THE MODERN HOME

Northern Advocate, 31 December 1934, Page 7

THE MODERN HOME

| SCIENTIFIC CONSTRUCTION. | KITCHEN APPOINTMENTS. i (No. 1.) The need for large kitchens especially in the small house exists no longer. Small houses are usually located in suburban communities in close proximity to supply agencies. The accessibility of the many small grocery and supply stores now located everywhere throughout suburban communities the compulsion or even the desirability of buying supplies in large quantities is not now present. In consequences, storage requirements have dwindled to the area occupied by dishes, pots and pans, cleaning materials and staple foods, many of which are boxed or tinned. The space that held the sack of potatoes and the swing-out barrel of flour—a highly desirable feature a few years ago—is now more intensively used. The resulting arrangement of equipment permits a decrease in space that heretofore would have been impossible.

Nor are these the only causes for the changes in kitchen requirements. A changed mode of living turned the kitchen Into a domestic manufacturing unit at the same time that the “front parlour” became a living room. The extension of outside activity—the increased popularity of the automobile and the movie theatre —has given housewives the incentive to spend less and less time in the kitchen. The result is a desire for a space large enough to contain equipment and to provide storage and a comfortable working area but small enough for the performance of kitchen operations with a minimum of effort.

The position of the kitchen in relation to the rest of the house needs a clarifying statement. First of all it should be removed from the living quarters, not because it is unpleasant but because it has a definite function of utility and should not intrude upon rooms planned primarily for comfort and relaxation. Nevertheless it should be easily accessible to them, to an outside entrance, and to the other service portions of the house.

The kitchen should be considered as a unit complete it itself. Rational sanitary measures forbid the use of laundry tubs therein—though a provision for ironing clean clothes may save housekeeper time and cannot be objected to as regards sanitation. The size of the kitchen is regulated in part by the family size, scale of living and domestic organisation. The most important single item in the design of a kitchen is the arrangement of the equipment. In every case the arrangement of equipment units—regardless of size—should be determined by an analysis of the work to be performed. In general the kitchen activities may be divided into two distinct parts (1) the preparation, cooking and serving of food, and (2) clearing away, dishwashing and restoring.

The kitchen should be planned to follow this sequence most easily and quickly, and every effort should be made to build the room around the equipment necessary to this accomplishment.

Most kitchen work is performed standing up, especially the operations which utilise the sink and stove. Units therefore should be of a height to allow free arm movements without the need for bending over or straining up.

The units of a kitchen should be so arranged that normal, centres of activity are developed. Nearly every kitchen operation involves the use of the stove, the sink, the refrigerator or safe, and a storage cabinet. In addition, counter space sufficient to hold raw materials, domestic appliances and containers is a necessity. AH of these units should be grouped together to be easily accessible to each other, an ideal arrangement being one where no more than two steps would be encessary to working with them.

The seiwing of food requires a different series of operations, somewhat removed from the area of preparation, and concerned with an area—the dining room or a dining alcove—which adjoins the kitchen and is separated either by a swinging door, an open archway or sometimes only by a balustrade.

In the small house the pantry has no place. The space it requires should be used as a dining alcove or included in the normal living areas of the house —the dining or living rooms. Its function, however, must be included in the kitchen and cabinets for the storage of china, glass, silver and linen should be located near the entrance to the dining room, but close enough to the centre of preparation to conserve steps in serving and clearing away.

If the kitchen is built too small there may be a lack of aedquate counter space for the deposit of soiled dishes, pots and pans etc. A small table of counter height size about 18 inches by 30 inches, and mounted on small rubber tyred wheels, to serve the triple purpose of work table, portable serving table and additional counter space. Without doubt it is a valuable piece of equipment, and space for its storage when not in active use should be provided in the kitchen layout. Many refinements, small in themselves, aid geratly to the ease of maintenance and the lessening of labour in the kitchen work.

In general, equipment should extend to the floor, however in front of counters used continually in work centres such as sink benches etc., a recessed space about 4 inches high and 4 inches deep should be built for toe space to prevent strain and stubbing the toes against the fixtures and cupboards.

All shelves for the storage of dishes and food supplies and in fact all shplf space should be closed in and protected from dust and flies by cabinet doors, and doors should be hung so that when open the interior of the cupboard faces the working centre.

The height to which cabinet shelving should extend will depend somewhat upon the amount of storage required. If above the average person’s reach—about 7 feet—space

should be provided in the plan for a small portable stepladder, or the top shelves are useless. It is desirable that the kitchen have a maximum of natural light. Windows occupy wall space and in the small house such space is at a premium and. windows should be about 48 inches from floor to sill and placed towards the exposure that will give the maximum light intensity.