Spaces Built For A Different Kind Of Person
May 9, 2019 11:01 AM Subscribe
“Like Modernism itself, it came from Europe, and it changed everything. You might not have heard of the Frankfurt Kitchen, but if you have neatly organized cabinets, an easy-to-clean tiled backsplash, and a colorful countertop, in a sense, you already cook in one.” How The Frankfurt Kitchen, designed by architect Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, Changed How We Cook—and Live (City Lab)
dammit, I was just . ... this is the second time in two months ... aagh!
posted by the man of twists and turns at 11:09 AM on May 9, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 11:09 AM on May 9, 2019 [4 favorites]
Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, who aimed at a more egalitarian world.
A Brief History of Kitchen Design touches on the transatlantic cultural currents around housework and kitchens, while MoMA applied her design of a modular mass-produced kitchen. More at University of Houston
Why I Became An Architect
posted by the man of twists and turns at 11:22 AM on May 9, 2019 [12 favorites]
A Brief History of Kitchen Design touches on the transatlantic cultural currents around housework and kitchens, while MoMA applied her design of a modular mass-produced kitchen. More at University of Houston
Why I Became An Architect
From all that I have said previously, I should point out that “Frankfurt Kitchen” is a misleading term since it does not just refer to the design of a kitchen with more or less practical arrangements and facilities. As far as I can remember, it was May who came up with the term and used it for promotional purposes. In everything he did and said he repeatedly mentioned the fact that it was no coincidence the Frankfurt Kitchen was designed by a woman for women. This stemmed from the prevalent petit bourgeois perception that women were, by their very nature, meant to work at the domestic stove. It seemed to follow therefore that a woman architect would know best what was important for kitchens. That was good propaganda. But the truth of the matter was that I had never run a household before designing the Frankfurt Kitchen. I had never cooked, and had no idea about cooking. On the other hand, looking back on my life I would say that I have been systematic in every aspect of my professional life, and that it came naturally to me to approach every project systematically.Memories of Resistance: Women, War and The Forgotten Work of Margarete Schutte-Lihotzky looks to be an interesting research topic!
posted by the man of twists and turns at 11:22 AM on May 9, 2019 [12 favorites]
I have a Frank-N-Furter kitchen. Whenever I cook for guests they all shiver in anticip..
..ation.
posted by Pendragon at 11:24 AM on May 9, 2019 [9 favorites]
..ation.
posted by Pendragon at 11:24 AM on May 9, 2019 [9 favorites]
great article, I'll have to send it to my mother, who loves small galley kitchens. So much so that when they moved into a new place last year she got my dad to move a wall to make the kitchen smaller! it totally broke my brain, but dad was happy to oblige because it gave him a bigger workshop!
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 11:47 AM on May 9, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 11:47 AM on May 9, 2019 [2 favorites]
My apartment's kitchen is more Frankenstein than Frankfurt.
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:55 AM on May 9, 2019
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:55 AM on May 9, 2019
The whole explanation of the size and the outlay and what it meant during those times to women who were either used to having domestic help or cooking in very different circumstances makes total sense. It's interesting to me how a lot of the things we think of as implements of drudgery (washing machines, vacuums, etc.) were often seen as ways of freeing up time, rather than tying one down. Also, that original kitchen's color scheme is so terrific and I want that kitchen!
posted by xingcat at 11:56 AM on May 9, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by xingcat at 11:56 AM on May 9, 2019 [1 favorite]
Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky (1897–2000) was the first Austrian woman ever to qualify as an architect.
posted by hugbucket at 12:18 PM on May 9, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by hugbucket at 12:18 PM on May 9, 2019 [2 favorites]
The Minneapolis Institute of Art has a Frankfurt kitchen.
posted by ALeaflikeStructure at 12:29 PM on May 9, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by ALeaflikeStructure at 12:29 PM on May 9, 2019 [1 favorite]
Oh so you saying that prior to the Frankfurt kitchen, the 'kitchen/living' was open concept? :) sorry jokey trolling.
Also to me, it's kind of funny to declare a 'window over the sink' to be a defining characteristic of the style, yet neither 'official' example posted (Minneapolis, Vienna) have that feature.
posted by The_Vegetables at 1:21 PM on May 9, 2019
Also to me, it's kind of funny to declare a 'window over the sink' to be a defining characteristic of the style, yet neither 'official' example posted (Minneapolis, Vienna) have that feature.
posted by The_Vegetables at 1:21 PM on May 9, 2019
I'll have to send it to my mother, who loves small galley kitchens.
