Understanding Kitchen Architecture and Style Considerations
Understanding the architecture of your space and the style that your kitchen design will be based on is the first step in moving past the planning stage and into the design stage of your new kitchen.. In part that is because you need to become knowledgeable about how you use your kitchen and the existing space you have to work with, before you can pick colors, surfaces and materials and the rest of the more visible elements of any kitchen.
The architectural heritage of your region, city, street and individual house should and will have a significant impact on your overall design, even if you are determined to make a complete break with the trends that exist now. Even the most radical architectural break must still consider basic function, social use and the climate your house is built in. These considerations were often major determiners of what made your regional style what it is and your new design will inevitably reflect them.
Architecture in kitchen design deals with best use of three dimensional space within the limitations of your budget and the room you have to work with. For our purposes, architectural elements are structural use of space, historical reference in that use and the various built-in design features of your kitchen that reflect those elements. To clarify this potentially confusing but important distinction we need to take a look at architecture and style.
The Roots of Style
If architecture deals with how your building is designed and built, style deals with the look that makes it esthetically pleasing to live and work in. Styles can be historical or driven by current trends. The Victorian style is an historical one based on the look of a specific time period. Restaurant-style kitchens are based on trends in appliance design and a desire to build a room that functions like its commercial counterpart. Although a restaurant-style kitchen may be based on a style trend, it may also incorporate historical elements. A good example might be a kitchen design that blends restaurant function with a historical style like English Manor House. In this case you might match commercial appliances with large work tables, surfacing materials like stone and ceramics and large freestanding ceramic sinks. The result is a blend of old and new.
Current architectural trends represent the avant-garde, which translates from the French as front rank. Euro-modern and minimalist styles, for instance, are recent architectural trends that are rapidly being assimilated into current kitchen design. Whether they will stand the test of time and prolonged use has yet to be seen. These cutting edge approaches to design can be fun to plan and build but run the considerable risk of becoming dated at an early age. Some trends may limit your choices and function. An extremely minimalist kitchen, for instance, may mean creating unobtrusive storage that hides all unused items and choosing appliances based on a sleek, uninterrupted design esthetic.
Styles often determine many of the surface and decoration decisions involved in creating a kitchen. These include:
• Molding and trim
• Hardware
• Door and Window Styles
• Lighting Styles
• Finishes and surfacing materials including paint, counters, floors, etc.
• Cabinetry construction, doors, panels and drawer fronts
An example of a specific style that serves as a design guide is the Arts and Crafts style kitchen. Based on architectural trends late in the nineteenth century, the Arts and Crafts movement stressed plain functional design and the use of native materials and hand-craftsmanship. Such a kitchen might use fumed white oak cabinetry and moldings, warm earthtone colored handmade tile, handmade hanging lamps of glass and copper, hammered copper hardware, art nouveau rugs, etc. All of these things are representative design elements of the Arts and Crafts style that serve as a useful guide in making decisions.
How Region and History are Integrated Into Kitchen Design Choices
The location and age of your home will have a major effect on many of your design decisions. This does not necessarily mean you cannot put a contemporary kitchen in a High Victorian home. It does mean that you must work with the high ceilings, large windows, elaborate trim and the multitude of doorways often found in these homes. All of these elements can be viewed as obstacles or benefits depending on your willingness to work with or against the architecture.
There is a strong trend to go back the historical roots of the home for guidance in planning a new kitchen. In its best use this trend means incorporating the best developments in modern design like improved appliances and materials with the most interesting historical elements. Thus we might find a fifties ranch house with a very new kitchen marrying the latest Euro cook top to a counter made of laminate festooned with an updated version of the boomerang pattern popular when the home was built. Modern functional elements linked with the heritage of the house can still result in an attractive space and enhanced usability.
The area you live in and the age of your home are two linking factors that determine architectural style. Geographic location has a strong effect on how your home is built. Typically homes are built of local materials from nearby resources. One town may feature a preponderance of brick homes because of a nearby source of clay for brick making. Travel a hundred miles and you may find that most of the houses are wood frame because of the forests which covered the nearby terrain when the town was founded. Other highly regional building styles based on indigenous materials include southwestern adobe construction and the Spanish style stucco homes of Southern California.
Climate is also a major architectural influence. New England saltbox homes had low ceilings to reduce the volume of space that required heating. The long winters also resulted in a multitude of fireplaces and chimneys and large steep roofs designed to shed heavy snow loads. Head south to Florida and emphasis is on cooling with large windows, wide exterior overhangs for shade, screened porches and open, un-plastered frame walls painted in light, bright colors. Even with modern climate control systems and vastly improved energy efficiency, these climate driven choices should be respected.
Location also determines many structural decisions. Expansive views may call for walls of windows while an unpleasant view may be minimized by utilizing skylights to bring in light and air from above. Carefully placed windows can frame a desirable view of a small garden for instance while excluding a nearby parking lot or alley. Location is not merely a visual consideration; locations often mean dealing with noise, privacy, air pollution and other environmental problems. Architecturally this may mean placing a public room between a noisy street and a quiet room such as a bedroom or study. In that case your kitchen may serve as a buffer between a noisy street and a good night’s sleep.
These regional and climate considerations have an affect on your choices of colors, textures, lighting and other visible elements. In the Arts and Crafts movement mentioned above, the designers preferred dark colors on walls because they felt that it brought out the sheen and texture of the polished wood furnishings. This design decision in turn was influenced by the lighting of the time which was low wattage and focused rather than bright and ambient. They had no choice because of the limited technology of the time. A modern Arts and Crafts style kitchen would not be hampered by these constraints.
Material Choices for Your Kitchen Design: A Regional Approach
Interior material choices may also be dictated by regional materials. Natural wood trim and molding, flooring and cabinets may be chosen by the area you reside in. Northeastern hardwoods like maple and white oak, southwestern pine, and southern woods like sycamore all contribute to the regional design and style you may want.
Today we have international sources of building materials with choices coming from every corner of the planet. Nothing says you must respect historical or regional conventions in your design. However these patterns can serve as an excellent starting point in the many decision involved in creating your kitchen.
