Frankfurt kitchen

The Frankfurt kitchen was initiated in 1926 under the project of New Frankfurt Ernst May and elaborated by the Viennese architect Margarete Schütte- Lihotzky to streamline the action sequences in the kitchen and make it easier to work. It is considered a prototype of the modern fitted kitchen.

The Frankfurt kitchen should be designed as an industrial workplace: all important things should be achievable with a handle and a variety of equipment to reduce operations. To meet the demand of the fast accessibility, it is very compact, which just came to meet the needs of the very nascent mass housing.

• 4.1 Contemporary resonance
• 4.2 The response after the end of the project

• 5.1 Musealverein obtained Frankfurt Kitchen

Basics

The basis of the Frankfurt kitchen was Taylorism, whose goal is the optimization of workflows. Christine Frederick transferred this system in 1912 on the work processes in the home environment and in particular the kitchen. and a year later published as a book. Using a stopwatch were measured all handles to be performed and determines the duration of an operation and optimized.

It was Margarete Schütte -Lihotzky that transmitted as an architect this idea of ​​working with optimization of industrial mass production to housing by the kitchen workstation according to ergonomic and practical considerations designed without letting the affordability for broad disregard. The woman should have to spend less time in the kitchen in order to spend more time with the family can:

"The problem, to make the work of the housewife is rational, almost all of the population are of equal importance. Both the women of the middle class, the economies in many cases without any help in the house, and women of the working class who need them often still other professional work, are so overloaded that their revision, can not remain without consequences for the entire public health in the long run. "

The kitchen is consistently designed as a workplace for a person, in larger households still quite conventional auxiliary power ( maid ) is explicitly excluded in the basic version of the kitchen.

As a precursor of the Frankfurt kitchen can be viewed, the kitchen of the Viennese architect Anton Brenner which he designed together with his then assistant Margarete Schütte -Lihotzky, and Haarer kitchen Brothers Haarer in Frankfurt.

Shaping

The kitchen is designed for workers and employees apartments. The limited space of the small apartments of the basement housing of the 1920s did not allow conventional, ie individually standing kitchen furniture as they were common in individual homes of the time. The kitchens were uniform custom-made for whole building. It should all the functionality of a "big" kitchen in minimal space (type 1: 1.9 mx 3.4 m ) are concentrated, without subordinating the efficiency of space minimization. The individual locations are arranged such that unnecessary movement and handles can be avoided.

The kitchen was formally simply designed wooden parts were painted blue - green when they are visible, as scientists at the University of Frankfurt, according to shun flying blue - green areas. From the original color, there were few differences that date back to the green-blue. In addition, most of the large versions (type 2 and 3) were also kitchens in other colors realized.

The horizontal work surfaces consisted of a wooden body, with one-sided (top) linoleum coating and final closure.

The countertop in front of the window was in many respects: First, it was made ​​of natural wood, on the other hand it was mounted so low that you could work on her sitting. For quick disposal of waste from the work area, a rectangular recess was found right in the plate with a mounted underneath, oversized long, enameled Schütte as an "intermediate waste ". The free leading edge bar without allowing the attachment of kitchen appliances ( mayonnaise maker, can opener, food mill, etc.). The position of this special work area at right angles by the sink both the device and the plate could be cleaned immediately, without something fell to the ground.

To rinse the dishes was parked right next to the double sink. The right pool the dishes was soaked and both mechanically and chemically cleaned from dirt and then rinsed in the left pelvis. Shallow dishes (plates, lids, small boards ) were then left in the corresponding column are placed on the draining board to dry. Pots and other bulky items were stored directly on the drip tray. The drying should be completely replaced by a drip.

Kitchen appliances in the true sense were not integrated into the Frankfurt kitchen. It rather a working space was created in the taste and especially after purse devices could be installed and used. In addition to the modern, ie small, electric stove, there was also a side with storage space for hot pots. After many users complained about the high cost of electric cooking, also a combined Kohle-/Elektroherd were (see figure) and a cooking box for the electric stove offered. In the newly emerging refrigerators or on the place for it was deliberately omitted.

To reduce costs, the Frankfurt kitchen was designed as a standardized modular system that could be produced in large numbers in factories and just needed to be anchored by the carpenters in the kitchen. The cost of kitchen were added to the rent. It is the standardization of the modules and the possibility of industrial production, which makes the Frankfurt kitchen became the idol for today's fitted kitchens.

