Kitchen Designers Try New Angles to Fit Our Lifestyles

By Jaci Conry, Boston Globe Correspondent | December 29, 2005

The kitchen ''work triangle" has long been the measure of efficiency of a kitchen arrangement. Developed in the 1950s by the University of Illinois Small Homes Council, the work triangle is a line drawn among the key locales in the kitchen: from the range to the refrigerator to the sink area to the range. These lines were supposed to form a balanced triangle, a measure of distance traveled between the major kitchen work areas. A designer or homeowner could project the efficiency of a proposed kitchen plan by analyzing the triangle.

The triangle concept took hold a generation ago, when mom cooked by herself and then brought the food out to the rest of family. Kitchens, as we all know, are far more than the utilitarian rooms they used to be.

''The kitchen is the center for family life," said Medford architect Diane Miller. ''People tend to spend more time [when they're awake] in the kitchen than anywhere else in the house."

The room has also become social central, the spot where friends and family congregate, and during ''quiet time" it's often the place where kids choose to do their homework and where mom and dad go through the bills.

According to Sean Ruck of the National Kitchen and Bath Association, although the triangle concept is still taught to kitchen architect and design students, with such an array of practical, technical, and aesthetic considerations involved in kitchen design today, many experts are putting far less emphasis on it.

Take, for instance, the luxury contemporary kitchen showroom Arclinea, designed and coordinated by acclaimed Italian architect and designer Antonio Citterio. According to Philip Guarino, who launched Arclinea's first United States showroom in Boston in 2001, Arclinea's take on design consists of applying the technology and solutions of a professional kitchen to home kitchen design. Specifically, the company believes kitchens should be designed according to how its owners move and how they cook.

''The triangle concept is based on the placement of appliances. Arclinea isn't focused on that," said Guarino. ''We emphasize movements, ergonomics, and space efficiency. We feel the design of the kitchen should be much less about the space, the dimensions of a room, and more about how one operates within the space."

For example, he explained, one client might love to bake. Therefore, the kitchen might accommodate him by creating baking centers with lower-than-standard counter heights, perfect for kneading bread, and workspaces where everything is close at hand so it's not necessary to stretch for measuring cups and ingredients.

''For a baker, the ideal work surface is marble," he continued. ''However, for someone who uses sharp knives constantly, that wouldn't be the appropriate counter."

The kitchens of Italians, who tend to have very little space in general, are recognized for their efficiency, their ability to organize available space in the best possible way. According to Guarino, Americans, on the other hand, tend to think that they need more space, particularly for storage. As a result, he said, space is often wasted. For example, in many American-designed kitchens the top shelves of cabinets, or even entire cabinets like those on top of the refrigerator, aren't used because people can't comfortably access them.

''Our clients often say they need tons of cubic storage," he said. ''We really get into that with them. Usually they can make do with far less than they think."

Another marked difference between Italian kitchen design and a domestic one, said Guarino, is that here, kitchen cabinetry is considered storage. In Italy, it's regarded as kitchen furniture. They want clean lines in the kitchen, not a lot of bulk.

Mary Ann Agresti, an architect for over 15 years who operates her own Boston firm, the Design Initiative Inc., agreed with Guarino about contemporary design trends presently taking the forefront, particularly in the kitchen. ''Many clients are looking for European looks in the kitchen. They want very sleek design, clean lines," she said.

''About seven years ago everybody wanted to tear down the wall between the kitchen and the living room. Clients would say, 'We really want to open this up,' " she recalled. ''Now there's more focus on how the kitchen looks. . . . People are considering how it appears when looking at it from the living room. They want their kitchens to be furniturelike, not just efficient."

For example, people may opt to put cabinets up on feet to make them look more like freestanding furniture. Another way of achieving the furniture look, according to Ruck, is to bring more wood into the kitchen. ''It's becoming more common to hide appliances, such as refrigerators and dishwashers, with wood paneling, and even to craft wood hood covers over stoves." Putting in hardwood floors, rather than tile, can help create a more furniturelike environment, as can emphasis on kitchen walls.

''When walls are opened up, more light filters into the room, and more windows can be added," said Miller. To this end, upper cabinets are losing favor to lower cabinets, drawers, and open shelves in particular, which really accentuate clean lines, provided that you can keep them clean.

Arclinea kitchens incorporate this aesthetic as well, using minimal overhead cabinetry and creative shelving options such as boxes nailed to the wall. The company also replaces cabinets with deep drawers, particularly under sinks. In some cases, Miller added, people opt to get rid of cabinets in place of the re-emerging pantry, which has the capacity to hold far more than typical cabinets.

Also emerging is the need for the kitchen to be expandable and collapsible. On weeknights, people need to be able to navigate their kitchen quickly when preparing a simple meal. As a result, designers are creating quick prep areas where a small sink, cutting board, and microwave are close together. Such areas may be located in a corner or, if space allows, in a small butler's pantry of the kitchen.

Agresti and Miller agree that interest in kitchen ergonomics has grown. To this end, stoves are being moved from below the cooktop to higher locations (often in the middle of upper and lower cabinets) and waist-high produce drawers are being added to refrigerators. It's becoming more common to find drawers that slide out next to the stove for spices, as people are realizing the benefits of having the things they use most close at hand.

As kitchens are more regarded as living spaces, people are looking for ways to make the room more sociable. What makes a space sociable? ''A place where you can feel an emotional connection between the people who live there, the furnishings, and the architecture," noted Johnny Grey, a Hampshire, England, kitchen designer, in Kitchens and Baths, an annual publication of Fine Homebuilding. That's one of the appeals of the near-ubiquitous kitchen island: ''If a cooktop or work-prep area is on an island, people can sit around the island and converse with the cook and the cook can feel like they're part of the socializing going on," said Miller. A throwback to Colonial times, a kitchen fireplace can also bring a welcoming atmosphere to the room. Including an accompanying seating area adds even more warmth.

Agresti said that maintaining the balance between aesthetics and function amid all the expansions of purpose can be challenging, and there's no design method she consistently follows. ''I wouldn't say that we abide by the work triangle in our designs and we don't bring it up to our clients," she said. ''However the concept seems to help people understand kitchen design. They want to know where the stove is when you're working at the sink."

What helps both her and her clients to grasp the way the room will function is building a cardboard model of the kitchen. ''The model is a very handy working piece. We can move the appliances and cabinetry around and cut windows where they actually are," she said. ''It makes such a difference; you can really envision yourself in the space."

Miller, however, stands behind the triangle, ''still a very important standard of measuring kitchen design," she said. ''Of course, it can be difficult to work with as there's now a tendency to want kitchens to be bigger and bigger. The triangle gets stretched."

Ruck said that in a reasonably sized kitchen the triangle is a good way to project the room's efficiency. ''However," he pointed out, ''in a bigger kitchen the method doesn't really hold true."

Perhaps in the not-so-distant future kitchens will become smaller and less complex, reviving the triangle. Even with new ideas, no idea is ever dead. ''With kitchen design," Ruck said, ''it usually seems the opposite of what is in becomes popular next."