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