Kitchen Essential

The creative process is fascinating and full of mystery. Quite apart from never knowing where the ideas spring from in the first place, how are the connections made between the many different aspects of the design process? Gradually like making a jigsaw puzzle, the easier shapes — the corner and edge pieces — are assembled and provide a sketchy definition. Then a few middle clusters appear and provide a hard centre. And bit by bit the rest falls into place after a lot of experimenting on the way.

It is round about the time the hard centre is discovered that the design’s personality emerges. It starts to develop its own momentum. Always an exciting moment for me, it is probably the most satisfying part in the making of a kitchen. From here on it is no longer a disparate set of inanimate thoughts, but a single living entity, no longer entirely the designer’s own. Once the child is born, it has its own free will and the more mature it becomes, the more its personality and independence develop, the easier decision-making can be. It becomes possible to adopt its personality and live inside it a little. This helps one to draw the design together, enabling the addition of subtle but significant sub-themes, layers, points of interest, functional aspects, witty nuances, and links to visual historical or cultural associations.

It is possible to keep on amplifying the design. Sometimes it is necessary to take out elements, to clarify the design and make room for the new ideas. This is often hard but once done is a relief, like losing weight. The classic test ias that if a component is removed from the design and goes unnoticed, it can be permanently left out. A good design has a vigour and clarity which can be clouded by overkill; a design needs constant review and stripping down where necessary.

In extreme form it is known as minimalism and is favoured by many designers. It has become a kind of cult movement, associated with Japanese aesthetics. The emphasis is on the qualities of natural materials, light and simplicity. It is a kind of purified modernism and is an extremely disciplined approach which produces a calm and ordered environment. It can also mean a dry, inhuman design devoid of the collected evidence of everyday life. So a balance needs to be struck between making a design which is both vigorous and effective, and also enjoyable, warm and capable of being inhabited in a relaxed manner.

The kitchen illustrated here attempts to walk on the tightrope between these polarities. They exist in most abstract inputs into the design process — old versus new, bright versus dark, rich versus simple, character versus plainness, free-standing versus built-in, curved versus straight — and are the fabric through which the design decisions are woven.

This house was built in early years with distinctive early Victorian features including a curved floor-to-ceiling window and strong ceiling mouldings. There was not enough space for an island in the middle of the kitchen so the design had to be wall-based. By setting a completely independent geometry using a long curved counter, the sink cabinet made a clear contrast to the historical nature of the architecture. The design of window was suitable only for a piece of free-standing furniture in front of it, acting as a back-drop for the chopping block. Its shape was determined

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