My grandmother was like that, except she always wanted to be able to sleep in her kitchen: if she could decide, she would literally never leave her beloved (small) kitchen. Until I was 12, she had a huge kitchen designed for a bourgeois family with servants, and I think none of us understood why she hated it. I loved that kitchen, and my own kitchen is more like that than the galley kitchen she eventually forced through. But reading this article I can see how the big kitchen was a prison for her generation of women, demanding cleaning and cooking on a professional level when she wanted to read and write and generally do something else. And she was an accomplished and enthusiastic cook, proud of her skills.
Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky is a huge hero of modern architecture, and she deserves every exposure she gets. I've cooked in many Frankfurter-type kitchens and they work entirely as intended.
posted by mumimor at 1:37 PM on May 9, 2019 [2 favorites]
My grandmother was like that, except she always wanted to be able to sleep in her kitchen: if she could decide, she would literally never leave her beloved (small) kitchen. Until I was 12, she had a huge kitchen designed for a bourgeois family with servants, and I think none of us understood why she hated it. I loved that kitchen, and my own kitchen is more like that than the galley kitchen she eventually forced through. But reading this article I can see how the big kitchen was a prison for her generation of women, demanding cleaning and cooking on a professional level when she wanted to read and write and generally do something else. And she was an accomplished and enthusiastic cook, proud of her skills.
Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky is a huge hero of modern architecture, and she deserves every exposure she gets. I've cooked in many Frankfurter-type kitchens and they work entirely as intended.
posted by mumimor at 1:37 PM on May 9, 2019 [2 favorites]
This is super interesting and I very much appreciate the history, but it also sort of represents my ongoing and everlasting misery: that I've never had a comfortable-for-me kitchen in all my adult years (and that's actually a *lot* of years). If you want to cook only the most basic foods with a handful of ingredients and few to no small appliances, the Frankfurt design will be sleek and lovely. But I would sell my soul for a proper pantry, and enough counter space to hold the small appliances I use (or want to use) all the time, plus enough for food preparation, and enough drawers that I don't have to put my silverware and most used utensils into jugs on the countertop, or have one small drawer of spices, and the rest stuffed into boxes tucked here and there around the house, or a box of various teas on the floor of my bedroom, and an ikea bookcase in the hallway to hold actual food items like pastas, canned foods, rices, flour, sugar, jars of stuff, etc. Do you use only white rice, white flour, regular sugar, one type coffee, one type tea? Those adorable built-in canisters will be perfect! But what if you have white rice, long and short, wild rice, brown rice, jasmine rice, risotto rice, couscous, quinoa, polenta and barley? Do you have dried beans? Only one kind? Pasta? Only one kind?
Do you have room for a dishwasher and full-size refrigerator? I don't. Do you use a toaster? I spent such a long, long, long time without a toaster, because no counter space. It's fine, you say, you can just use the oven, you say. But the oven wastes energy, takes forever, and heats the house up, so you don't use the oven (well, I don't). I just basically don't have toast, unless I give up that much space on the counter. Do you use an instant pot or slow cooker? A food processor, electric kettle, blender, microwave, air fryer? Ice cream maker, toaster oven, popcorn popper, bread maker, sou vide cooker? I don't, except for electric kettle, instant pot and microwave (that I've managed to squish by main force into the space, in not the most convenient way), because no counter space and no storage space. Do you regularly use olive oil, peanut oil, vegetable oil, soy sauce(s), vinegars, fish sauce, hot sauce(s), sesame oil, etc? Do you have sliced bread around for sandwiches plus fresh loaf bread to go with meals, and also occasionally tortillas, pitas, etc? Do you ever bake a cake and need to put it somewhere because you don't eat a whole cake in one day? Likewise cookies, or other dessert items? Have you ever had to line up more than two plates to fill and serve?
Where do you keep your cutting boards, chef's knives, storage containers, bakeware, cookware, serving ware, dishes, tea cups, mugs, wine (etc) glasses, and fuck ton of much more speciality bits? (I use stackable bodega glasses for wine and anything similar; I have *no* serving dishes; 4 drinking glasses; 4 mugs; no proper tea cups. The day I have the space to have something like individual ramekins, I will probably weep copiously and expire.)
