Form follows the function also in the kitchen…

Article for Slovak magazine TOP kuchyne (TOP kitchen), 10/2016
text: MEng. MArch. Gabriela Fukatschová, https://www.modulor.sk

Well-known architect’s quote “form follows function” or “form always follows function”, father of which is American architect Louis Henri Sullivan, the most famous personality of the so-called Chicago school, is also applicable in kitchen areas.

The basic requirement for the layout and equipment of the kitchen, its overall expression and the connection within the interior with the other parts of the house or apartment, gives the basis for its arrangement and basic composition inside of targeted area. Hence the form of the kitchen is born hand in hand with its function. If we are looking for an open kitchen that fits completely with the living space around, this request will determine the form of the architectural solution. Conversely, if we prefer a kitchen separated from the main apartment core, this kitchen function will beautifully define an architectural layout completely different from open residential multifunctional spaces. Below I will describe my opinion on how to deal with kitchen sets in the spirit of mentioned quote “form follows function” as individual solutions as I see by myself.


Multi-purpose kitchens

Today’s fast-paced lifestyle changes the kitchen to the place of preparing food just right in the living room, in the middle of the action around. In a multipurpose-layered space, we find space unification, which continues to unify furniture surfaces, everything is smooth, in the same concept, uniform, without emphasis on any feature. Here, the form is projected only in details, e.g. in the industrialization element, which is used to revive the unification of kitchen design, points out the industrial character of the kitchen – the simple production of food itself.


One-purpose kitchen – “cooking separately”

On the contrary, there are some home cooks who do not like cooking under the attention of others. They enjoy cooking in a closed cooking zone in the safety of a separate kitchen, offering them comfort and safe ground. Nearby there is a kitchen larder, large cabinets for food, kitchenware and pots, all effectively in reach of hand. Here, the cooking, is just well organized and enjoyable experience.


Living kitchen – a retro design

The new moment in contemporary kitchen design is so-called “Living Kitchen” in its conveyed retro meaning. I mean the complete functional connection of the kitchen and dining room, demonstrated by kitchen unit continuing around the dining room with a dining table or counter just right in the middle. Overall, we are experiencing a return to traditional family values, which further consequence is also a “Living Kitchen”. Here the form of the kitchen follows the function entirely from the base.


A couple of glimpses how nowadays the kitchen design and details experience a change… or as a complementary function of the kitchen shapes the detail

Greens and herbs in the kitchen

Today’s trend of cooking with bio products, healthy, coloured food, by adding herbs, spices and vegetables is projected into different containers and garden boxes for those plants in the kitchen composition. The kitchen gets a beautiful touch as if the nature in the interior.


The cooker hoods as solitaires on the work desk

I was very glad when I noticed the current trend for cooker hoods or vapour absorbers above the cooking surface. Big boxes of cooker hoods above the stove have disappeared! The view of the kitchen is now free, no chimney digestor hinders over your head, the cooking steam is sucked out with a small cubus or pipeline, which is attached to the work desk from one side. The operation of the kitchen is so relieved from the object above the head, it feels liberating.