Creating An Extended Shelf Life

In an era when every square metre of real estate is worth its weight in gold, something as indulgent as a home library might feel like an anachronism. If we can store thousands of books in our smartphone, why line a room with potential dust collectors?

Despite the technological revolution — or perhaps because of it — the traditional home library space is holding its ground. As work infiltrates our homes and trickles into family life, many homeowners are purposefully carving out a corner of their home in an homage to a low-tech life.

Order prevails in a glass fronted library by Groth & Sons

Reading the room

Award-winning architect Luigi Rosselli says while the pandemic may have brought the office home to the fore, he’s witnessing a revolution against remote working.

“It depends on the client, but I’m mostly seeing two generations interested in libraries. One is the older generation who grew up with books, they still read a lot and like to get up and refer to a book or even feel the ‘microwaves’ from the pages reminding them of these wonderful stories or knowledge that can be passed on through,” he says.

“Then there’s the younger generation who are working long hours in front of a computer or some other electronic device and they are rebelling. They’re reacting to a sort of technology addiction and finding instead an interest in books and reading.”

Smaller footprints, especially in city residences, are notoriously challenging when it comes to storage and function, but Rosselli says libraries needn’t be single-use spaces.

“That’s very much my challenge; people saying they want a room for this, they want a room for that,” he says. “What I’ve done quite a few times is give a dual use to libraries. In fact, books only use up wall space, so in between those walls you can have quite a lot of space leftover.”

In his Bondi Bombora project, Rosselli created a stairwell library to accommodate the resident family’s large — and growing — book collection.

“One storey wouldn’t have been enough. So a stairwell worked ideally in the sense that it now has two functions.

“We also retained an old bay window underneath the stairs to make a study nook that is cocooned and separated from an active house filled with lots of kids.”

For a book-loving calligrapher in Sydney, Rosselli designed The Books House, which resembles a random stack of books from the outside while inside there is a private library hidden behind a moving bookcase.

While a home office and library fusion seems like a perfect match, savvy design and innovative thinking can marry a library to alternative rooms.

“In my house when the children were young they had a library room where the television was not allowed, they could do homework there but also it was a relaxing space with a couch so you could sit and read,” Rosselli says. “Now our children have grown up and moved out we put a table in there.

“It’s ended up being our favourite dining area because it’s in such good company, and the acoustics of books is fantastic.”

A turn up for the books

The Books House by Luigi Rosselli has a moving bookcase.

Whether it’s a limited footprint or a client seeking a hint of James Bond-style intrigue at home, professional cabinet maker Amos Groth of Groth & Sons says libraries are only limited by imagination — and budget.

“It’s a balance of what you’d like in your wildest dreams and what we can give you practically. But we try to really push the boundaries on the aesthetics to get all those bells and whistles,” Groth says, adding that private libraries can cost between $25,000 and $250,000. “A lot of my clients tell me when they go into their libraries and close the door they’re transported to London or Bath or anywhere in the world.

“Libraries offer an element of escapism.”

Over three decades, Groth & Sons has become known as “the bespoke library outfitters” fitting books into almost any space.

“We’ve done libraries in dining rooms, in hallways, as long as you’ve got enough space to get a floor lamp, a library ladder and a comfy chair. It doesn’t have to be an entire room,” Groth says.

“Today, people realise libraries aren’t about showing off a book collection, but are more about what a space represents.

“For me, in my library, I feel like I’m surrounded by my best mates.”

A home library might seem like an old school luxury, but Groth says they have come full circle.

“When I first started, some people thought book-filled rooms were ostentatious but today they can be really practical and fun spaces. It’s about getting away from the stresses and strains of technology to go into a low-tech room for a breath of fresh air,” he says.

Floor-to-ceiling walls of books, secret doors, cabinets on hydraulics and rolling library ladders might seem like the stuff of movies but Groth says fanciful libraries do exist.

“People have the fantasy of a library ladder, it makes them feel like they’re in a film with Audrey Hepburn or Rex Harrison,” he says.

“We often get asked about secret doors — we’re currently working on one where you actually pull a book and the door opens. They’re not the cheapest things, and there’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work because you can’t just put them into a regular doorframe.

“A lot of what we do are one-offs.”

Developing a love of books

A challenge for homeowners “rightsizing” to apartments is giving up superfluous living spaces, but developers are taking note of what buyers want, both inside and outside their residences. Along with private dining spaces and fully-equipped wellness spaces, libraries are seen as a desirable option for buyers.

