Fisher & Paykel’s Future Design Workshop

Since 2016, Fisher & Paykel’s Future Design Workshop has become a regular event, gathering leading architects and designers from Australia and New Zealand for a one-day workshop dedicated to collaboration and the exchange of ideas, held at the Fisher & Paykel Experience Centre in Sydney.

Fisher & Paykel’s design and development process is strongly informed by dialogue with architects and designers, and the Future Design Workshop has been integral to broadening the scope of these discussions. “Over the years, we have been talking to designers, listening, observing, and digging into the details,” says Fisher & Paykel Chief Designer Simone Stephens. “We understand that our products do not sit on their own but go into people’s homes and designers’ work. It’s, therefore, really important for us to understand that context – the different design briefs, locations and lifestyles lived around our products.”

Each year, the Future Design Workshop provides the opportunity for architects and designers to gain an insight into Fisher & Paykel’s design thinking and future products in development, meet and converse with the senior design team, and, in turn, provide feedback. This process has directly influenced the design of new products. The Integrated Column Refrigerator is one such product that can trace its origins to the Future Design Workshop. Others, such as the all-black oven and successive iterations of the Dish Drawer, have also evolved out of feedback gained during past workshops.

“As a design-led company, we admire the work of architects and designers and their ability to create beautiful spaces that are also highly practical and functional,” explains Fisher & Paykel EVP Design and Brand Mark Elmore. “We believe our role is to make appliances that are not only of the highest quality but also fit seamlessly into the kitchen environment. The goal is to provide complete design freedom, allowing designers and architects to realise the dreams of their clients without constraints.”

For those who have attended the workshops, the experience has proven both beneficial and informative. “I’m impressed at how Fisher & Paykel involve their specifiers in their design framework – it’s unique to the company,” explains Eva-Marie Prineas, Studio Prineas principal, who attended the 2017 Future Design Workshop. “Many of Fisher & Paykel’s products are designed as a direct response from designer feedback; the team is always open to feedback from us on what the market is lacking and the changes in appliance design that would improve kitchen design as a whole.

Fisher & Paykel’s design and development process is strongly informed by dialogue with architects and designers, and the Future Design Workshop has been integral to broadening the scope of these discussions.

Breathe Architecture’s Jeremy McLeod expresses that the workshop was“ an opportunity to see under the hood at Fisher & Paykel, to understand the depth of thinking that goes into each of their products and to understand the process their designers go through to bring a product to market.” Not only did it expand this understanding but, he explains, “it opened my eyes to alternate ways to think about workflows in the kitchen and how we could approach things differently to make a more effective space. The design team’s level of knowledge, from ergonomics through to fabrication, construction, wastage and longevity, all gave me a lot of confidence in the future of the company – at Fisher & Paykel, nothing is by accident.”

The collaborative spirit facilitated by the events has led the workshops to become an important conduit between Fisher & Paykel, as product designers and manufacturers, architects and designers, as specifiers who engage with appliances on a project level, and their clients, who then experience the products on a daily basis. For Adriana Hanna, head of interiors and associate at Kennedy Nolan, the workshop in 2018 offered a welcome deeper level of knowledge that ensured the studio’s confidence in recommending appliances to clients. “It was lovely to speak to each of the designers and get insight into the design process, which we don’t fully appreciate as specifiers generally,” she says. “One of the things our clients struggle with is entering an appliance showroom and being bombarded with products. I think it’s lovely we can share some of our knowledge and give them confidence in the product [they choose].”

Being able to offer a greater depth of understanding to clients during the design process was also a key benefit of the event for architect Ken Crosson, director of Crosson Architects. “The design workshop was a chance to see the innovation that Fisher & Paykel are considering first-hand; it was amazing to see the level of thought and development but also the willingness to take on board feedback,” he says. “Because of this, we can be at the bow wave of industry thoughts when discussing things with our clients.”

In recognition of the fact that the day also provides an opportunity for members of the industry to share their experiences, and for the cross-pollination of ideas about design more broadly, each event has included a presentation by an architect or designer on their work. In 2018, Rufus Knight, founder of Knight Associates, spoke to the group about the influence of the New Zealand landscape on his practice. He explains that the workshop informed his approach to kitchen design and appliance specification “in the sense that I understood that when we specify Fisher& Paykel products it is a continuation of the ongoing dialogue with our clients and becomes part of the wider design process.”

In this way, the Future Design Workshop has highlighted that both the development of new products and the specification of appliances can be conceived as a holistic part of the process of architecture and interior design. “Engaging with Fisher & Paykel means the appliance and produc selection is in harmony with the desired design outcome, whereas atypical selection process can often mean the look and feel of the kitchen appliances are abstracted from the overall design,” Rufus reflects.

Reflecting back on the first Future Design Workshop in 2016, Fisher & Paykel Design Development Manager Dan Varcoe says “we were unsure what the dynamic would be like before the first event, as nothing like this had ever been done before. We had previously held individual meetings and conversations with designers, as we love our industrial design team to engage with architects and designers as much as possible, but never anything at this scale or sharing so many future ideas in advance.”

But the success of that first event set the tone for all future events, here calls. “There was a great energy in the room, and a generosity in the sharing of ideas between the designers attending and our industrial design team. All subsequent events have been the same.” And, for the Fisher& Paykel team, “it also works in reverse,” he says. “We’re always excited to see our products featured in any of attendees’ projects, and it has been great to see some of these shared ideas shape the direction of products we are releasing.”

“Over the years, we have been talking to designers, listening, observing, and digging into the details,” says Fisher& Paykel Chief Designer Simone Stephens.