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Thursday, January 08, 2004

This, this is what I hunger for:  kitchen as workshop.  Witold Rybcynzki writes in Home:  A Short History of an Idea: The modern kitchen, in which everything is hidden in artfully designed cabinets, looks well organized, like a bank office.  But a kitchen does not function like an office; if anything, it is more like a workshop.  Tools should be out in the open, where they are accessible, near those places where the work is done, not secreted below counters or in deep, difficult-to reach cupboards.  The need for different work-surface heights was identified a long time ago, but kitchens continue to have uniform counters, of standardized heights and width, finished in the same material.  This neatness and uniformity follow the modern dictum requiring lack of clutter and visual simplicity, but they do little to improve working comfort. Maybe what I need to do is take a little trip, sketchbook in hand, to a certain Smithsonian exhibit.  Or just sit and think for a while about what I do in my kitchen, and why and what currently frustrates me.  That would be a bit less expensive (though not as much fun and I do have great regard for Julia; she was the real thing). comment []10:50:04 PM

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