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The Case for Rooms

citylab.com

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Re: The Case for Rooms

#61

Post by asdfasgasdgasdg »

athenot wrote: post #53
DubiousPusher wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I want to cook for an hour without being alone. Exactly my thoughts reading this. I would guess this author does not cook. Or has not done so in a closed isolating kitchen while family or friends chat happily just around a wall out of earshot.

> I would guess this author does not cook. I believe you are correct: Nothing is more maddening than trying to read or watch television in the tall-ceilinged living room with someone banging pots and pans or using the food processor 10 feet away in the open kitchen. I was scratching my head while reading the article because my wife and I are looking to do the opposite and tear down the wall between the kitchen and th…

I cook almost every day for my family. I would say that half the time I wish I had a closed floor plan, and half the time I'm glad I have an open one. Here's the deal. Sometimes I want my kids to stay out from under my feet when I'm cooking, and I want to just listen to my podcasts or whatever. Other times, especially when friends are over, I'm really glad I have an open plan kitchen.

Re: The Case for Rooms

#63

Post by humanrebar »

alkonaut wrote: post #7

The open (Kitchen) floor plan to me represents the idea that cooking isn’t a chore separate from eating and socializing. I want to cook for an hour without being alone. Privacy in the kitchen would never be desireable. “Entertaining” doesn’t require guests. There is also a matter of space. A shared living/dining/cooking space can use a lot less space than three separate rooms. I couldn’t afford the separate solution…

> I want to cook for an hour without being alone. Privacy in the kitchen would never be desireable.

When you have small kids:

- You want them away from boiling water, dropped knives, and dangerously hot ovens.

- You want them to keep sleeping even though you're vacuuming

- You might want to let them watch Baby Shark for the 1000th blasted time while leaving you out of it

- You might want to read a novel while they hold miniature My Little Pony melodramas

- You might want to start a project on a table, leave it alone for an hour (behind closed doors), then come back to it where you left it

- You might want to have adult conversations about adult subjects (death, money, parenting) without unprepared ears listening in

You probably do want to incorporate them into dining, family choices, and cooking, but only in controlled ways.

Re: The Case for Rooms

#64

Post by Qwertystop »

the_af wrote: post #60
alkonaut wrote: post #7

The open (Kitchen) floor plan to me represents the idea that cooking isn’t a chore separate from eating and socializing. I want to cook for an hour without being alone. Privacy in the kitchen would never be desireable. “Entertaining” doesn’t require guests. There is also a matter of space. A shared living/dining/cooking space can use a lot less space than three separate rooms. I couldn’t afford the separate solution…

A disadvantage of open kitchens is that while they look cool, the smells can invade your house. Have you tried grilling something on the stove? Unless you have a powerful smoke extractor (sorry, don't know what they are called in English) you'll smoke up your living room, which is always nasty. Closing the door (plus an average smoke extractor) will help a lot.

I think the phrase you want is "exhaust hood" (also known as a "range hood" or "kitchen hood", or more colloquially just a "vent").

Re: The Case for Rooms

#65

Post by the_af »

taurath wrote: post #54
irrational wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I want to cook for an hour without being alone. I'm the opposite. Nothing drives me up the wall more than people trying to talk to me when I'm trying to work, whether on a computer coding or in the kitchen cooking/baking. I can't concentrate at all when someone tries to talk to me. I can communicate, or I can cook/code, but I can't do both at the same time.

Cooking has always been a social thing to me - chopping vegetables for 20 minutes is a lot nicer when you have someone to talk to.

Chopping vegetables, yes. But when the fire is on, or there's a frying pan, I wish everyone would leave the kitchen. I don't want to be responsible for any burns or accidents. Now that I think about it, when I'm holding a sharp knife I also want everyone away. My fear is that a chatty guest who's not paying attention will walk into the point of my knife (and yes, because of that fear I'm constantly worrying about where the knife is pointed, but still... that's brain cycles I'm not able to spend on actually cooking).

Re: The Case for Rooms

#66

Post by wincy »

jpm_sd wrote: post #14

The historical context portion of the article is interesting and well written, but the critique of the open-concept layout at the end seemed rushed and unconvincing. Anyone here who lives in a modern open-concept house care to comment? I currently live with my wife, 3 children and 2 dogs in a 1200 square foot split level and we all dream of a big open-concept house some day... but apparently some people are getting t…

I live in a 2100 square foot house and the living room, dining room, and kitchen are all the same giant room. We got the house mostly because of this room, because it allows us to keep tabs on our two little ones pretty easily. We don’t make great use of the other 1000 square feet. It was more an issue of “we want to live in this nice neighborhood” so we bought too much house. I really wish I could have bought a 1200 square footer in a safe neighborhood but where I live in flyover country that’s just not how it works.

Re: The Case for Rooms

#67

Post by the_af »

Qwertystop wrote: post #64
the_af wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A disadvantage of open kitchens is that while they look cool, the smells can invade your house. Have you tried grilling something on the stove? Unless you have a powerful smoke extractor (sorry, don't know what they are called in English) you'll smoke up your living room, which is always nasty. Closing the door (plus an average smoke extractor) will help a lot.

I think the phrase you want is "exhaust hood" (also known as a "range hood" or "kitchen hood", or more colloquially just a "vent").

Thanks! Yes, that's it.

Re: The Case for Rooms

#68

Post by PhasmaFelis »

This really seems like an extended "stop liking what I don't like" rant. There are legitimate reasons to prefer either open or closed kitchens, and most of them come down to personal preference. Personally, I like being in open, airy spaces. It's got nothing to do with "entertaining."

Also, this:

> A large, single, continuous space is harder to get and keep clean. Messes and smells are no longer isolated, but can be easily tracked throughout the entire first floor of a large home. Less house in general means less house to clean.

...What? Sure, more walls make it easier to ignore messes, but that's not the same thing as easier to clean.

Re: The Case for Rooms

#69

Post by ksdale »

rdtsc wrote: post #56

I have seen the tension between open separated spaces with my family. My parents come from a place and time when having lots of little rooms, with doors that you can open close is a great advantage. My wife and I like open floor plans. The kitchen opens into the living room and into the dining room. When my parents visit, my mom often remarks how she would really like to close the (non-existent) door to the kitchen,…

We had a very similar experience! My grandfather and his lady-friend came over to see our new house, remarked on how much space there was, and proceeded to spend the rest of the visit making little remarks about how to better separate the parts of the house from each other. They seemed completely oblivious to the fact that we bought the house specifically because it was so open.

Re: The Case for Rooms

#70

Post by batrat »

DubiousPusher wrote: post #42
alkonaut wrote: post #7

The open (Kitchen) floor plan to me represents the idea that cooking isn’t a chore separate from eating and socializing. I want to cook for an hour without being alone. Privacy in the kitchen would never be desireable. “Entertaining” doesn’t require guests. There is also a matter of space. A shared living/dining/cooking space can use a lot less space than three separate rooms. I couldn’t afford the separate solution…

> I want to cook for an hour without being alone. Exactly my thoughts reading this. I would guess this author does not cook. Or has not done so in a closed isolating kitchen while family or friends chat happily just around a wall out of earshot.

> I would guess this author does not cook

Exactly the opposite. People with open floor plans don't cook every day, otherwise their home will smell like a cheap restaurant, unless they got used to it.

My parents have an open plan, i don't. My home smells fresh every day (except kitchen) despite cooking every day, their house, smells like food in every corner because the smell impregnates in every material(especially in the winter) and is very hard to get it out.

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