Kitchen Essential

Kitchen design starts with a good plan, the essence of which is for it to be as simple as possible with the minimum of furniture, leaving as much space as possible for circulation. Once the room has been drawn up to a scaled plan, the eye can see it in microcosm and in a detached way (by not being in the space), making clearer the do’s and don’ts and the areas suitable for creative input. The natural routes between the doorways and the main kitchen activities need to be established. The furniture should try and work in sympathy with these designated pathways. People move around a kitchen a bit like water flows over a rocky river bed; they divert themselves around obstacles, make use of and fill up all available space. Human beings do not walk around corners by following a precise right angle — they take the shortest distance between two points and not necessarily in a straight line. The concept of soft geometry recognizes the principle that of the hundreds of mini-journeys that are made in the kitchen everyday, many would benefit from furniture designed using curved or soft shapes which enhance the ease of movement in the room.

The oval shape of a central island is a tremendous improvement over a rectangular one. Even though only a small amount of space is removed from the corners when you introduce a curved shape, the difference makes more impact than would appear at first glance. The other major change is the way you use the furniture itself. An oval central counter or table means you can transfer yourself from one side to the other without consciously turning a corner. It is almost as if you don’t have a side or front any more, they flow together. As you get closer from an oval to a circular shape, there are no sides per se. This makes using the worktops much more of a pleasure.

In the kitchen illustrated here the route between the two doors suggests a straight diagonal axis between them, and it was clear that the long wall closest to them should be for storage so that the main kitchen activities could take place clear of what is effectively a corridor. A false wall was built to echo the recess opposite, which conveniently was deep enough to take a giant American-style refrigerator. I used this diagonal axis to create a deep wall cupboard set up in sympathy with the shape of the cupboards against this long wall. When the diagonal causes the cupboards to become too shallow to be worthwhile, then they become open shelves.

Once the stage is reached when the geometry of the plan is established as broadly workable, the design starts to take on a momentum of its own. It is perhaps a hit like giving birth to a child who turns into a difficult teenager and eventually becomes a mature adult — mirroring the design process. With the painful birth achieved — the wide spectrum of potential ideas is narrowed down into one individual persona — then progression is assured. After various stages of development the child becomes an adult and is disciplined into a coherent, well-balanced and mature individual with its own character. It is a pleasing moment when you are aware that this stage is reached. The project starts to have a life of its own. I suspect if this moment does not happen, then the project will never be a success.

In this kitchen the sink sits under the window, but leaves the corner free; in order to minimize its impact at the edges, it is curved, so that walking around it becomes easier and access to the corner drinks cupboard possible. The stove counter and central table respond to different problems. The room is not a generous enough size to have a central counter. It is only just wide enough to have a table in the middle but conversely too wide not to have something there. A crucial decision was to have a table in the middle, but the challenge was how to do this without making the kitchen cramped. So after much thought the centre-piece was designed as an open table with inset legs, and the stove open underneath too. As a result the table could be made reasonably wide and the kitchen does not feel too cramped at waist level. In addition, as it is lightweight, the position of the table can easily be adjusted.

The preparation worktop is a separate structure and can be removed from the table for dinner parties by twisting a turn-button concealed below. When inviting a more intimate group, those last little bits of preparation — for example, herb chopping — can be done in full view without turning your back or interrupting the flow of conversation.

The shape of the curved cooking counter allows for easy access to the oven and storage cupboard where deep pull-out trays necessitate your being able to step right back and still let another person past. One of the great pleasures of using soft geometry is that the space is made more interesting. Issues such as symmetry come up and balanced asymmetry is possible. Too much symmetry can be tiresome because of its predictability, but so can a lack of it. Balanced asymmetry for me is where you accept the principle of symmetry but apply a painter’s method of putting mass, weight, colour and texture into the equation rather than just line or shape. The result is often more intriguing, more unexpected.

A riot of curves can, however, become too much of a good thing. The contrast or punctuation given by rectangular forms is necessary and useful particularly through the use of rectangular pillars. These house appliances such as refrigerators, ovens or dishwashers which are all flat-fronted and often not objects of great beauty. By being parallel to the wall, they attract less attention and can be a welcome reconnection to the architecture of the room, as well as being simpler to make.

By applying the ideas of soft geometry, maximum potential can be achieved in terms of use and aesthetics. Each kitchen has such a different architectural envelope that an individual response is vital to make the geometry of the room work. This is why an individually designed kitchen will work so much better than one composed of long straight-fronted units which respond primarily to the perimeter walls. A kitchen needs a dynamic response to a wide range of geometric demands. Soft geometry allows for this and makes for a more sociable kitchen because it can focus activities towards the centre of the room rather than the walls.

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