Round a century in the past, working within the kitchen was nonetheless cumbersome and inefficient. However then a Viennese architect had a groundbreaking concept that has endured to at the present time: the fitted kitchen.
“If I had identified that I must discuss this damned kitchen for the remainder of my life, I might by no means have constructed it!” stated 100-year-old Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky in an interview in 1998.
The kitchen she designed within the Twenties rewrote architectural historical past and revolutionised the lives of public housing residents by making a newly useful, fitted culinary house, as per DW. Dubbed the “Frankfurt kitchen,” Schütte-Lihotzky created a bit of pioneering social structure that has outlined kitchens to at the present time. The designer was additionally a ladies’s rights activist and was celebrated as a heroine of resistance towards the Nazi dictatorship.
Altering lives with structure
Schütte-Lihotzky, who died in 2000 on the age of 103, aimed to enhance the lives of others via her work all through her life. Schütte-Lihotzky got here of age throughout peak industrialisation, a time of demographic shift from the countryside to the cities as folks sought work in new factories.
However residing circumstances within the overcrowded, working-class districts of cities in Weimar Germany and Austria, equivalent to Berlin, Frankfurt and Vienna, had been generally characterised by illness, poverty and lack of hygiene.
As a younger Viennese structure pupil, Schütte-Lihotzky had a novel perspective on the struggles of working households in overcrowded tenements. In 1917, she was conducting analysis for an architectural competitors and designed a housing complicated based mostly on the sensible wants of the residents, together with extra air and light-weight.
Adopting the concept “type follows operate,” Schütte-Lihotzky moved away from the ornamental architectural types of the final century and embraced the performance of “New Objectivity.” For her, structure was an antidote to social issues. This perspective was largely influenced by her background.
From housing to kitchen design
Born right into a middle-class, mental Viennese household in 1897, Schütte-Lihotzky’s childhood was characterised by artwork and tradition, in addition to politics. Her mom was concerned with the Viennese artwork scene and pacifist and feminist circles. As a toddler, the younger lady knew she was comparatively privileged, which formed her understanding of design and structure and her determination to work on social housing initiatives.
After World Conflict I, housing was urgently wanted in a devastated Europe. New housing estates with social housing had been constructed rapidly and cheaply for the rising working class – and for many who had misplaced their properties within the conflict.
Constructing director Ernst Might launched the “New Frankfurt” housing program in Frankfurt am Most important. His aim was to remove the housing scarcity in 10 years.
Might commissioned Schütte-Lihotzky to design an acceptable kitchen for the residential complexes. This kitchen was created to make optimum use of the restricted house within the new buildings and to enhance the on a regular basis lives of residents.
The younger architect set to work: What number of steps does the kitchen consumer have to take to get from A to B? How do they transfer? The place are the cooking utensils greatest positioned? How can one watch the kids whereas working within the kitchen?
The trendy ‘fitted’ kitchen
The consequence was a room round 3.5 metres (11.4 toes) lengthy and a pair of metres (6.5 toes) huge, with sliding glass doorways that allowed a view into the lounge and a big window to let in gentle.
The kitchen was fitted with cupboards from ground to ceiling, a worktop, a sink with a drainer, drawers for kitchen waste and small detachable aluminium drawers with handles to carry probably the most important cooking substances. The person modules had been to be industrially manufactured in giant numbers as new residence blocks went up throughout Frankfurt.
To dispel the preliminary skepticism about this new sort of kitchen, Ernst Might promoted Schütte-Lihotzky’s invention as “constructed by a girl for girls.” The “Frankfurt kitchen” was born, and it revolutionised housekeeping.
Nevertheless, the rising feminist motion of the time was vital of the concept ladies carried out all home work within the kitchen. The accusation was that the effectivity of this kitchen solely tied ladies even nearer to the range.
Nonetheless, Schütte-Lihotzky’s supposed to alleviate the burden on ladies with this kitchen. Regardless of the criticism, the Frankfurt kitchen was a hit. Orders got here in from all around the world: The French labour minister alone needed 260,000 items put in.
Regardless of the worldwide recognition, the younger designer felt misunderstood and needed primarily to enhance working-class lives. This virtually grew to become her undoing through the Nazi period. After the annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany, she fought underground towards the Nazis as a communist. She was arrested and solely narrowly escaped execution.
After World Conflict II, Schütte-Lihotzky grew to become concerned within the peace and ladies’s rights motion. She gave lectures, guided younger feminine architects and constructed residences and kindergartens in West Germany, Russia, Cuba and East Germany.