Kitchen Essential

Country-style kitchens had become so popular that no other seemed possible. Many people, including myself, were sickened at this lack of choice and paucity of imagination of the bigger English and American kitchen manufacturers. So I began to develop ideas that could form the basis of a kitchen suitable for and inspired by the city.

Images of country life provide nourishment for us and are reflected in the styling of many of the products we buy. Rural life has an appeal as a place of refuge and a liberation from the pressures of a hectic and crowded urban existence. It is a major component of most people’s idea of a ‘good’ life. The underlying images are both real and necessary, but I wanted an answer to the question, is there an alternative set of images behind urban life? And could they form a back-cloth to a kitchen design series for a big manufacturer? My thoughts turned to past periods when urban life was glorified and there appeared to be many examples.

Modern urban architecture may have failed us in recent times, especially Le Corbusier with his ‘machine for living in’ ideas, but that is recent history. Further back, successful examples flood into my mind. The Italian city states — Venice, Siena, Pisa, Florence — or further back in ancient times, cities such as Rome, Pompeii and Athens are all good examples of places where an urban existence would have been highly civilized. Their ways of life and cultural activities have been hugely influential both in historical terms and for those living at the time. Cities must have then been looked upon as desirable places to live. It is only recently that many cities have become bloated in size and blighted through the pollution and ugliness of their industrial areas. Smaller cities and towns are often exempt from such associations and are still good places to live. In terms of architectural design, many great British architects made their name by working in the urban landscape. Robert Adam, Inigo Jones, John Nash and Lutyens, to name a few, all evolved large-scale building schemes that had a genuine urban character.

Contemporaneous eighteenth-century furniture-makers managed to do equally well; Hepplewhite, Sheraton and Chippendale all produced designs that evoked sophisticated, cultured, non-rural images. Historically influenced to some extent, the furniture still demonstrated many new ideas, mixing references, materials, finishes and shapes that emphasized elegance and finesse. These qualities speak to me of an urban rather than rural character. Exotic veneers, geometric inlay, ormolu accessories, fine carvings, slim legs, delicate mouldings, fine turnings, neat metal handles, intricate marquetry are all visible in their furniture — surely some of these qualities could be incorporated in a range of kitchen furniture suitable for urban life in the twentieth century?. There are many good examples of furniture-makers and designers who have done so already in this century. Eileen Gray in France and all those associated with Art Deco, Rietveld in the Netherlands, Thonet in Austria, Gustav Stickley in the United States, Mackintosh in Scotland, and many others have produced wonderful work.

When I first suggested the idea of a contemporary urban-inspired kitchen series to the furniture company Smallbone, they were not too convinced, but once I had presented drawings to their directors, Sally Wilkinson and Peter Sheppard, their enthusiasm grew. It has become known as the inlay range because inlay plays a major part in the visual language. The use of sycamore, previously an under-used wood and considered wrongly as a weed tree, gave the design elegance and simplicity. The wood has a cool subtle grain and takes on the colour of pale honey, associated often with the birch used in Biedermeier furniture.

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
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• THE ABC OF COOKWARE Part 2
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