalone appliance but also become a seamless part of the contemporary kitchen as a whole. Conceived in this way, the design of each product does not end with the appliance but extends to the more nuanced challenge of ensuring the flexibility to respond to any concept that an architect or interior designer might create.
Since the release of the Column models, Fisher & Paykel Chief Designer Mark Haydon reflects, “it has been great to see designers really exploring ideas about distributing refrigeration around the way clients want to live their lives. Whether it’s combining refrigerator and freezer together in the main part of the kitchen or placing a refrigerator in one section and a freezer in a butler’s pantry, we’ve seen architects and designers really embracing the flexibility these products offer.”
The new additions are also grounded in this ideal of design freedom, each delivering their own benefits while offering the features of cutting-edge refrigeration technology and superior integration capability that made the original products so innovative. The new Series 9 Integrated Refrigerator Freezer provides a refrigerator and bottom-mount freezer in one. The new product, like the Column models, complements tall cabinetry, with minuscule 3mm gaps, a hidden ventilation grill and the ability to achieve a low 50mm toe kick, ensuring it is all but invisible when integrated behind a custom door.
With the new product combining refrigerator and freezer into a single product, it is especially suitable for applications where space is at a premium. “Designed to be installed alone or in combination with the other models in the range, for a project such as a luxury apartment that might not fit both a single-door Column Refrigerator as well as a Column Freezer but that still requires an ultra-premium offering, these new models are ideal,” explains Mark. “As well as how they integrate from a design perspective, they also offer clients the premium features that they’ve come to expect: stainless steel interiors, LED lighting throughout, internal ice maker and water dispenser.”
The Column Wine Cabinet is also designed to fit perfectly into joinery, and the UV-filtering glass door, fully extendible oak racks and customisable lighting beautifully displays and perfectly stores up to 91 bottles of wine within. Like the other Series 9 models that were designed in consultation with leading architects and designers during Fisher &Paykel’s regular Future Design Workshops, master sommelier Cameron Douglas offered his perspective on the Wine Column design. “As an expert user, he provided interesting insights into the optimum storage of wine, as well as the emotional aspect that comes with curating a wine collection,” Mark says.
The Series 9 Column models have become the preferred choice for high-end, luxury residential projects, and the Wine Columns have already been specified in some exciting new projects, including the new Ahi Restaurant designed by Jack McKinney Architects. For the Fisher & Paykel design team, seeing the products in situ is most rewarding aspect of releasing a new range. “At the end of the day, our inspiration is the life lived around the product, so there is nothing greater than for us to see these models being used in such exceptional projects,” Mark reflects.
