Technicalization
The idea of standardized dimensions and layout developed for the
Frankfurt kitchen took hold. The equipment used remained a
standard for years to come: hot and cold water on tap and a
kitchen sink and an electrical or gas stove and oven. Not much
later, the refrigerator was added as a standard item. The
concept was refined in the "Swedish kitchen" using unit
furniture with wooden fronts for the kitchen cabinets. Soon the
concept was amended by the use of smooth synthetic door and
drawer fronts, first in white, recalling a sense of cleanliness
and alluding to sterile lab or hospital settings, but soon after
in lively, friendly colors, too. A trend began in the 1940s in
the United States to equip the kitchen with electrified small
and large kitchen appliances such as blenders, toasters, and
later also microwave ovens. Following the end of World War II,
massive demand in Europe for low-price, high-tech consumer goods
led to Western European kitchens being designed to accommodate
new appliances such as refrigerators and electric/gas cookers.
Parallel to this development in tenement buildings went the
evolution of the kitchen in homeowner's houses. There, the
kitchens usually were somewhat larger, suitable for everyday use
as a dining room, but otherwise the ongoing technicalization was
the same, and the use of unit furniture became a standard also
in this market sector.
General technocentric enthusiasm even led some designers to take
the "work kitchen" approach even further, culminating in
futuristic designs like Luigi Colani's "kitchen satellite"
(1969, commissioned by the German high-end kitchen manufacturer
Poggenpohl for an exhibit), in which the room was reduced to a
ball with a chair in the middle and all appliances at arm's
length, an optimal arrangement maybe for "applying heat to
food", but not necessarily for actual cooking. Such
extravaganzas remained outside the norm, though.
In the former Eastern bloc countries, the official doctrine
viewed cooking as a mere necessity, and women should work "for
the society" in factories, not at home. Also, housing had to be
built at low costs and quickly, which led directly to the
standardized apartment block using prefabricated slabs. The
kitchen was reduced to the max and the "work kitchen" paradigm
taken to its extremes: in East Germany for instance, the
standard tenement block of the model "P2" had tiny 4 mē kitchens
in the inside of the building (no windows), connected to the
dining and living room of the 55 mē apartment and separated from
the latter by a pass-through or a window.
Starting in the 1980s, the perfection of the extractor hood
allowed an open kitchen again, integrated more or less with the
living room without causing the whole apartment or house to
smell. Before that, only a few earlier experiments, typically in
newly built upper middle class family homes, had open kitchens.
Examples are Frank Lloyd Wright's House Willey (1934) and House
Jacobs (1936). Both had open kitchens, with high ceilings (up to
the roof) and were aired by skylights. The extractor hood made
it possible to build open kitchens in apartments, too, where
both high ceilings and skylights were not possible.
The re-integration of the kitchen and the living area went hand
in hand with a change in the perception of cooking:
increasingly, cooking was seen as a creative and sometimes
social act instead of work, especially in upper social classes.
Besides, many families also appreciated the trend towards open
kitchens, as it made it easier for the parents to supervise the
kids while cooking. The enhanced status of cooking also made the
kitchen a prestige object for showing off one's wealth or
cooking professionalism. Some architects have capitalized on
this "object" aspect of the kitchen by designing freestanding
"kitchen objects". However, like their precursor, Colani's
"kitchen satellite", such futuristic designs are exceptions.
Another reason for the trend back to open kitchens (and a
foundation of the "kitchen object" philosophy) is changes in how
food is prepared. Whereas in the 1950s most cooking started out
with raw ingredients and a meal had to be prepared for real, the
advent of frozen meals and pre-prepared convenience food changed
the cooking habits of many people, who consequently used the
kitchen less and less. For others, who followed the "cooking as
a social act" trend, the open kitchen had the advantage that
they could be with their guests while cooking, and for the
"creative cooks" it might even become a stage for their cooking
performance.
A refrigerator (often shortened to fridge) is an electrical or
gas appliance that uses refrigeration to help preserve food. A
domestic refrigerator is present in 99.5% of American homes. It
works using phase change heat pumps operating in a refrigeration
cycle. An industrial refrigerator is simply a refrigerator used
in an industrial setting, usually in a restaurant or
supermarket.
They may consist of either a cooling compartment only (a larger
refrigerator) or a freezing compartment only (a freezer) or
contain both. The dual compartment was introduced commercially
by General Electric in 1939. Some refrigerators are now divided
into four zones for the storage of different types of food:
-18C (0F) (freezer)
0C (32F) (meats)
4C (40F) (refrigerator)
10C (50F) (vegetables)
The capacity of a refrigerator is measured in litres (or cubic
feet). Typically the freezer volume is 100 litres (this will
vary) and the refrigerator 140 litres.
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