Cooker hoods – the bane of most architects’ lives. You spend all that time perfecting the kitchen design and then you have to stick an extractor above the hob. Most of these seem to stem from the overactive, thyroidic imaginations of bachelors, so it’s a relief to see Italian firm Falmec enter the fray with its very discreet Alba hood from its Design collection. Designers Valerio Sommella (even the name induces a subtle sense of repose) and Alberto Saggia have reduced the extractor intake to a simple slot around a glass frame – which incidentally, lights up along its downstand edge to illuminate your culinary pièce de résistance. There are even motor and air recirculation options if your attempts at ‘Celebrity Masterchef’ end up smelling more like the burning rubber of ‘Star in a Reasonably Priced Car’.