Differences exist for today's kitchen in terms of materials: In the Frankfurt kitchen various woods and metals have been used to back then known substitutes and imitations has been omitted. Today's kitchen is mostly made ​​of particle board and fitted with lacquered or laminated blend surfaces.

Variants

The Frankfurt kitchen was produced in two versions, one small and one large. Furthermore, variations in the color known on the one hand due to fluctuations in production (despite care by the designer ), on the other hand probably at the request, so that there were about even orange and gray specimens. Furniture pieces have received a discoloration of the green and a dark. Self-organized the residents made ​​over the cabinet with the sliding doors own cabinets, so here held an individualization.

During production, there were some changes in the standard kitchen. The separate piece of furniture with the 18 characteristic spill was abandoned in favor of 12 chutes in the high cabinet. One cause could be a critique of R.F.G. have been, there were complaints that satisfy 12 instead of 18 spill, and that these are accessible to young children so far due to the height slightly.

Another change relates to the spill itself, which exist in two versions. The first carries the label " Haarer Frankfurt AM" and has embarked names of the filling, the second mark " Haarer Hanau AM" and riveted labels in a depression. Whether the latter were also produced in the kitchen or just after that is unoccupied, other than the kitchen itself, they are still occasionally found in Internet auctions.

Production

In a large scale for use, the Frankfurt kitchen came (New Frankfurt ) under the ambitious Frankfurter housing program, under the direction of Ernst May created a variety of settlements 1926-1932. Because on the one hand and on the other hand brought labor saving construction costs could be reduced due to the lower volume of construction, any new council housing had to be equipped with such a kitchen, a total of about 10,000 of the 15,000 May- flats in Frankfurt at that time. And derives the name Frankfurt kitchen. The cost per kitchen were at the beginning of 500 Reichsmarks. Due to the high volume, assembly-line work in the authorized workshops of wood were the unit cost in the large settlement of West Hausen still only 238.50 Reichsmarks.

Importance

Contemporary resonance

Despite the advantage of labor-saving innovation is not always met with a positive response. After the introduction of the model presented the Reich Research Society for Efficiency in Building and Housing ( RFG) in some households a significant effort fixed, the previous habits of life to persevere ( attaching other pieces of furniture in the kitchen, eat in kitchen, cooking in the living room, etc. ). In fact, the Frankfurt kitchen required considerable changes in the living culture of those directly affected, who had had no say in its design. The offices of the Frankfurt city authorities were very concerned about the acceptance of the Frankfurt kitchen. These housewife evenings were organized. Technical problems, such as the acute shortage of space in the opened cabinet doors or the ingress of moisture in the food ( the aluminum chutes were not locked up ), though could be solved over the years. The Frankfurt kitchen was, however, considered by many to be too inflexible. The RFG criticized the concept of Aluminum boxes, which were little used and never actually originally intended for their function. The kitchen was not designed for the presence of children; of housewives criticism was voiced, the Aluminum chutes were too deeply placed and easily accessible for the offspring to. The ability of families, where appropriate, to develop their own forms of behavior and retain actually was not necessarily for the concept, where Schütte- Lihotzky was just trying to cause an appreciation of women's work and was negatively assessed by the feminism of the 1970s - 80s later: Because of space only was meant for one person, it was said that the Frankfurt kitchen was the housewife seemingly locked into a narrow space and thus contributed to their isolation.

Despite all this criticism, the Frankfurt kitchen became a very popular model and provided for future development of the kitchen as a fundamental contribution. 1930, the Frankfurt Kitchen in Sweden was presented in an exhibition.

Some contemporary successor models are the Modulor kitchen of Le Corbusier, the Munich kitchen as a compromise to the kitchen, the Swedes and the Swiss cuisine kitchen. Even in the Soviet Union were included the achievement of the Frankfurt kitchen in your own developments.

The response after the end of the project

Ernst Neufert was the kitchen in his Bauentwurfslehre from 1936, but also pointed to some minor weaknesses. Nevertheless, kitchen floor plans were in social housing after 1945 tend to be smaller than in the New Frankfurt. This used now preferred particle board furniture that has been provided with Resopaloberflächen, sometimes the representative cuisine buffet came back into fashion. Only the designed by Otto Haarer chutes were still used in larger quantities. The Frankfurt kitchen was known as an ideal in the art, only an architecture magazine reported in 1957 about it.

