
The Frankfurt Kitchen - allthebest
https://www.citylab.com/design/2019/05/modern-kitchen-history-design-ideas-domestic-architecture/586345/
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sandworm101
Typical architect opinion on a room. An entire article about household
kitchens without a single mention of what they actually do: cook food.

Our kitchens have evolved with our foods. The 1950's taste for boiled whole
vegetables and large roasts worked well in tiny kitchens. You didn't need much
space for prep. The large and segmented cabinets organized everything out of
sight because that made things look more clean.

Modern tastes require more prep space. More countertop for chopping
vegetables. Enough room so you aren't slicing chicken breasts in the same area
you are prepping the salad. Kitchens are also no longer the domain of the
housewife. It is normal for multiple people to use a kitchen. So we need more
space and better visibility. Cabinets have been replaced with shelves, or
glass doors, because the person cooking is no longer always the person that
does the shopping.

Stainless steel and better container tech means we are no longer ashamed of
our kitchen utensils. We don't hide rusty pots or knives away in cabinets. We
hang them proudly on hooks.

~~~
tonyedgecombe
The main problem I have with these integrated kitchens is once one piece
starts to fail you end up replacing the whole thing or else making do until
enough of it fails. It's like the distinction between an iMac and a
traditional PC.

~~~
atoav
Not sure, how it should fail tho. I have seen integrated kitchens that are
double my age and are still doing well.

If a door fails, getting a new one is not hard. Exchanging the work surface is
usually totally doable. if some sink falls apart this is a bit more
problematic, but also not a huge problem. Exchanging a fridge or a stove?
Easy, as long as you don't buy the wrong size.

Of all the spaces I lived in the places that had the most broken kitchens,
were always those where each element was seperatly movable, because having
your stuff firmly mounted and reducing the places where liquid and dirt can go
greatly improves the lifetime of the thing.

This is a European perspective tho, Americans might have different integrated
kitchens, I am not that familiar with the differences there.

~~~
black_puppydog
Had the same reaction. I sent the article to my family and got a photo as a
reply of my Frankfurt grandmother standing next to her Frankfurt kitchen.
Integration and serviceability are not 100% opposed. IMHO it's warped profit
seeking that makes them seem like they are.

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geff82
Nice :) Tomorrow, I am visiting a potential new home which has the original
Frankfurt Kitchen architecture (not the original appliances), from the
original architect (Ernst May). While the house is 90 years old, it has been
well kept to the point that most people think it is quite new.

~~~
simonebrunozzi
Why don't you post a few pictures here? I would be curious to see one.

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majos
I usually interpret a "dream" kitchen like the one shown in the article as
evidence that a person doesn't really like cooking. I just don't get how
somebody can cook frequently and even semi-seriously and have the fridge,
sink, and stove all two or three yards apart. I would think most people who
dig cooking would take a Frankfurt kitchen with decent appliances over a huge,
airy space with great appliances.

My current setup is like a galley kitchen except one wall is missing and opens
onto the main living room, so I can prep or do dishes while talking to people.
Maybe people more sensitive to cooking smells disagree, but I think kitchens
are best when they aren't separate rooms.

~~~
wastedhours
> I would think most people who dig cooking would take a Frankfurt kitchen
> with decent appliances over a huge, airy space with great appliances.

Not for me - I'm not a professional chef, but I love cooking, especially meals
for family and friends. In doing that it usually means people congregate in
the kitchen (which is fun), but would cause havoc if it were compact.

I'd love a kitchen like the "dream" one - a Wolf burner, double open fridge,
island for prepping, and space for people to be there, rather than crammed off
in a corner to make it slightly more efficient.

Diff'rent strokes I guess!

EDIT: also, the Frankfurt kitchen seems optimised for actually "cooking", over
and above other kinds of food prep. I'd take a massive worksurface for mixing
and forming, over being closer to the oven or sink.

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oftenwrong
previously discussed here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18013286](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18013286)

~~~
dang
Great find. Since the OP is a new and interesting article, and Frankfurt
kitchens (who had heard of them?) are not at high risk of being overcovered on
HN, I think we'll not treat this post as a dupe.

~~~
simonebrunozzi
Well done, agree with the decision, plus I don't mind a fresher discussion on
Frankfurt kitchens.

Off-topic: I guess moderators learn about A LOT of stuff, simply by
moderating. I guess that's a small perk for the job :)

~~~
dang
You would think so, but it's more like this:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8123267](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8123267).
After a while, you're not really taking a lot in.

(That's not a complaint! there are other advantages and it's a learning
experience in many ways.)

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adamson
Do people find that time spent in motion or moving between tasks is ever the
determining factor of how quickly or effectively you can prepare a meal in the
context of a home kitchen? Granted, I've rarely cooked for more than ~4
people, I've never stopped and thought "wow, if only the cupboard with x in it
were a few feet closer to the stove, I could have cut three minutes off my
prep work."

It's unclear to me how Taylorism could have been applied in a transformative
way to kitchen layout.

~~~
atoav
If you are a designer (or have the mindset of one) you can spend a significant
amount of time thinking about this. Both my girlfriend and I are rooted in
design and we were thinking 3 days about how to order things in the kitchen,
where to put the sink, the stove, the fridge, preperation areas, cuttlery,
garbage, etc. We drew out the routes and movements for common tasks on each
variant and iterated through it, till we got a combination that seemed to be
very efficient and didn't look too odd.

And it totally paid off. Investing a few days of thinking and planing to avoid
something that might annoy you for years to come is totally worth it.

~~~
alexhawdon
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen_work_triangle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen_work_triangle)

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yboris
Reminds me of the 2003 Norwegian comedy _Kitchen Stories_

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen_Stories](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen_Stories)

> Swedish efficiency researchers come to Norway to study Norwegian men, in an
> effort to help optimize their use of their kitchens.

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rangersanger
You could even have your own!

[https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/storage-case-
pieces/cupboa...](https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/storage-case-
pieces/cupboards/rare-margarete-schutte-lihotzky-frankfurt-kitchen-
frankfurter-kuche/id-f_757459/)

