JOIN USThe kitchen... a room of great importance for someone cooks for the rest of the family. However, it has also been that part of the house that has received the least architectural importance, until recent times.
No longer is the kitchen just a room where mothers and grandmothers sit for hours on end, grinding masalas and adding their own special touch to those sweets and curries. Today the kitchen enjoys a new status and is often considered an extension of the family space. And it is this need that has given rise to concepts like the open kitchen
Yvonne Pinto, a mother of four says, “I wanted a kitchen space from where I could watch my children play, listen, if not totally watch my favourite soaps and serve steaming hot food. All these needs were taken care of when I was given the option of an open kitchen. And though our new house is as spacious as a home with four kids can get, we did not have too much of floor space to waste.”
Precusor to modular kitchens
So what does the image of an open kitchen conjure up? It is considered the next step to a modular kitchen. As with other rooms, it does not have a partition that allows it to stand individually and is accessible from all sides. The rise of studio apartments gave birth to the concept. An open kitchen is also used to increase the size of your house. However, what you do have to ensure is that your roof is high enough because ventilation in an open kitchen is limited and you could create a problem with cross ventilation.
Sudhakar Prabhu, a visualiser says, “Designing houses with open kitchens allows for the creation of space, better light and ventilation and enables user interaction and saves on built up area... and often irritatingly forces people to be neat! It’s not simply knocking off a wall, but configuring a kitchen to fall within a scheme. Based on the kind of plan, open kitchens can be semi-open, open all the way into living, dining and kitchen as single extended spaces or for dining within kitchen itself.”
Sandeep Jayanandan, a business analyst, loves the open kitchen in his home. He feels that the person/s in the kitchen can join in the conversation in the living room.
You definitely have peace of mind since cooking can be easily supervised from anywhere. Multi-tasking is easy – you can watch your favourite programme or read a book, cook and supervise kids at the same time. In my case, it gives a spacious feel to the house and makes it easier to move around, since there is no door.
“And it is definitely healthier since we consciously avoid making too greasy or smoky food so as not to let the smoke linger and make the whole place smell.”
Taking the average Indian usage of a kitchen, an open kitchen would be suitable for those with less space on hand and little or no assistance. Lakshmi S, an interior designer says that what enables an open kitchen is not the dimensions of the house or apartment, but the positioning of rooms. Living-dining-kitchen-utility should have certain connectivity, without which open kitchens may lack the appeal.
Points to ponder
Now when planning a kitchen, certain basics have to be kept in mind. Plumbing is definitely one important aspect according to Sudhakar.
A kitchen is classified as a wet area. A lot of washing and cleaning is done here. This means that you have to have a plumbing line running through a wall. Plumbing lines generally go through masonry walls. This is the main reason you cannot have an open kitchen in the middle of your hall unless you have a plumbing line running through the floor below.
Similarly for you to install an overhead cabinet you require a strong backing, a simple gypsum board will not do, you definitely need a wall. All this just goes to emphasise that in your planning stage, make sure that at least one wall is available for such needs.
So the next question that arises is whether the fixtures and accessories used in an open kitchen vary from the normal. Fixtures may not be specific to open or walled kitchens, and need to be chosen to facilitate the function - chimneys (natural or electric), water purifiers, shelves with shutters.
On the question of flooring for an open kitchen, Sudhakar’s suggestion is to preferably use anti-slip tiles.
Synthetic flooring like vinyl are best avoided. Choose instead from marble, granite, vitrified tiles or marbonite. Also with an open kitchen, the next space would most probably be that of the family room. Here too, avoid materials like a carpet for the area that demarcates the kitchen from the family room because kitchen spill overs could take a nasty turn.
When planning open spaces, think of incorporating coffered ceilings. These can prove to have a dramatic effect in an open space plan.
Another interesting way to define individual spaces in an open hall-kitchen-dining space can be with half walls and arches. Islands in the kitchen can also help in segregating one area from another.
These provide working space as well as areas where you can entertain from.
In an open kitchen plan, arches are an architectural trick that creates a sense of separateness by clearly demarcating the end of one area and the beginning of the next. Another way of indicating separateness is to have a difference in flooring.
At what price?
All this comes at a price. What is it, you ask?
According to Lakshmi, “Kitchen costs vary with type of materials, built shelves provided, running length of platform (not room size), material costs and attitudes of owners. Any figure upwards of Rs 50,000 only per kitchen starting from the frugal end.”
Just a little thought...
The open kitchen is the result of the need to remain closer to the family and prevent the lady of the house from being isolated in her efforts to appease appetites. The fact that she can multi-task with such a space is an added advantage.
One can be assured that converting an existing walled kitchen into an open kitchen is not that difficult, though the levels of efforts may depend on various factors.
Also planning, executing and maintaining an open kitchen is not all that difficult with a bit of intelligent thinking.
On the menu...
Certain key issues should be kept in mind if you are planning on opting for an open kitchen.
*Who will work in the kitchen? You, an older member of the family or domestic help?
* Are you a messy cook who dishes out elaborate meals?
* Are you catering to a large family or a nuclear one?