This may not sound very exciting. But this week I’ve learned that if weren’t for an Austrian architect named Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, kitchens might look very different. In 1926, Grete got the sensible idea of designing a kitchen that facilitates the tasks it’s used for. Seems obvious, but before Grete kitchens were just big, smoky rooms filled with clunky furniture.
After Grete, kitchens became much tinier but a lot more functional, with built-in stoves, stainless steel sinks, cupboards and storage.
She was one of the first architects to realize that design fused with functionality would become an important 20th Century trend.
And her kitchen – called the Frankfurt Kitchen – influenced every other kitchen that came after it. Grete was also an anti-Nazi campaigner, a Communist, and the earliest female architect to feature at MoMa in New York. She died aged 102.
No comments:
Post a Comment