A history of German kitchen design, from Bauhaus to the present day
The Bauhaus school was founded in Weimar, Germany by Walter Gropius. It operated from 1919 – 1933, under Weimar's vision of creating a 'complete' work of art that would bring together all arts including architecture, design and technology.
From its initial emergence the Bauhaus style has had a significant influence on developments in art, architecture, graphic design, interior design, and industrial design, and continues to do so today. Some of the most outstanding architects and artists of the day worked within the school and created iconic furniture, buildings, fabrics and designs that we all recognise, and still use and apply within our day-to-day lives nearly 100 years later.
The Bauhaus school believed men and women were equal and unusually for the period it was pure talent and skill that formed the criteria for admission, rather than gender. The outcome was that through Bauhaus women were able to reap opportunities that previously were not available to them, and fulfil their capabilities in traditionally unobtainable male jobs.
Many women excelled within the school, an example of whom was Benita Ottie. Ottie wanted to liberate the housewife by providing a comfortable workspace that reflected the merit and seriousness of her job. Ottie designed a kitchen for Bauhaus' 'Haus am Horn' exhibition in 1923. Within this, she realised her ambition through the creation of level, same-height worktops, as well as drawers and cabinets for tidy and accessible storage. A large window also introduced a bright and airy feel. The kitchen marked an absolute action towards a modernist language of kitchen design.
The Bauhaus style is distinctive by the absence of ornament and unnecessarily decorative facades, exemplified through the aesthetic and plain exterior of the kitchen doors. Much like Otties' kitchen, the exterior as well as internal arrangements of the units are deliberately simplified. The fitted kitchen units were built within the Bauhaus workshop but kitchens before this time would have free-standing dressers and cupboards, with no uniformity to their shape size, height or storage capacity.
Bauhaus believed in being attentive to the ideas and influences of the modern industrial world and that excellent designs must marry both superior and beautiful aesthetic design with technical engineering; Birthing what we today refer to as modern design.
An example of this is that Bauhaus presented containers as well as glassware storage on the worktops for specific utensils and foods, forming the origin of organised and defined storage. Further to this, at the Bauhaus school, improvements applied to the design of kitchen utensils and appliances themselves.
Bauhaus embraced the scientific approaches to ergonomics and design, creating what we would now recognise as a unit, or 'fitted kitchen' and the teachers' houses, or "Masters Houses" (as they became known) built at the Bauhaus school directly emulated the design schools revolutionary work.
The Masters houses included sleek streamlined kitchens that amongst other elements contained work surfaces that were both easy to work on and wipe clean. There were drying racks, conceptive storage space and one big sink that was effortless to use, all of which reveal how the designers hoped and strived to liberate the German housewife.
The Frankfurt German Kitchen
Following the Bauhaus Kitchen, was the arrival of the Frankfurt Kitchen, designed by Austrian architect, Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky in 1926. Lihotzky’s intention was to reduce the amount of space occupied by the kitchen within a family home. Previously people tended to live in two bed apartments, with the kitchen providing not just somewhere to cook and eat, but also somewhere to work, wash and sleep (mostly due to it being the warmest room of the house). Instead, Lihotzky aimed to reduce the typical size of the working kitchen and segregate it from the subsequently increased main living space, manifesting a physical reflection of her belief that there should be a distinction between people's work life and time for relaxing.
Lihotzky's vision was first realised when asked to design a kitchen for a new housing development in Frankfurt, Germany. The Frankfurt Kitchen was intentionally small in part because this was a large project for multiple apartments, and secondly to reduce the number of steps you had to take between tasks within the kitchen. As with Bauhaus, the Frankfurt Kitchens had continuous worktops and integrated units. There was a strategically large window in place to maximise light and airflow, and a small stool where the housewife could sit at an ergonomically desirable height to prepare food under the (added) light of the window. The stool could also be adjusted to enable access to the top of the higher units. These were new features introduced by Lihotzky to save unnecessary labour and movement, instead facilitating it at a comfortable physical level. This concept also applied to ironing within the kitchen through use of a highly innovative fold-away ironing board.
The outcome of such pioneering inventions was a day-to-day ease of chores that permitted a higher quality of life but also pleasure within the kitchen. Everything was simplified for ease of use and placed in convenient areas, such as dish racks and shelves placed adjacent to the sink. Just like Ottie's Bauhaus kitchen, the Frankfurt Kitchen had allocated storage containers, as well as aluminium label-stamped drawers for provisions. There was even a chopping board with a drawer underneath for vegetable peels & other associated waste.
The Frankfurt Kitchen was a complete revelation, a "fitted kitchen", and undoubtedly the Frankfurt Kitchen design was the most successful of its era. Its achievements in making the workspace both more functional and professional has meant it was also one of the most influential to date.
In modern kitchen design, lighting is a key element to take in consideration, yet only 30 years prior to the creation of the Frankfurt kitchen there was no electricity within many household kitchens. The Frankfurt kitchens developed the concept of kitchen lighting through the implementation of a movable track light that could be adjusted as needed for carrying out different functions within the kitchen.
