Kitchen Designs - Types of Home Kitchen
on
04 July, 2012
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The efficiency of your kitchen can depend more on how it is laid out than amount of space you have. When you begin your plan is a good idea to natural workflows between the primary activity areas Oven preparation area
or food storage area. Read below to find out five basic layout shapes that will provide a practical kitchen.
Each layout type includes a black line symbolizing the working triangle, which helps to illustrate movement between each of the primary activity areas. To find out more about the working triangle, visit the section on ergonomics.
Single Line Kitchen:
This is a smart and simple solution for narrow rooms, ideally with one wall over 3 yards long with out windows and doors. However this shape of kitchen causes the longest journey distances since you often have to walk from one end of the room to the other. Therefore, it can be a good idea to situate the sink in the middle of the line, with adequate space separating it from the cooktops.
Galley kitchen
This shape offers the most efficient use of space, making it the choice of many professional chefs. The two rows allows room for lots of preparation space, and moving between activity areas can be as easy as turning around. However, this shape is not ideal if the corridor is open at both ends, as it can cause traffic congestion.
Make sure there is enough room for opposite drawers to be open at the same time (at least 1.3yds). Another important consideration is to keep the cleaning and cooking areas on the same side in order to minimize the risk of accidents while moving hot pans between the sink and cooktop.
L shape kitchen
This is a very popular kitchen layout – ideal for a family kitchen or for entertaining guests as it can easily accommodate table and chairs in the same room. Using two adjacent walls, the kitchen also benefits from lack of through-traffic.
The sink, stove and fridge should be separated by a preparation area.
U-shaped Kitchen:
Using three full walls of a room can offer the perfect working kitchen. The fridge, cooktop and sink can be spaced out for total efficiency and convenience. This is great news for those of you who take your cooking seriously, as it provides the best workflows with the shortest distances around the kitchen. This shape also allows for large amounts of worktop and storage space.
The island kitchen:
A very popular kitchen type, the island layout is perfect if you plan to entertain. An independent island unit can face a dining or living area, allowing the cook to socialize while preparing. A sink here provides the optimal arrangement in terms of the kitchen’s working triangle. Otherwise, cooktops with a canopy over the island can form a stunning focal point to the kitchen.
Other kitchen types
Restaurant and canteen kitchens found in hotels, hospitals, army barracks, and similar establishments are generally (in developed countries) subject to public health laws. They are inspected periodically by public-health officials, and forced to close if they don’t meet hygienic requirements mandated by law.
Canteen kitchens (and castle kitchens) were often the places where new technology was used first. For instance, Benjamin Thompson’s “energy saving stove”, an early-19th-century fully-closed iron stove using one fire to heat several pots, was designed for large kitchens; another thirty years passed before they were adapted for domestic use.
Today’s western restaurant kitchens typically have tiled walls and floors and use stainless steel for other surfaces (workbench, but also door and drawer fronts) because these materials are durable and easy to clean. Professional kitchens are often equipped with gas stoves, as these allow cooks to regulate the heat quicker and more finely than electrical stoves. Some special appliances are typical for professional kitchens, such as large installed deep fryers, steamers, or a Bain Marie. (As of 2004, steamers—not to be confused with a pressure cooker—are beginning to find their way into domestic households, sometimes as a combined appliance of oven and steamer.)
The fast food and convenience food trends have also changed the way restaurant kitchens operate. There is a trend for restaurants to only “finish” delivered convenience food or even just re-heat completely prepared meals, maybe at the utmost grilling a hamburger or a steak.
The kitchens in railway dining cars present special challenges: space is constrained, and nevertheless the personnel must be able to serve a great number of meals quickly. Especially in the early history of the railway this required flawless organization of processes; in modern times, the microwave oven and prepared meals have made this task a lot easier. Galleys are kitchens aboard ships or aircraft (although the term galley is also often used to refer to a railroad dining car’s kitchen). On yachts, galleys are often cramped, with one or two gas burners fuelled by a gas bottle, but kitchens on cruise ships or large warships are comparable in every respect with restaurants or canteen kitchens. On passenger airplanes, the kitchen is reduced to a mere pantry, the only function reminiscent of a kitchen is the heating of in flight meals (where they haven’t been “optimized” away altogether) delivered by a catering company. An extreme form of the kitchen occurs in space, e.g. aboard a Space Shuttle (where it is also called the “galley”) or the International Space Station. The astronauts’ food is generally completely prepared, dehydrated, and sealed in plastic pouches, and the kitchen is reduced to a rehydration and heating module.
Outdoor areas in which food is prepared are generally not considered to be kitchens, although an outdoor area set up for regular food preparation, for instance when camping, might be called an “outdoor kitchen”. Military camps and similar temporary settlements of nomads may have dedicated kitchen tents.
In Schools where Home Economics (HE) or Food technology (previously known as Domestic science) is taught, there will be a series of kitchens with multiple equipment (similar in some respects to laboratories) solely for the purpose of teaching. These will consist of between 6 and 12 workstations, each with their own oven, sink and kitchen utensils.
