Almost by nature, kitchens are cantankerous places. Even new kitchens, crammed cheek by jowl with the ultimate in appliances, still have a way of making cooking a labor-intensive process.
We`re so accustomed to dealing with kitchen defects, though, that we may not even notice them. But when you think about all the stooping, bending, reaching, kneeling, lifting, pulling, pushing and walking that meal-making requires, you sometimes have to wonder whether you`re engaged in the culinary arts or aerobics.
And if a kitchen can test the mettle of an able-bodied cook, imagine what it can do to the physically challenged, an estimated 40 million Americans. Add to that figure the folks who are disabled on a now-and-then basis-people recovering from surgery, those with sprained ankles or other weekend-warrior injuries-and those who are beset with arthritis and other physical limitations that often accompany advanced age.
Kitchens can be far more accommodating, far more labor-saving than they are now. And if the best thinkers in the kitchen design business have anything to say about it, they soon will be.
Kitchen & Bath Design magazine, for example, recently ran two enlightening articles about some innovative approaches to kitchen design. The first article, by Ellen Rand and Florence Perchuck, was adapted from their forthcoming book, ”The Complete Book of Kitchen Design” (Consumer Reports Books). In it, the authors argue for something they call the ”trans-generational” kitchen, or what the magazine calls the ”universal”
kitchen. These are kitchens designed for people of various ages and physical abilities.
The attributes of a trans-generational kitchen, according to Rand and Perchuck, include:
– The ability to accommodate users who may be seated. ”Traditional kitchen design assumes that tasks are done standing up,” Perchuck says. ”The trans-generational kitchen, by contrast, assumes that you can accomplish these tasks seated, on a dining chair, wheelchair or stool.”
– A variety of countertop heights for users of different ages and statures. Or better still, height-adjustable countertops and wall cabinets that can be raised or lowered, manually or electronically, for improved accessibility.
– Cantilevered countertops with no cabinets below that can accommodate a wheelchair or a regular chair.
– Wall-mounted cabinets lowered from a standard 18 inches above the counter to 15 or 16 inches above, to be more accessible to those on the short side. If you need a step stool in the kitchen, you know there`s something wrong with the kitchen`s design.
– Dishwashers raised off the floor, from six inches all the way up to countertop height, an idea certain to appeal to anyone with a bad back.
– Base cabinets and wall cabinets outfitted with pull-out shelves or rotating shelves so you don`t have to reach inside. Ditto for refrigerators.
– Modular refrigerators and freezers. Rand and Perchuck envision modular refrigeration units that could be scattered throughout the kitchen and even throughout the house, units powered by a single compressor in the basement that could also service a home`s air-conditioning system.
– Cantilevered sinks without cabinets underneath that would accommodate a wheelchair or a dining-type chair, or sinks that can go higher or lower to accommodate users of different heights.
– Single-lever faucets. Already widely available and invaluable for those who have trouble grasping conventional faucet knobs, single-lever faucets are also more convenient for the able-bodied and easier to keep clean. Also available, but expensive, are faucets with infrared light motion detectors that eliminate the need for manual operation altogether. Pass your hand or an object in front of the sensor and the faucet comes on or shuts off automatically.
In the not-too-distant future, say Perchuck and Rand, more kitchens ”are likely to rely on electronics, voice activation and motorized operations.”
– Modular cooktops. Instead of a single cooktop with four burners, you can have four individual built-in burners spaced as far apart as you want. If you have them lined up across the front of a counter, you won`t have to reach over the vegetables in one pot to check on the progress of the potatoes in another.
– Large, easy-to-grasp control knobs with easy-to-read settings on all appliances.
– Wall ovens that eliminate the bending and stooping required by conventional slide-in or freestanding ranges.
A second Kitchen & Bath Concepts magazine article is about a kitchen designed by Erika Khader of Design Studio in Staten Island, N.Y. Photographs of the kitchen give no hint that it was expressly designed for a wheelchair-bound client.
It simply looks like a very contemporary kitchen with granite countertops and dark wood Allmilmo cabinets. But closer inspection reveals no cabinet below the sink, that the dishwasher was installed at countertop height and that the toe space under the base cabinets was exaggerated to make room for a wheelchair`s foot rest.
”That`s precisely the kind of `universal` kitchen that appeals to us,”
says Anne Patterson, editor of Kitchen & Bath Concepts. ”It shows that the design of kitchens can be made more functional for users of all ages and abilities yet still not look institutional or out of sync with the rest of the house. It also shows that the able-bodied need not sacrifice beauty or comfort to make a kitchen more accessible and accommodating for those with limitations-and sooner or later, in one way or another, that includes all of us.”
