Since we're considering renovations right now, my spouse passed on @lloydalter's article about kitchen design. A lot of really good (and new to me) stuff in it and I appreciate the angle.

A few caveats though, particularly about gender. [thread] https://www.treehugger.com/kitchen-of-the-future-kitchen-from-the-past-5101694

My favorite part about it was that it went straight to a personal catchphrase of mine when looking at kitchens (I think a lot about kitchens whenever we've considered moving), which is, "the kitchen is industrial space!" 2/

The kitchen is one of maybe two rooms in any standard house or apartment that includes multiple pieces of heavy machinery for direct industrial use. (The other being the laundry.) Yes, some houses will have shed or garage workshops in them. But almost every one has a kitchen. 3/

Why does it sound strange to call the kitchen industrial space? Because it's been gendered female in the past, of course, and women supposedly don't do something so un-trivial as "industry." 4/

So to get to my main critique of the article before I get back to some things I really liked about it: The mid-century kitchen has loads of things to like about it (many derived from the Frankfurt Kitchen). But it's designed for just one person. 5/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt_kitchen

The implicit assumption in these 20th century kitchens is that one person will be doing all of the work in them. Specifically, a woman, and more specifically, a housewife. The modern kitchen gained closure in form around that central actor. 6/

The test of this is simple -- as Alter's article shows, Thye's kitchen design allows for economy of movement and availability if a single person is doing all of the work, possibly with one helper.

Now look at the design and imagine two people trying to work there. 7/

Two people trying to simultaneously do significant cooking work will repeatedly bump into each other, knock elbows, and otherwise disrupt each other during difficult processes. The design of the kitchen itself reinforces the role of solo cook. 8/

For some households (such as ones with a single adult in them, kids or no kids), that's not such a bad thing!

But it doesn't fit all household types or arrangements for food preparation, the stress of which has driven kitchen design absolutely bonkers. 9/

For starters, let's consider the "kitchen for someone who doesn't cook much." Let me emphasize that there is NO SHAME not cooking. But if you're not, why have a jumbo fridge and two-chamber, four-eye gas range? 10/ https://twitter.com/EricaJoy/status/1355954859179040768

Cooking is a major task and in many households it makes a lot of sense to outsource that work somehow, either by buying largely prepared foods or simply getting a lot of take-out. Small ranges and small fridges are easily available.

So why don't you see them more?
11/

Because "cooking at home" has been declared more virtuous, and eating out too much is considered lazy. This effectively makes the assumption of women's labor for free, of course. But small appliances mean somehow you're actually admitting you're lazy. 12/

At the other end of the spectrum, I see absolutely enormous kitchens built with huge appliances and tons of counter space, but all kinds of collisions inherently built into the form. Some of these work well for a single cook but no more. 13/

Others have room for multiple cooks but design in collisions by placing either the sink or the fridge in some awkward spot that you can't get to. Still others put major household walkways straight through the main industrial spaces, ensuring frustration. 14/

So anyway, way too many kitchens right now are overbuilt and expensive for their purposes but full of nonsensical design. That's the main point I'm willing to stand up on.

Keep reading if you want my weird home-cooked kitchen rating system. 15/

My little numbering system breaks down kitchen occupancy into three categories of people who might be using it.

To do this, I want to return to the "kitchen triangle" that Alter's article explains well: Fridge, sink, range. 16/

Multiple people in a kitchen might use the sink for various tasks. Mutliple people might want to access the fridge.

But in most cases, it's hard for more than one person to actively use a range at the same time. (Doing so requires two cooks who know each other well). 17/

So, the first capacity limit that most kitchens have is how many cooks can easily access the full "kitchen triangle" at the same time.

In almost all modern kitchens, this number is 1. 18/

If the oven and cooktop are separated, maybe this is 2. In a fancy well designed kitchen with two ranges it could be 2. I have never seen a 3 in a residence.

Because the first number requires
1) exclusive use of the oven or cooktop
and
2) easy access to sink and fridge. 19/

Repeating what I said above, I firmly believe more kitchens should exist where this number is proudly and unambiguously a 0. It means cooking isn't a priority, so you've saved $3k or more in equipment by not overdoing it. 20/

The second number in the ranking system is the number of people who can be actively helping to prepare food but who aren't accessing the range. This can be lots of things but the main thing I think about is chopping.

Notably, they'll still need to access the sink. 21/

Oh, and fridge too of course. Even though this requires no range space, it requires work space, either at a counter or a table of some sort. It also requires clean lines along it own triangle between fridge-sink-workspace. And those lines intersect with others. 22/

A kitchen only qualifies as supporting a person in any of these categories not only if the movements are easy, but if they don't require sidling closely behind someone who is either handling a hot stove, sharp knives, or possibly something tricky and fragile. 23/

Remember, the kitchen is industrial space! A factory floor that let that happen would be unsafe too!
24/

The third and last number in the system might be called "loiterers." These are people who can be in the kitchen to chat or maybe do a simple side thing (like snapping beans, say) but can't really be full-on cooks. I like people loitering while I cook so this isn't trivial! 25/

Last rule: in general, something that's helpful for numbering a kitchen is that in pretty much every kitchen, the numbers scale down. If no one's using the range, a 1+1+0 kitchen can still support two people chopping vegetables at the same time or two people chatting. 26/

As a baseline, a lot of newly built, reasonably designed kitchens I see score in at 1+1+2 -- one cook in front of hot elements, one doing active prep, two people chilling or pouring drinks or something. 27/

That horrid kitchen Erica Joy tweeted above is an extremely large and expensive 0+1+2. That's what makes it so awful -- there's probably $10k of fancy cooking equipment in there when half the square footage and $1k would have accomplished the same. 28/

And this is my deal with my fancy ranking system -- I hate hate hate seeing huge kitchens with expensive appliances that function no better than an efficiency kitchenette. If you spend a lot of money, you should either want a 2+3+4 so you can throw a 50 person party. 29/

If you're not throwing a 50 person party, what the hell do you need that gigantic kitchen for? Similarly, an apartment kitchen for a single person working two jobs should be a proud and inexpensive 0+1+2 kitchen. Don't waste people's money on dumb stuff. 30/

Last point: Big kitchens (2+x+x) are an important and undersupplied resource, but they shouldn't all be stuck in private residences. Commercial kitchen shares made the food truck boom possible, but friends getting together to do mass food prep should be easier! 31/

Church kitchens (and those attached to other worship spaces) have filled this role but we under-appreciate them. So many home kitchens are overbuilt to account for the occasional big cooking project. But what if you could do that in a REALLY nice kitchen when you wanted? 32/

So last point: fewer useless giganto-kitchens and over-equipped apartment kitchens, more kitchens designed for communal cooking! 33/EOL