Right in the middle. The kitchen

Finding the right holiday home is no easy task, not as a couple, not as a family, and cer­tainly not tog­ether with friends. There are simply too many dif­ferent needs. Par­ti­cu­larly the kitchen is a room where ideas diverge: While some want an open kitchen as a place for socia­lising, others are bothered by untidy dishes and the smell of food in the living room and would prefer to lock both away behind a door. The appli­ances and utensils are also often checked in advance: Is there a dish­washer, enough pans, a Bialetti?

Every good party ends in the kitchen – we all know that. The kitchen is a cosy place for informal get-tog­e­thers, where you can com­mu­nicate in peace while stirring some­thing in pots or washing up on the side. Even hundreds of years ago, the kitchen was already the centre of every household – at that time, however, mainly because it was the warmest room in the house. There are many stages along the way from the open hearth to the modern kitchen: from the so-called black kitchen of the Middle Ages to the separate kit­chens of the aris­to­cracy to the Frankfurt kitchen. The latter was designed by the Viennese architect Mar­garete Schütte-Lihotzky in the 1920s – ever­y­thing was to be space-saving, exten­dable or foldable in the smallest pos­sible space so that the woman still had enough time for the family in addition to kitchen work. The trend towards smaller and smaller kit­chens, which peaked in the 1970s, has reversed over the last few decades. In fact, no room reflects social change more than the kitchen.

In the meantime, cooking itself has become socially accep­table – indeed, more than that: It is an expression of an attitude to life and an important aspect of social inter­action. As a result, the kitchen is also moving spa­tially (and sty­li­sti­cally) towards the living room. The kitchen becomes a room within a room – sepa­rated from the living room only, if at all, by a counter or a cooking island. Cooking becomes an expe­rience, thou­sands of cook­books are published every year, there are countless cooking shows and, more recently, even more blogs and Instagram accounts showing the best recipes from the most exquisite pumpkin-apple tart to Japanese mochi ice cream. As early as the 1980s Otl Aicher described the social function of cooking in his book “Die Küche zum Kochen. Werk­statt einer neuen Lebens­kultur” [“The Kitchen for Cooking. Workshop of a new Life­style”], a plea for the open kitchen as the centre of living tog­ether. In par­ti­cular, he empha­sised the importance of optimal equipment in the kitchen: the right chair, optimal lighting, perfect kitchen appli­ances. Today, func­tion­ality and design are on an equal footing in the kitchen – whereby men in par­ti­cular in addition to cooking like to phi­lo­so­phise about the quietest dish­washer or the best knife shar­pener. And as far as design is con­cerned: Everyone wants to be able to express freely their per­sonal style even in the kitchen without having to sacrifice prac­ti­cality, whether indus­trial chic, Scan­di­navian hygge or elegant sim­plicity. But the kitchen always remains one thing: a place of informal exchange, in the middle of the action.

In many holiday homes, too, the kitchen is a central room – often even the largest, while the bed­rooms become purely func­tional rooms. This is for­t­unate for all those who like to cook tog­ether on holiday, whether as a family or with friends. However, kitchen equipment and the demands placed on it vary greatly. Some­times you are delighted with the clear sim­plicity of the interior design of a house, until you realise that this also con­tinues inside the kitchen cup­boards, and you have to wash up imme­diately after dinner to have clean plates for breakfast. Or because there aren’t enough pots, you have to cook the pasta for the com­munal cooking event in three stages. In other kit­chens on the other hand, you may even find a juicer or a blender – and when things are going really well, even a milk frother. But that’s so rare that actually it’s always part of our luggage – or we buy another one, mean­while we already have three.

Our own kitchen is an open one – it seems we are (still) in line with the trend. Nothing can be locked away, so the equipment is of course very important to us. We cer­tainly won’t install a door, but some­times there are cin­namon buns – and for­t­u­nately we all like the smell.

Text: Tina Barankay, December 2021

About the author: Tina Barankay has been com­bining her passion for aes­thetics and design with her pro­fes­sional acti­vities for many years, among others as an editor for the archi­tecture magazine DETAIL. As a free­lance jour­nalist and con­sultant, she publishes articles, pro­duces publi­ca­tions and designs com­mu­ni­cation con­cepts in the fields of archi­tecture, interior design and design.

A small addendum:

We are very pleased about the num­erous comments under the last Posi­tions and are happy to exchange views with you. In con­nection with the topic of the kitchen, we would be inte­rested to know what you often miss in your holiday home or perhaps even always have in your holiday luggage. Perhaps a milk frother?