The Kitchen: An Architectural Mirror of Everyday Life and Societal Development

This paper is part of a research project that analyses trends in the last 100 years of housing architecture. The research project intends to show how changing norms have altered our views on housing, and how the development of new forms of everyday life and lifestyle has led to fundamental changes in housing architecture. In this paper the analysis focuses particularly on the kitchen. A 100 years ago the kitchen of the bourgeoisie and the middle class was used only by servants and other employees – the kitchen was not designed to be used by the residents. Today the kitchen has developed into a central room of the home, and it has great social qualities - and a lot of money is spent on the aesthetic appearance of the kitchen. Trends such as these are described in the paper in the light of societal and cultural trends - health, rationality, food culture, gender, sustainability, consumerism etc.