Arvid Häusser, a product design student at Bauhaus University, gives us a creative look at how espresso machine design could be re-imagined:

The qualities of porcelain like high thermal storage, neutrality in taste and an antiseptic surface are making the material ideal for the use in food context. The machine is attached on the wall. This helps keeping work space free and relieves the operability.The single components are seperatly affixed and completely visible. This makes the process of coffee preparation comprehensible for the user.

Given how much wood and ceramic is already featured in the typical cafe’s material culture, this sort of design really ties it all together. Compared to the typical espresso machine, often housed in metal and plastic boxes with buttons that hide its inner workings, this design study feels less industrial. Its curvaceous porcelain evokes bone and matches the cups, simple wood grain fixtures and transparent display of component parts create other interesting potentials.

For instance, the interaction between barista and customer is almost always obscured by the machine – acting as a barrier between them, or forcing the barista to turn their back on the customer to pull the shot. What if the parts were more visible like this, with gaps and holes, or nearly transparent, allowing barista and customer to see through to each other and watch the process unfold? What would a professional grade espresso machine look like if it was de-centered, taken out of the appliance design paradigm, and re-imagined as a something to facilitate barista/customer interaction, a highlight of the experience?


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