I already know that the instant reaction will be that I shouldn't be so spoiled/privileged as to want various kinds of rices, spices, beans, oils, etc., etc., but I do like to cook, but not the same stuff all the time, and it's maybe not as spoiled as ordering out/eating out all the time. Our current small kitchen (the largest yet!) actually has enough space for a small table, which means we can spend some time there together while cooking, so not the worst! But man, it's not cook-friendly, and how I would love an actually big-enough kitchen before I die.
posted by taz at 2:00 PM on May 9, 2019 [10 favorites]
Do you have room for a dishwasher and full-size refrigerator? I don't. Do you use a toaster? I spent such a long, long, long time without a toaster, because no counter space. It's fine, you say, you can just use the oven, you say. But the oven wastes energy, takes forever, and heats the house up, so you don't use the oven (well, I don't). I just basically don't have toast, unless I give up that much space on the counter. Do you use an instant pot or slow cooker? A food processor, electric kettle, blender, microwave, air fryer? Ice cream maker, toaster oven, popcorn popper, bread maker, sou vide cooker? I don't, except for electric kettle, instant pot and microwave (that I've managed to squish by main force into the space, in not the most convenient way), because no counter space and no storage space. Do you regularly use olive oil, peanut oil, vegetable oil, soy sauce(s), vinegars, fish sauce, hot sauce(s), sesame oil, etc? Do you have sliced bread around for sandwiches plus fresh loaf bread to go with meals, and also occasionally tortillas, pitas, etc? Do you ever bake a cake and need to put it somewhere because you don't eat a whole cake in one day? Likewise cookies, or other dessert items? Have you ever had to line up more than two plates to fill and serve?
Where do you keep your cutting boards, chef's knives, storage containers, bakeware, cookware, serving ware, dishes, tea cups, mugs, wine (etc) glasses, and fuck ton of much more speciality bits? (I use stackable bodega glasses for wine and anything similar; I have *no* serving dishes; 4 drinking glasses; 4 mugs; no proper tea cups. The day I have the space to have something like individual ramekins, I will probably weep copiously and expire.)
I already know that the instant reaction will be that I shouldn't be so spoiled/privileged as to want various kinds of rices, spices, beans, oils, etc., etc., but I do like to cook, but not the same stuff all the time, and it's maybe not as spoiled as ordering out/eating out all the time. Our current small kitchen (the largest yet!) actually has enough space for a small table, which means we can spend some time there together while cooking, so not the worst! But man, it's not cook-friendly, and how I would love an actually big-enough kitchen before I die.
posted by taz at 2:00 PM on May 9, 2019 [10 favorites]
taz: I would swap with you if I could.
Now I miss my the itty bitty kitchen in my old apartment. If you have one section of actual counter and one oversized cutting board for using the stove or table as a prep surface, there's so little cleaning work to do. I used to be able to scrub everything until it sparkled in an hour. It had a smol dishwasher and a teeny microwave and just enough freezer. Now I have an enormous modern kitchen and it feels like it takes a hundred thousand years to get all its goddamn surfaces clean-ish.
posted by bagel at 2:04 PM on May 9, 2019
Now I miss my the itty bitty kitchen in my old apartment. If you have one section of actual counter and one oversized cutting board for using the stove or table as a prep surface, there's so little cleaning work to do. I used to be able to scrub everything until it sparkled in an hour. It had a smol dishwasher and a teeny microwave and just enough freezer. Now I have an enormous modern kitchen and it feels like it takes a hundred thousand years to get all its goddamn surfaces clean-ish.
posted by bagel at 2:04 PM on May 9, 2019
I have an 84-square-foot kitchen -- it's a 14-foot line (stove, a stretch of counter, sink, another stretch of counter). It was retrofitted to the house in the 1960s; previously, that space was the rear porch. We have no room for a fridge; it lives in our dining room. I believe the room that is now my daughter's bedroom was the original kitchen.
My biggest complaints are that the people who jerry-rigged it on to our 1904 foursquare didn't use the vertical space wisely -- we have a 36-inch soffit that's just empty space -- and they never fixed the plumbing to accommodate a dishwasher.
We'll be doing a reno in the next five years or so and I'm planning to keep the footprint as-is. Much more vertical storage, the loss of some counterspace to move the fridge, the loss of a base cabinet to a dishwasher. No "work triangle" for us -- it'll be a line that two people can ping-pong up and down without crashing into one another.
And I'll leave the 140-square foot dining room alone. I prefer a small, ruthlessly focused task area and then a well-lit space and my big battered oak table and all my friends chatting as we prep and cook and eat together.
