The rise of open kitchens feels like just another facet of our panoptic tech age. Everything and every job and every person is under surveillance, every task monitored, every move assessed against metrics, every act rateable. there's hardly any realm of work now where you're not being constantly observed and judged, and having to perform for that rating, not even minimum wage work now. Maybe it's not just about trans…
The reason for private home open kitchens is simple: greed on part of the real estate developers. Like office open spaces, it's easier and cheaper to develop them, less work, less material, these motherfuckers would sell you a cube of concrete and call it "home" if they could.
It's become almost impossible to buy a new apartment with a proper, enclosed kitchen. And I'm not talking 100s of square meters because at today's prices that's for Bezos and Musks only, a tiny tiny regular apartment with little space to go when stuff starts smelling in the living room (now shared with the kitchen).
Another trend on part of the real estate (agents, developers, all kinda disgusting sleazy hustlers trying to get you buy their crap) is talking you into accepting that smelly cube of concrete instead of proper compartments. "You're not going to cook at home much anyway, are you? Only poor people cook, wealthy guys like you will make at most a tea in the kitchen and eat out or order food".
No, bitches, I cook at home! And it smells! Roasted onion, fried meat, pretty much staple food that needs to be cooked over and over again, smells so strong that you can feel it in the hallway outside the apartment, without an enclosed kitchen. Even with an enclosed one, I still need to open the balcony door and some smell will creep into the other rooms, but it's manageable, with a bit of open windows the smell is gone in 30 minutes instead of lingering for days, so bad that friends smell food in my apartment days after I stopped cooking it.