AN EVOLVING KITCHEN: FROM SUSTENANCE TO IDEOLOGY

Left: Beecher Sister's first "rational" kitchen, 1860s. Right: The "Battle of the Ages": Mrs. Modern vs. Mrs. Drudge in the live kitchen contest sponsored by the Westinghouse Corporation at the 1939 New York World's Fair

The kitchen has –throughout the ages- generally responded to two basic needs: to provide nutrition and fulfill social needs. Its early development can be characterized as primarily technical, transforming what was a single multipurpose space into a dedicated food preparation space that was highly efficient, hygienic and time saving in its design.

But as the standard of efficiency was met, the bar was set to a new standard: what to do with all the newfound efficiency? To what end?

The rational, efficient "Frankfurt Kitchen," 1928-1932 here depicted in a parody from 1932 (left), gives way to the Joy Of Cooking (right)

And in came the notion that if you had an efficient kitchen, you could focus on what was most important; the joy of cooking.

This was one of the new found goals of efficiency. But just as we are savoring the new design imperative, the bar has been raised yet again: By what means?

This is the story of the evolving nature of design in the kitchen, but it could just as well be the evolution of many other product types: an evolution from sustenance, to utility, to experience, and its latest challenge; an ideological mission, built around ethical responsibility. Valcucine represents this new cadre of companies, competing on ideology.

A hierarchy of needs

Although histories don't always evolve linearly or follow rational patters, examining them through frameworks can help organize ideas and identify possible patterns of change.

While not without controversy, Maslow's broad notion of a hierarchy of needs is a helpful framework in examining the changing competitive imperative in kitchen design. In this context the evolution of the kitchen starts with providing basic sustenance, evolves to utility, efficiency, and to experience: not just preparing nourishment for the body in an efficient manner, but taking pleasure in the process. But if every kitchen can provide the basic need to sustenance efficiently in a way enabling you to enjoy cooking, what is the next differentiating factor? Or, from a moral-ethical perspective, what are the human-social needs that have yet to be fulfilled? The answer I propose is that when the hierarchy of needs has been fulfilled, competition is based on the ability to fulfill ideological needs.