I saw the photos from the article and ooohed in delight. A small, well-designed space just feels so much more humane; the little luxury of a reliably comfortable workspace is a balm in a world that so often doesn't seemed designed for anything other than inducing discomfort among its inhabitants.
posted by sobell at 4:42 PM on May 9, 2019 [1 favorite]
My biggest complaints are that the people who jerry-rigged it on to our 1904 foursquare didn't use the vertical space wisely -- we have a 36-inch soffit that's just empty space -- and they never fixed the plumbing to accommodate a dishwasher.
We'll be doing a reno in the next five years or so and I'm planning to keep the footprint as-is. Much more vertical storage, the loss of some counterspace to move the fridge, the loss of a base cabinet to a dishwasher. No "work triangle" for us -- it'll be a line that two people can ping-pong up and down without crashing into one another.
And I'll leave the 140-square foot dining room alone. I prefer a small, ruthlessly focused task area and then a well-lit space and my big battered oak table and all my friends chatting as we prep and cook and eat together.
I saw the photos from the article and ooohed in delight. A small, well-designed space just feels so much more humane; the little luxury of a reliably comfortable workspace is a balm in a world that so often doesn't seemed designed for anything other than inducing discomfort among its inhabitants.
posted by sobell at 4:42 PM on May 9, 2019 [1 favorite]
This is interesting in actually turning the working class European kitchen from a room you did everything in to a primary food processing area. Part of the design is that it’s too inconvenient to sleep in.
There’s a big idea about the Frankfurt kitchen as being a liberating feminist technology, though the reification of the kitchen away from the living area and the rest of the family is perhaps more debatable than that in turning its user into the maid rather than the mistress. As such it’s an interesting use of bourgeois values and machine age specialisation.
It’s perhaps ironic that working class women emerged from the bomb factories of the First World War into the new domestic silos at home. Modernity is a double edged sword sometimes I guess.
posted by Middlemarch at 4:56 PM on May 9, 2019 [4 favorites]
There’s a big idea about the Frankfurt kitchen as being a liberating feminist technology, though the reification of the kitchen away from the living area and the rest of the family is perhaps more debatable than that in turning its user into the maid rather than the mistress. As such it’s an interesting use of bourgeois values and machine age specialisation.
It’s perhaps ironic that working class women emerged from the bomb factories of the First World War into the new domestic silos at home. Modernity is a double edged sword sometimes I guess.
posted by Middlemarch at 4:56 PM on May 9, 2019 [4 favorites]
As with covered outdoor areas, the all-too-frequent lack of rationally-designed kitchens never ceases to baffle me. The world needs far more "systematic" architects!
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:56 PM on May 9, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:56 PM on May 9, 2019 [1 favorite]
I hate so many home kitchens. For some, I'm forced to walk around the island to get to the fridge - or around the corner to get into the pantry. The sink is sometimes placed in the middle of a work space thereby breaking up a perfectly good counter space into two half-productive spaces - generally at least one of which is soaked. The island is massive, or the island has a grill built into it and an oven in entirely the wrong place because the two are disconnected. I've been in some where the stove or the range open into the major traffic flow... In all these cases you get used to it. It isn't a job of efficiency. It isn't a mise en place kitchen... it is routinely a beautiful, top of the line appliance, foodie home... and the kitchen is shows absolutely no thought... And yes, that means... I silently judge all your kitchens based on how work can be optimized in the kitchen... and as a result I hate so so many kitchens.
I won't lie. I bought my house precisely because - while the ladies who owned it before us did very little to maintain the bones of the home - they put in a proper kitchen... with enough work space, and appropriate traffic flows, and an island that protects, and a 2 step zone of control that puts you basically within reach of 80% of everything. Most importantly, there is counter space for work, counter space to segregate vegetables from meats - it is a marvel of efficient production. And amazingly - it is not a galley kitchen. I can operate our kitchen with one, two or 4 people comfortably - and it is not big - it is just... well designed (and at 4 people, the stations start to define themselves)
Space saving is efficiency of space. Small size can improve a zone of control by keeping things close - its the awesomeness of a galley kitchen for one (and sometimes two) people. The Frankfurt kitchen provides efficiency of space, and focuses your attention to the stove - but it is not designed for counter space. It is not designed for heavy duty preparation. It is designed for 20th century modern meals - hamburger helper, green been casserole, and a ham basted in 7-up... (for anyone that has not gone down that rabbit hole yet (previously is huge) (mefi's former own) those are the meals of a Frankfurt kitchen...
