Middle Ages an Renaissance kitchen was driven automatically by a propeller—the black cloverleaf-like structure in the upper left Early medieval European
longhouses had an open fire under the highest point of the building. The kitchen area was between the entrance and the fireplace. In wealthy homes, there was typically more than one kitchen. In some homes, there were upwards of three kitchens. The kitchens were divided based on the types of food prepared in them. The kitchen might be separate from the great hall due to the smoke from cooking fires and the chance the fires may get out of control. Few medieval kitchens survive as they were "notoriously ephemeral structures".
Colonial America In
Connecticut, as in other colonies of
New England during
Colonial America, kitchens were often built as separate rooms and were located behind the
parlor and
keeping room or
dining room. One early record of a kitchen is found in the 1648 inventory of the estate of a John Porter of
Windsor, Connecticut. The inventory lists goods in the house "over the kittchin" and "in the kittchin". The items listed in the kitchen were:
silver spoons,
pewter,
brass, iron, arms, ammunition,
hemp,
flax and "other implements about the room". Technological developments such as the
Rumford roaster and the
kitchen range enabled more efficient use of space and fuel.
Rationalization A stepping stone to the modern fitted kitchen was the
Frankfurt Kitchen, designed by
Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky for
social housing projects in 1926. This kitchen measured , and was built to optimize kitchen efficiency and lower building costs. The design was the result of detailed time-motion studies and interviews with future tenants to identify what they needed from their kitchens. Schütte-Lihotzky's fitted kitchen was built in some 10,000 apartments in housing projects erected in
Frankfurt, Germany in the 1930s. ==Domestic kitchen planning==