With the historical investigation from 1976 grew back the interest on the Frankfurt Kitchen: 1976 reported an historian magazine about the importance of the kitchen, followed by some more, so the kitchen was recognized as a classic of kitchen designs about 10 years. In 1989, the Austrian architect Margarete Schütte- Lihotzky was awarded the Prize of the IKEA IKEA Foundation because of that. In addition to several new buildings in the private kitchen is the most famous example is the Frankfurt Kitchen at the MAK Vienna, which was created in 1990. An Austrian company produced around the turn of the century beechwood handles the Frankfurt kitchen new.

Care and museum conservation

Until the 1980s, many Frankfurt kitchens migrated to the bulky waste, mostly from ignorance or extract the first occupier. Also, a second use as a basement furniture was out of the question because the kitchen had no backs and some have no side walls. Consequently, very few kitchens partially or completely intact. The interest on the Frankfurt kitchen and avantagardistischen design objects in general led to the careful expansion of some remaining copies, which moved in museums, collections or on the auction market. It is sometimes tried old kitchen furniture, which sometimes also have the Haarer chutes for sale as parts of an alleged old Frankfurt kitchen.

A largely complete Frankfurt Kitchen was bought at auction ( quince tree, in Munich) in 2005 for 22,680 euros, another for 34,200. The maximum rates are apparently only for the blue standard kitchen. A different model of 1930 for a mental hospital that does not have the characteristic about hanging cabinet, in 2009 only reached an amount of 11,000 euros. Also different parts do not reach maximum prices: A short wall cabinet with three colorless sliding doors, which is not part of the standard kitchen, 2010 reached an amount of 1000 € and missed the estimated price of 1600 Euro. Since then, no kitchen or their parts (as of 2013) was up on the frequently offered more Pouring offered at auction.

The spill itself are found in many furniture again, for example in the Schminke House, which, although from the time ( or a little later ) and include their original boxes, but when furniture was not part of a Frankfurt kitchen. This is due to the fact that Haarer offered the spill after the completion of the project on their own on. It is solely for furniture with the second version of the chutes with the riveted labels. They quite often appear therefore on the auction market. 2010 element with six large spill was sold for 380 euros, another with ten chutes in the same year for 1000 Euros and one with nine major for 1,200 euros.

Musealverein obtained Frankfurt Kitchen

The only public kitchen in the original space is located in the Ernst May House, Castle In field 136, Frankfurt - Roman city. In this two- storey terraced house a documentation and a venue for those interested in architecture has emerged.

More cuisines can be seen in the following museums:

• Baden State Museum Karlsruhe, Branch Museum at Market
• Museum of Applied Arts (MAK ), Vienna ( reconstruction)
• Historical Museum Frankfurt (currently (2013 ) for new construction in temporary not available )
• Werkbundarchiv - Museum of Things
• Design Collection University of Wuppertal
• Germanic National Museum, Nuremberg (currently (10/ 2008) for renovation not accessible)
• Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Museum of Modern Art, New York, acquired in 2009 and currently part of the exhibition Counter Space: Design and the Modern Kitchen

In 2006, a Frankfurt kitchen as part of the traveling exhibition " Modernism: Designing a new world" was the Victoria and Albert Museum in the world, with stops in London, the U.S. and Germany.

As a quote in the art

2008 Robert Rotifer turned a music video with the song Frankfurt Kitchen. The Briton Liam Gillick 2009 had an interpretation of the Frankfurt Kitchen for the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale build as an art object. The Cypriot multimedia artist Nikos Charalambidis established 2011 in Greece before installation, which is also dedicated to the Frankfurt kitchen, and a reproduction of the type 1 includes; another variation he staged as a subject of a video installation.

Film

• The Frankfurt Kitchen. ( Alternative title: . La cuisine de Frankfort ) Documentary, France, 2010 26 min, Director: Anna- Celia Kendall, Production: Steamboat Films, ARTE France, le Centre Pompidou, Lobster Films, series: Design, German Original Air Date: March 25, 2012 Summary of arte with video excerpt ( 2:50 min).