posted by Nanukthedog at 6:21 PM on May 9, 2019 [6 favorites]
I won't lie. I bought my house precisely because - while the ladies who owned it before us did very little to maintain the bones of the home - they put in a proper kitchen... with enough work space, and appropriate traffic flows, and an island that protects, and a 2 step zone of control that puts you basically within reach of 80% of everything. Most importantly, there is counter space for work, counter space to segregate vegetables from meats - it is a marvel of efficient production. And amazingly - it is not a galley kitchen. I can operate our kitchen with one, two or 4 people comfortably - and it is not big - it is just... well designed (and at 4 people, the stations start to define themselves)
Space saving is efficiency of space. Small size can improve a zone of control by keeping things close - its the awesomeness of a galley kitchen for one (and sometimes two) people. The Frankfurt kitchen provides efficiency of space, and focuses your attention to the stove - but it is not designed for counter space. It is not designed for heavy duty preparation. It is designed for 20th century modern meals - hamburger helper, green been casserole, and a ham basted in 7-up... (for anyone that has not gone down that rabbit hole yet (previously is huge) (mefi's former own) those are the meals of a Frankfurt kitchen...
posted by Nanukthedog at 6:21 PM on May 9, 2019 [6 favorites]
Oh please, I've made entire Indian curry meals for 10 with only my "good" china etc +corningware outside the actual kitchen. Which, if I bet, could fit it all inside but I'm short person and don't tend to think of pulling out the staircase for plates and stuff I'd need everyday.
The Finnish version of the Frankfurt kitchen is a pleasure. I don't know why the island / public kitchen designers tend to overlook the need to observe and draw flows in the kitchen - the additional necessary time and motion study that public kitchens need. Yes, I've done a project each from the Industrial design perspective as well as the Industrial engineering one. I have 3D spatial sense as a sixth sense ;p
posted by hugbucket at 3:06 AM on May 10, 2019
The Finnish version of the Frankfurt kitchen is a pleasure. I don't know why the island / public kitchen designers tend to overlook the need to observe and draw flows in the kitchen - the additional necessary time and motion study that public kitchens need. Yes, I've done a project each from the Industrial design perspective as well as the Industrial engineering one. I have 3D spatial sense as a sixth sense ;p
posted by hugbucket at 3:06 AM on May 10, 2019
I will admit that at times I feel sorry for the people who have to stand in the doorway while I'm cooking in the kitchen, but that's about it. I can stand in the center of mine and pivot on one foot to touch the sink, fridge, dishwasher, and range. It is glorious. We had to convert half of the hall closet into a pantry, and the liquor cabinet is in a sideboard in the dining room, but I wouldn't have it any other way. In fact, I've considered getting one of those sliding "farmhouse" doors so I can shut it entirely from the dining room.
I heartily disagree that smaller, single-person kitchens are designed for convenience food. I've produced 12-dish Thanksgivings from my dinky 24" / 60cm single-oven electric range (the turkey is done on an outdoor rotisserie, admittedly). The compactness drives the efficiency. When you're only a couple steps away from the furthest cabinet, unloading the dishwasher takes half the time. When your prep counter is right next to your stove which is right next to your sink, you quickly learn to clean as you go. All the larger kitchen gets you is a longer delay between the production of a dirty dish and the need to clean it.
I've cooked in a number of kitchens, and the open, islanded ones are the worst. Who wants to be searing meat, running a fan, and doing dishes right next to people trying to relax?
posted by wnissen at 9:09 AM on May 10, 2019
I heartily disagree that smaller, single-person kitchens are designed for convenience food. I've produced 12-dish Thanksgivings from my dinky 24" / 60cm single-oven electric range (the turkey is done on an outdoor rotisserie, admittedly). The compactness drives the efficiency. When you're only a couple steps away from the furthest cabinet, unloading the dishwasher takes half the time. When your prep counter is right next to your stove which is right next to your sink, you quickly learn to clean as you go. All the larger kitchen gets you is a longer delay between the production of a dirty dish and the need to clean it.
I've cooked in a number of kitchens, and the open, islanded ones are the worst. Who wants to be searing meat, running a fan, and doing dishes right next to people trying to relax?
posted by wnissen at 9:09 AM on May 10, 2019
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posted by OverlappingElvis at 11:06 AM on May 9, 2019 [7 favorites]