Contemporary kitchen design now takes into account our modern lifestyle.
No longer is the kitchen a place to cook and wash up, but it has become the hub of the family home.breakfast bar Houses being built now tend to have a kitchen/diner concept which extends the available space and alters many of our work-flow patterns as the activities centred in this room are now much more varied and socially engaging. Often we use the kitchen space as an entertaining area, where the cook can interact with guests while preparing food. Families tend to gather together there, not only to eat, but to do the homework, watch TV and to be together.
The resulting increase of available space has led to the fusion of the kitchen and living-room functions, and this has greatly influenced the direction of modern kitchen design dining kitchenthinking. Today designers think about zones, and split the functions of the kitchen into several categories. While there is no agreed and universally used formula, most of the thinking is along similar lines, and these define the categories as consumable storage, non consumable storage, preparation, cooking, washing up, serving and eating. Naturally there are also socialising zones but for simplicity we will concentrate on the kitchen functions only.
The basic objective of the working triangle concept is to minimise the distance between the three main areas of storage, cleaning and cooking, and this concept still holds true, but by considering zones we analyse in greater depth the requirements of cooking activities and equipment and materials used. Zone concepts allow designers to expand on the older theory and take into account many of the modern techniques and appliances which did not actually exist when the working triangle was originally devised.
By considering zones the designer thinks as much about the design of cupboard space and appliance housings as about the spacing and positioning of the elements. Zones are designed to accommodate the utensils and appliances which we take for granted today, and which could result in a multi-triangle situation under old thinking. With zones, multi-triangle concepts work.
Before proceeding it’s essential to realise that in some u-kitchencircumstances, where space is limited, the working triangle may still the best model to use. If your kitchen is from the period when kitchens were just for cooking, it may be difficult to take full advantage of some zone concepts, simply due to limited space, but many of the ideas will help you to think about the design of cupboard internals, and how you organise the space behind your door fronts.