The Frankfurt Kitchen must have seemed alien at the time of its introduction, and not least due to the inclusion of a built-in oven. The oven came with the kitchen, since all the units and appliances needed to fit neatly together. Previously when you moved into a house it was only the big heavy cast iron sink that remained in place after the previous occupants left, as this was too big and heavy to move; You simply kitted out the kitchen yourself with your accumulated non-matching assortment of units.
Post–war German kitchen Design
During the Second World War everything had slowed down in Germany but by the 1950's the afflictions of WW2 were slowly fading and life in Germany was resuming. Germany held its second annual 'Internationale Mobel Messe' Furniture Fair in Cologne. This is otherwise known as the 'IMM Furniture Fair,' which is still held to this day. Within kitchen design, Germany further modified the interconnected fitted kitchen cabinets to give a clean, continuous style. The worktops streamed and flowed following the 90-degree turns of the kitchen units. These sat neatly against the kitchen walls and were fitted with integrated sinks, hot and cold taps, electric ovens, gas stoves and imminently the refrigerator. This arrangement created a larger internal working space within the kitchen area. The low level units attached to walls became "base units," the eye level units above the working counter "wall units," and the full height storage units "tall" units. All became standardized unit and appliance sizes, typical of the new-technology filled German Kitchens.
Germany had advanced the concept of the all-in-one kitchen. This design was hugely successful, and following the Furniture Fair Germany began exporting kitchens to neighbouring countries. It is the German manufacturers of this period that we can also thank for developing the lacquered door finish, and a 10-lacquer coated door effect. Much to their credit Germany is still at the forefront of expert lacquering to this day and use machines worth millions of Euros within their factories to produce and export lacquered door finishes worldwide. Towards the end of the 1960's, another pioneering feature of German kitchen manufacture emerged– the solid wood kitchen. This type of design proved very popular and featured within many homes throughout the 1970's. Worldwide!
Within the 1980's, new developments in design took place that echoed the ambitions of the Bauhaus and Frankfurt kitchens in designing creations to facilitate the housewife in cooking and completing kitchen tasks with the upmost ease and efficiency.
There was a shift in the general outlook on cooking and more increasingly cooking became perceived as a skilled, creative, artistic and even therapeutic pastime rather than just a necessary chore, as previously thought. Cooking also became very fashionable, with greater emphasis on meals forming the basis of a social event amongst family members, associates, colleagues, peers and so forth. These new trends led to the creation of the informal dining area; a breakfast bar integrated into the kitchen area from the kitchen worktop. In contrast to the smaller separate kitchens of the previous fifty years and as favoured by Lihotzky, the invention of the extractor enabled kitchens to be opened up within the living area, but without cooking smells and grease filtering all over the house.
It was also no longer just the role of the housewife to cook. Men came to enjoy it too and the kitchen became a tool of empowerment, enabling both sexes to show off and exhibit their cooking professionalism and varying culinary successes within the kitchen! Furthermore, the kitchen itself became a statement within the home reflecting personal wealth and lifestyle. Within this period we see the more familiar design and concept of open plan living which remains prevalent today.
To conclude, modern German kitchen design still very much reflects the initial ideas, innovations and components first introduced during the period of the Bauhaus and Frankfurt kitchens, such as the aluminium containers of the Frankfurt kitchen; today these are emulated through the endless availability of internal organisation and storage configurations. Earlier designs focused on innovation with the purpose of enabling efficiency and a higher quality of life. Architects such as Ottie and Lihotzky laid the foundations that have remained in place but continued to evolve over time, and in conjunction with the need for aesthetically pleasing design their ideas and developments still remain very much at the core of, and are reflected in, any successful German kitchen design of modern time.
The general perception of German kitchen design is that they are unsurpassed by any other in Europe. They have their own Germanic style, best described as sleek and minimal, and the high quality of their structural form further enhances their bold appearance. Within this article we are going to explore why beauty is definitely not only skin deep in the case of German kitchens! To truly understand this we need to begin with looking at some of the reasons why German kitchens need to be as exceptional as they are.
The German housing market is very different to that of the UK. Germany experienced a very slow growth in the market of approximately 2-3% since the early 1990's. They have very strict lending stipulations, as well as a minimum requirement of 20% deposits. The result of these factors combined means that most young Germans rent rather than buy. Renting is a more accessible option as German letting contracts are nearly always unlimited in timescale. There are also tightly controlled and transparent renting rates based on a nationwide renting index, with capped rates of rental increase over 3-5 years. This leads to tenants opting to stay in their same rented property for many years at a time, and throughout the period of their stay they will usually seek to develop and improve the house or apartment they are living in. This home-renovation generally includes the purchase and installation of a kitchen, and then when the tenants do finally move out, they will take the kitchen with them. This is not just restricted to the kitchens but removal of wall sockets and light switches is also standard practice.
Because of this lifestyle there is a need for a quality kitchen that will withstand being unassembled, withstand moving and withstand being reinstalled on up to 3 or 4 different occasions in its lifetime. Enter the Rigidly Manufactured Kitchen...
