The kitchen, technology, and design.

1. THINKTANK VIII
Kitchen Past Future Perfect
by Robin Avni
Oh, my, what a perfect kitchen can beget.
It seems there has always been a great deal of creative synergy between the design of the
automotive industry's concept cars and the futuristic kitchen concepts of the appliance companies.
Both industries offer similar forward-thinking promises to their potential customers: New, sleek and
streamlined product design plus bold advances in technology will eliminate the burdens of chore-
related activities and enhance the overall user experience. There's even a shared fascination and
comparison of American models vs. European models. Is it any wonder that in 1956 the now-classic
promotional film called "Design for Dreaming" combined the two dream worlds into one Technicolor
romp as a well-turned-out lady takes a romantic musical adventure to the General Motors' Motorama
and Frigidare's Kitchen of the Future and finds the man of her dreams?
Hotlink: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNZHWwGhQOw
However, it's more than post-World War II creative concepts that offer insights into the development
of some current kitchen design thinking. A little trip down memory lane, peppered with a bit of
historical reference, can actually reveal how many of today's future kitchen concepts are rooted in
the common sense designs as well as the futuristic predictions of kitchen's past.
Or, as former House Beautiful editor and American industrial design pioneer Sara Little Turnbull was
fond of saying to her students at the Process of Change, Innovation and Design Laboratory at
Stanford: "In order to anticipate the future, one must have some understanding of the past."
KEY THEMES
 Space and LIfe Savers: Kitchen efficiences created a world of new possibilities for women
 The Farm Kitchen: The kitchen has come full circle from where it began
 Tech's Touch in the Kitchen: The kitchen is consistently, over time, the center for tech advancement in
the home
RELATED REPORTS
Kitchen and Bath: Redefining the American Remodel
Modern Country Kitchen: Trend Analysis
Compact Kitchen: Trend Analysis
© ROBIN AVNI

2. -----------------------------
Space and Life Savers
Over the years, one of the key motivators for kitchen future concepts has been the goal of increasing
efficiencies and relieving the drudgery of kitchen tasks. It wasn't just a male mechanical fantasy that
helped improve circumstances. Early American female home economists such as Catharine and
Harriet Beecher Stowe who wrote the 1869 book The American Women's Home had a profound
influence on the layout and design of the modern kitchen including the formation of the kitchen
triangle (sink, refrigerator, stove). And, female German architect Margarete Schutte-Lihotzky design
of the revolutionary Frankfurt Kitchen after World War I contained an ergonomically designed space
with an integrated approach to storage, appliances and work surfaces. Today, that kitchen still
serves at the model for streamlined efficiency.
Schutte-Lihotzky's concepts and other kitchen innovators designs are showcased at the Museum of
Modern Art's current exhibit entitled: Counter Space: Design and the Modern Kitchen through March
14, 2011.
This simple idea of "saving steps" literally became more of a life saver as women spent less time on
mundane tasks and were able to take more time to find self-fulfillment -- as they were no longer tied
to the kitchen by their apron strings.
QUOTE: "The many-splendored thing that is the modern kitchen — as a coherent workspace, object of study
and model of efficiency — began to take shape sometime around 1900. It has been a leading indicator of the
state of design ever since." Roberta Smith, The Heart That Beats, Heats, Chills and Whips, New York Times,
September 19, 2010.
QUOTE: "The exhibit also displayed utilitarian products used then and how they have and have not changed
almost decades later. I think that is what struck me most about this exhibit. Fundamentally, little has changed.
It was fascinating to see stockpots, whisks, colanders, and small appliances that at first glance I thought were
contemporary only to realize they were 1940s originals." Matthew Quinn, Principal and Kitchen Designer,
From "Design for Dreaming" promotional film (32_jpg_rendition_medium)
Circle Kitchen by Compact Concepts
© ROBIN AVNI

3. © Museum of Modern Art A reconstruction of the Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky Frankfurt kitchen from the
Ginnheim-Höhenblick Housing Estate, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Disappearing appliances concepts existed early on in this model kitchen from Libby-Owens-Ford Glass Company
Kitchen of Tomorrow pictured in LIFE magazine 1943
Kitchen Storage Pot 1923 from the MoMA exhibit Staub graphite round dutch over 2010
© ROBIN AVNI

4. The disappearing kitchen reappears with the 2010 Grandma’s Revenge concept kitchen by Melanie
Olle and Ilja Oelschlägel, as seen at www.designboom.com
LEFT: 1968 Italian designer Virgilio Forchiassin collapsible mobile kitchen unit from the MoMA exhibit
RIGHT: Student project 2010 entitled Come Together by Albrecht Seeger and Martin Klinke from
designboom.com
A U-shaped kitchen developed by the housing staff of the
Bureau of Human Nutrition and Home Economics of the United
States in 1949
url: http://www.archive.org/details/StepSavi1949
© ROBIN AVNI

