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Impact of Changing Lifestyles on Kitchen Design
January 24, 2023
Amaresh Anand, Principal Architect, Khosla Associates talks about how lifestyle changes have influenced kitchen design in houses and rental homes.
Over the years, Kitchens have become an integral part of designing or building a house. It is an area where homeowners do get involved extensively. And, this has become even more critical because of changing patterns of cooking and personalisation of the kitchen space.
Kitchen as an Activity Area
With both husband and wife cooking and even the entire family joining in, the kitchen has become an activity area, more so at the weekends. It has become a place for the family to get together. It has become a place for bonding among family members with the kids and old parents also joining in. Therefore, the space has become more personalised.
Traditionally, during festivals, families used to come together and join in these sorts of activities. Now, that aspect is coming back with more modern amenities. Kitchen design, thus, needs to account for all these lifestyle-influenced changes and decide on the layout, format and appliances accordingly.
Kitchen in Rental Homes
Apart from the houses built for dwelling purposes, some homes are built for letting out on rent and holiday homes that they rent out. In most cases, there is a floating population that occupies the flats or homes – the frequency of changes can be as low as two years.
Designing a kitchen for those specific apartments or holiday homes needs to account for all those aspects and should be generic in nature. The idea is to fulfil the needs of a diverse set of people that will use the space.
Of course, the basic amenities will be there for example dishwashers, ovens, microwave ovens, refrigerators etc. However, the layout and the positioning of the appliances have to be planned in such a way that they will be comfortable to use for any user.
[Edited Excerpts from a Round Table Discussion on ‘Shifting Kitchen Design Trends: A Result of Changing Lifestyle’ held at JW Marriott, Bengaluru as part of Crompton presents Kitchens Unplugged powered by Kitchen Ideas.]
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