Alceon has answered the call for more communal retreats on site, starting with Akoya in Sydney’s north.

The over-55s project is home to 39 apartments but includes approximately 700sqm of common areas such as a residents-only library to be stocked with 100 books from local bookshop Constant Reader.

“It’s not a tokenistic space, it’s a purpose-built library with a fireplace, a lounging section and plenty of shelving for residents to add more books to,” said Todd Campling, development director at Alceon Group.

“Our goal with the library was to recreate the creature comforts of home for residents who might be relocating from quite substantial family homes.

“There’s also a commercial-grade bar next to the library and personal lock-up wine cellars so people can enjoy a glass while they read.”

Campling adds that as Australians, especially in major cities, move towards multi-density living, it is the developer’s responsibility to create areas where neighbours, friends and family can enjoy social moments.

“Additional amenities aren’t for everyone and they aren’t for every development, it’s about curating spaces that are the perfect blend of what you’ve had — and what you wish you had,” he says.

And as generations age and needs evolve through a building’s lifespan, he says such communal spaces should be adaptable.

“The notion of a library with the Chesterfields lounges and balloons of bourbon could also become multi-generational spaces used by the grandparents down to their grandchildren. We envisage these library spaces or co-working areas can be a place to catch up with your neighbour, sit in a nice quiet space by yourself or hold a book club.”

Photography by Prue Ruscoe

On Bastille Day, the scent of toasted bread, melting cheese, crêpes and velouté filled a heritage warehouse in Sydney’s Darlinghurst.

Inside Prim Haus, rooms had been transformed into an elegant interpretation of a contemporary French home. Cookware hung alongside market produce, appliances were placed within carefully composed domestic settings and live kitchens turned out French comfort food throughout the afternoon.

The occasion was La Maison de Tefal, an immersive celebration marking 70 years since a French engineer introduced an invention that would fundamentally change home cooking.

Tefal’s story began in 1956 with the commercial launch of what the company describes as the world’s first non-stick frying pan. Seven decades later, the business operates across cookware, kitchen appliances, garment care and floor care in more than 120 countries.

The scale of the modern brand is considerable, but its origins were remarkably domestic.

The invention that started in a French kitchen

In the early 1950s, French engineer Marc Grégoire began experimenting with polytetrafluoroethylene, better known as PTFE, after discovering its unusually effective non-stick properties.

The material was already known within industrial applications. Grégoire’s important contribution was developing a way to bond it securely to an aluminium disc.

According to the company’s history, a conversation with his wife inspired him to apply the process to cookware. The resulting pan allowed meat and eggs to be cooked using less fat, while making the surface considerably easier to clean.

Grégoire patented his non-stick frying-pan concept in 1954 and began selling the finished product in 1956. The new company’s name combined the French words for the two defining materials: Téflon and aluminium.

The attraction was immediate. This was innovation expressed through a simple, recognisable household problem. Food stuck to pans; the new Tefal pan was designed so it would not.

The idea quickly travelled beyond France. Tefal entered the United States in 1961, the same year the company established the production site at Rumilly, near the French Alps. Rumilly would become the centre of Tefal’s cookware expertise and develop an identity as the “frying pan capital of the world”.

The company says more than 35 million cookware items were manufactured at the Rumilly site in 2022. A local museum holds the 500 millionth pan produced by the factory, which came off the line in March 1994.

A Parisian home in the heart of Sydney

La Maison de Tefal translated that industrial history into a more intimate experience.

Held on 14 July, the anniversary used Bastille Day as both a cultural reference and a reminder that Tefal’s identity remains closely connected to French design and engineering.

Prim Haus was arranged as a sequence of domestic environments rather than a conventional product showroom. Guests moved through spaces devoted to cookware, kitchen appliances, garment care and floor care, with each collection presented within the rhythm of a modern home.

A French-market-inspired cooking area formed the social centre of the event. Live stations served croque-monsieur, crêpes and butternut velouté, demonstrating the products through food rather than static displays.

That distinction matters. Tefal’s most successful products have generally been those whose benefit can be understood almost immediately: a pan that releases food, a removable handle that saves cupboard space, an indicator showing when cookware has reached the correct temperature, or an appliance that automates part of a familiar cooking process.

