KITCHEN DESIGN-Unfolding the Mystery!

Just the word –‘KITCHEN’ arises various emotions & connotations. Since man started cooking, or to be more perfect, since women started cooking ( men do cook & should cook!) , Kitchen came into existence. Kitchen is a symbol of ‘Family life’ in any household. The woman of the house knows best how to design the same because every household will have a different culture of food which will be quite unique. No two kitchens can ever be same.

The basic village house in India, the Hut will have a ‘Chullah’ which has gradually metamorphed  into a modern day ‘Compact Modular Kitchen’ in the city houses. Kitchen design today is made to seem as an expertise or an art & is full of branded companies offering design & execution at a ‘big’ price. No doubt, it has brought a certain degree of Sleekness & Fineness in the products used for the making of the Kitchen. But the only key word that all the ‘modular’ kitchen guys talk is ‘Efficiency’. Kitchen is much more beyond this.

Kitchen actually has two dimensions – Functional & Social

The Functional dimension relates with the ‘Efficiency’ of the Layout & the various accessories. There are primarily three aspects to this dimension - Washing , Cooking & Storage.  Washing denotes location of a Kitchen Sink.  All the various other activities within Cooking & Storage involves use of various types of Mechanical & Electrically operated gadgets. Cooking & Cutting is associated with a Kitchen platform. Kitchen plat form is either of Single type, or ‘L’ type or of ‘U’ type of even as an Island style depending upon the size & space available. It is important , not to clutter the Kitchen platform with various devices but keep it as free as possible, so that it can be cleaned easily. Usually widths of Kitchen platforms are taken around 24 inches to 30 inches with the average height of around 36 inches. Height of the Kitchen platform may vary based upon the average height of the family members who will cook. A bit more height of around may help accommodate more storage in the drawers underneath.

Kitchen is one complex place in the Home where we use almost 8 to 10 types of electrical / mechanical devices, thus making it important to become efficient. Cooking is done either on the cooking range or Gas Flame range and the Microwave.  Storage is again of 3 kinds. The Refrigerator  (Fridge) which is used as cold storage for short term perishable items. The Cabinets which are used for long term food items like grains & Cabinets used for storing utensils & crockery.  Then there are instruments like Mixer , Juicer or the Food processor which relate with the act of chopping, mixing etc. Of course one may have other devices like the coffeemaker or the sandwich maker. The kitchen chimney or the exhaust maintains the ventilation system. The physical  relation of the various devices to each other & their ergonomics becomes really important. 

This Work triangle in kitchen which defines the minimum triangular distance between Fridge, Sink & Cooking equipment , as shown is very important. Ideally The term ‘Modular’ Kitchen analyses the various aspects of the functional activities & splits them into predefined  modules to house the various gadgets. Because a dedicated space is allocated to each & every physical activity, the kitchen can be planned in a very Compact space.

The Social Dimension relates with the Human side of the Kitchen space. In Indian household it is common to have a Pooja area in the Kitchen & the space gets transformed into a praying area in the morning & evening. The very act of Cooking & Serving is metaphysical in nature which relates with oneself through the ritual. If the Kitchen has space for having food (dining table or the breakfast counter) the very act of having food usually gets overlapped by Family interactions over lunch or the dinner. The location of dining area becomes extremely important as it the place which becomes the interaction space in the house. Many times when the size of Kitchen is moderate, the dining area is cut off & created in the living room. Many times we observe that the Kitchen table gets converted in to a reading, writing or work area for women or children. Any guest who goes beyond the Living room & enters the Kitchen space is usually considered to be close to the family. Historically, Kitchen was associated with a small courtyard or a backyard, especially in old ‘Wada’ or ‘Haveli’ which formed the space for interaction only for the close family members. In today’s world of modern Open kitchens, the above values may differ from household to household but still this aspect of Social space within the Kitchen will certainly exist.   

