Kitchen Design

Situating the Kitchen

Designing a kitchen from scratch is not as easy as you'd think. In a loft, there is the matter of where to situate it. In our loft, we want the kitchen on the ground floor so as to maximize our 2nd level mezzanine living space and to allow for employee use and business entertaining. While the ground level is spacious, we don't want the kitchen to impede foot traffic to the stairs or through the work space. We also don't want to take away from the open work space where we plan to place desks and conference areas. We could place the kitchen at the very back of the loft, but a kitchen has such potential to be a visually exciting showcase for design skills that we decided to place it halfway towards the entrance to the loft where clients can see it. The only space that met all these requirements happened to be practically under the staircase. To make things more difficult, 10 feet or so away from the underside of staircase is a giant concrete column. So we must figure out how to shoehorn a nice kitchen between the staircase and the column. There are several configurations that will work, but the elements that are fixed are the slim, horizontal upper cabinets, a large island for employees and guests to sit at, and an absence of walls other than a wall for the fridge to rest against.

The Design Inspiration

In our view, an architecture studio should be an open space plan and showcase design elements that illustrate the architect's familiarity with cutting-edge style and technology. This means staying away from traditional-looking cabinet styles, hardware and appliances. In our opinion, "modern" styles tend towards the shiny, sleek, and techno-looking - often incorporating alternative materials and unexpected, bold colors and textures. There are sources of inspiration to be found in magazines such as Metropolis, Dwell, Architect, etc. These sources provide ideas and guidance, but the ultimate look is up to us. After days of racking our brains to choose a look, we finally decided to take a cue from some of our favorite utilitarian items - things that we use all the time that we love the look of. After we gathered these items together we discovered that they all had major design elements in common.

Our first favorite item is our shiny red pepper grinder with chrome tightening nut.

The second item is our shiny, red tea kettle with chrome and black handle.

The third is the trusty red, black and silver Milwaukee impact driver that has helped us put up steel framing and drywall.

The last item is our awesome, red, black and stainless steel Craftsman tool chest.

Shiny, Red & Black

So, it is decided that our kitchen design will incorporate shininess, red, black and stainless steel. It just so happens that modern European kitchen designs often feature glossy, red cabinets. And there are some cool, black sinks, faucets, and phenolic resin countertops available. The countertops are the same as those found in high school chemistry labs, which is unexpected and fun. There will literally be a price to pay for not choosing traditional cabinetry and appliances. But we love to cook and entertain and believe an architecture studio should be held to a higher standard in order to showcase the architect's design sense. So we choose this approach knowing it is quite likely to bust our budget but also knowing that it will have been a worthy attempt.