Interactive demonstrations allowed guests to handle the products and see those functions in context. Heritage installations traced the brand’s development, while previews of newer releases connected its first frying pan with the much broader contemporary range.

The anniversary concluded with a champagne toast — an appropriately French punctuation mark for a company whose products have found their way into kitchens around the world.

Seventy years of practical invention

The non-stick frying pan established the operating principle Tefal continues to follow: find an everyday source of friction and develop a practical way to reduce it.

In 1996, the company introduced Ingenio, a modular cookware system built around removable handles. Pans could be stacked more efficiently and moved from cooktop to oven, table and refrigerator without the fixed handle of conventional cookware.

The concept anticipated the pressures that would reshape urban kitchens. As apartments became more compact and storage more valuable, cookware needed to occupy less room and serve more than one function.

Around the beginning of the following decade, Tefal introduced its heat-indicator technology, now known as Thermo-Signal. The circular marker changes appearance when the pan reaches its recommended cooking temperature, turning a technical question into a visual prompt.

In 2006, Tefal expanded the possibilities of countertop cooking with ActiFry. The appliance circulated hot air around food and used little or no added oil, helping establish a product category that would eventually become one of the most competitive areas of the global appliance market.

Innovation also moved beyond cooking. The Freemove cordless steam iron arrived in 2012, removing the cord from the active ironing movement while retaining a powered base.

The company’s current portfolio now extends across multicookers, grills, air fryers, blenders, ice-cream makers, garment steamers, irons and floor-care products. Although the categories are diverse, the common proposition remains convenience grounded in engineering.

The next generation of non-stick cookware

For its 70th year, Tefal has returned to the product that created the brand.

The new Excellence+ cookware range introduces what the company calls FusionCore technology. Tefal describes it as its most durable non-stick coating to date, designed to withstand intensive use and scratching.

As with any durability claim, consumers should follow the manufacturer’s care instructions and consider the applicable warranty rather than interpreting promotional language as a guarantee against every form of damage. But the focus on longer-lasting coatings reflects an important change in buyer expectations.

Convenience is no longer enough on its own. Modern households are increasingly concerned with how long products remain useful, whether they can be repaired and what happens when they reach the end of their working life.

Tefal has responded in several ways. Its Renew cookware uses recycled aluminium and a ceramic non-stick coating, while Groupe SEB has expanded cookware recycling initiatives in international markets. For many small domestic appliances, the group also promotes a 15-year repairability commitment based on parts availability and access to authorised repairers.

The details and warranty periods vary by product and country, so Australian buyers should check the conditions attached to an individual appliance. Nevertheless, repairability represents a meaningful shift from the assumption that a failed countertop appliance should simply be discarded.

From French manufacturer to global household group

Tefal joined Groupe SEB in 1968, giving the company greater international distribution and the resources to expand beyond cookware.

Founded in 1857 and headquartered in France, Groupe SEB has grown into a global small-appliance and cookware business with more than 30 brands. Its portfolio includes All-Clad, Krups, Moulinex, Rowenta, Lagostina and WMF, with operations extending across more than 150 countries.

Within that group, Tefal remains one of the flagship names — and one of the clearest examples of how a single invention can become the foundation for an international consumer brand.

Its longevity has not come from making everyday objects more complicated. The strongest Tefal products do the opposite. They take a small uncertainty, inconvenience or frustration and design it out of the task.

That was the value of Marc Grégoire’s original frying pan. It did not ask people to change what they cooked. It made the existing process easier, more predictable and less difficult to clean afterwards.

Seventy years later, that deceptively modest principle continues to guide the company.

La Maison de Tefal celebrated the products, the French heritage and the anniversary itself. Yet the larger story was visible at every cooking station and demonstration: innovation becomes lasting only when people can use it without having to think about the technology underneath.

For Tefal, the next 70 years will be shaped by new materials, smarter appliances, changing homes and greater expectations around durability. Its challenge will be to keep evolving without losing sight of the insight that started everything — that the most valuable household inventions often solve the most ordinary problems.

Tefal at a glance

Founded: France, 1956
Founder: Engineer Marc Grégoire
Original innovation: Commercialisation of the first non-stick frying pan
Manufacturing heritage: Rumilly, France
Notable innovations: Ingenio, Thermo-Signal, ActiFry and Freemove
Latest cookware development: Excellence+ with FusionCore technology
Parent company: Groupe SEB
International presence: More than 120 countries
Australian website: Tefal Australia