As explained in the above diagram, the ideal design of Kitchen comes out of the overlap between the various Functional & Social parameters. These days Kitchen has become an open but a very compact space in the household. An efficient kitchen even works well within 8 ft to 9 ft width. But in the effort to make it more & more efficient, the social dimension of Kitchen is getting sacrificed. We need to understand what Kitchen means to our family .We should be aware & should analyze both the Functional & Social dimensions of the Kitchen before taking a blind decision of selecting the sleek looking laminated kitchen in the modular kitchen shop.

Hrishikesh Ashtekar

PERSONALIZING SPACES – Resolving the ‘Identity Crisis’ in today’s Housing projects

Everybody likes to express themselves

A few months back, there was a cultural  program in the housing society where I live. This housing society is ‘today’s typical’ with multiple similar looking buildings. During the mid course of the program , I walked out to go back to my apartment due to some important work I needed to attend. As I reached the lift lobby, a small kid of around 6-7 years old came running alone & asked me to drop him to 7^th floor ,where he lives. The lift went up & as the lift door opened on the 7^th floor, he suddenly started crying aloud. I was confused & asked him why is he crying. The answer came that he does not live on 7^th floor. Hearing the noise, an old lady residing on the 7^th floor came out. She happened to recognize this child & told me that he does live on the 7^th floor but in the ‘H’ wing & not in the ’G’ wing where this lift door had just opened. The simple reason to this incidence was that there were no ‘cognitive’ visual references by which a child can tell the difference between lift lobbies of two different wings & doors of the houses. 

Recall how many of us as adults have faced similar problems in today’s housing projects while looking for an address in similar looking huge building complexes, where we search address through abstract numbers like G 604 or B 302. Now recall how simply we can still locate an address in the ‘Old city’ or the Traditional neighborhoods. Some one can tell you that you have to travel down from the large lane to the small lane near the grocery store from where you have to stop next to the temple & come in the court where his house  is located which can be recognized as the house with the decorative door or with green color windows etc.

In the traditional development –villages, old cities etc , People ‘personalized’ their houses, there house fronts, entrance doors, windows with elements derived out of their culture & religions. Just take a heritage walk in any of the old town of Pune, or Kolhapur or Ahmadabad. You will get to know how a Brahmin house always appeared differently than the ‘Traders’ house. The design of their houses were of course different because the houses were built by themselves as per their own needs & not ‘Mass produced’ by developers as they are done today.

This cultural connection defines  the ‘likes’ of  people even today. Hence even in the mundane looking apartment building, as soon as you enter the house, you can distinguish between the house of ‘Shahs’ to the house of ‘Iyers’ to the house of ‘Deshpandes’. The difference comes because of the lifestyle & culture of the people & what their background is. Religion, rituals & attitude towards life makes them ‘Make choices’ unknowingly. There have been studies carried out by Architects, Anthropologists & Social scientists in various parts of the world on this aspect. The research tell you in nutshell that it is more logical to define you own spaces by yourself rather that being impressed by what you see in magazines & movies which do no belong to you.  Hence I make it a point, Not to kill anybody’s belief when people speak with me about designing their spaces. If ‘Vastu’ is an important derivative to you, believe it in true sense. Read about  it in the traditional text books in great depth & then define the locations of various things. There are also counter arguments like when the busy lifestyle of say IT professionals is same in larger cities, we can give them modern spaces with international touch. Just remember that you are an IT professional or a Businessman in your Office. In you home you are a human being, a loving father, a son or a caring mother who comes from a certain background where certain aspects of culture still continue in some form or another.  

The Great truth is that ‘We do not do interiors’ but we ‘Express’ our attitudes, individuality, lifestyle & culture in our spaces. It is our basic need to ‘Personalize the Space’ where you live in. YOU HAVE THE ULTIMATE CHOICE to personalize your space.

So when , next time any Interior designer  or any Vastu expert tries to impose some designs on you, Think why you should not tell him to just shut up & listen to you & design as per your needs not his.

Hrishikesh Ashtekar