5. The Farm Kitchen
In an odd, and interesting way, even as the kitchen has morphed to accommodate the changing
lifestyle of our modern times -- including center islands and open floor plans -- it has actually
become closer and closer to the hearth room layout in the early American household. Back then
food prep, serving, entertaining, clean-up all occurred in one big open room. It was the emergence
of a servant class intersecting with button-up attitudes about smells and cleanliness that put up
those kitchen walls. And, it was the technological advances that freed a housewife from the drudgery
that brought those same walls back down as she entered the workforce.
What still remains, however, is a deep attachment to the kitchen sentiment of togetherness, warmth
and what makes home, well, home. The continued popularity of the farm kitchen is one of the most
common executions of this ideal. The recent Great Recession fueled the hearth flame even more as
canning and baking have become creative expression, demonstration of love and a symbol of security
all rolled into one crème-filled cupcake. As Americans work their way out of these tough times,
consumers will continue to find solace in the kitchen and define it as the heart of the household.
QUOTE: "The kitchen has undergone tremendous changes since Abigail Adam's days. In one back-to-the-future
respect, however, the new super kitchen resembles her old hearth-centered one. Some two hundred years
later, the kitchen is once again often the home's busiest room, used not just for cooking -- or microwaving --
and eating but also for catching up on the day, paying the bills, and getting help with the homework." Winifred
Gallagher, House Thinking, HarperCollins Publishers (2006).
QUOTE: "Yet as likely as we are to fill our kitchens with efficient production machinery, we also hold on to the
vestiges of old-time kitchens, to cozy symbols of nostalgia. ... For every Sub-Zero refrigerator, there is an
antique apothecary chest; for every restaurant-grad mixer, a Shaker box." Akiko Busch, Geography of a Home,
Princeton Architectural Press (1999).
RIGHT: An early efficiency solution, the Hoosier cabinet was filled with labor and time-saving
conveniences and was one of the earliest design innovations in the modern kitchen.
© ROBIN AVNI

6. LEFT: Martha Stewart's new kitchen line for Home Depot pays homage to the ideal of the farm
kitchen and the design lines of the Hoosier cabinet.
Pottery Barn Thanksgiving Farm Table from potterybarn.com
WGSN ti092227_03.jpg.download Kitchen interior
© ROBIN AVNI

7. The Farm Project, Mike Meiré for Dornbracht from inhabitat.com
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Tech's Touch in the Kitchen
Just as our mothers and grandmothers faced the wonder, confusion, convenience of the icebox,
today's kitchen consumer copes with a dizzying array of buttons and knobs and WiFi frequencies that
make up the modern kitchen. The post-World War II domestic boom in America brought innovations
such as the microwave, the automatic coffeemaker, dishwashers and refrigerator/freezer combos.
Today, advances in technology continue to find an easy entry point through the kitchen door. In
2007, The CABA Digital Kitchen Study from the Internet Home Alliance found that consumers wanted
such items as a recipe projection system, digital calendar, energy usage monitor and controls, a
universal charging station for devices enabling the kitchen to be a control center not an
entertainment center.
Most of the above requests have already come to pass as we now move on to 3-D food printers
fighting for counter space with the Panini press and food processor. Jane Jetson's punch card menu
doesn't seem all that far from becoming reality.
QUOTE: " Electronically controlled cabinets slid down to easy reach with the wave of the hand, and cabinet
doors pop open by light pressure on the front panel. A new appliance provides a choice of cold water, ice
cubes, or crushed ice. For easy reading, recipes are flashed onto a screen when they are placed in a
photographic viewer. The sink provides water at any temperature from a single faucet. An electronic oven rises
at the press of a button, bakes potatoes in five minutes, or roasts a turkey in 45. Even the flour-sifter is motor-
driven.” Kitchen Comeback by, Time Magazine, February 1, 1954.
© ROBIN AVNI

8. From "Design for Dreaming" promotional film The Jetsons © Hanna Barbera
IKEA's 2040 Kitchen Study with The Future Laboratory call "SKARP" included mood-adjusting kitchenware,
remote-controlled cooker and 3-D interactive TV screens on the refrigerator from treehugger.com
CABA: Kitchen as Command Central KBIS.com Digitalfabricator2 3-D food printer from MIT
© ROBIN AVNI

9. Whirlpool's Kitchen of the Future with computer station from www.Davidszondy.com
GE Kitchen of the Future with touchscreens from GEconsumerproducts.com video
Mixed reality kitchen table future experience from Smashinmagazine.com
© ROBIN AVNI