Among designers, maintaining the kitchen triangle is a time-honored way to achieve the best efficiency in your kitchen. Regardless of the shape of your kitchen, you can obtain the ideal relationship between your sink, refrigerator, and cooktop so that working in the kitchen is easy. When you remodel your kitchen, keep this concept in mind for functionality – even though modern kitchens are larger and often the site of other activities in the family.
Origins of the Kitchen Triangle Concept
Developed in the 1940s, the work triangle concept came out of time motion studies popularized around the turn-of-the-century and modified by the University of Illinois School of Architecture to become a standard construction process. At the time, the triangle was appropriate to the one-cook kitchen.
The idea of the triangle was to identify the three work areas of the kitchen, and recognize that for most food items, the cook will take it from the refrigerator to the sink, where counter space is usually located, and then take the food to the stove for cooking. Although the triangle is defined within an imaginary line, each of its lines should be between four and nine feet long so that the total length of all three legs ranges from 12 to 26 feet.
To leave this space free, there should be no trash bins, cabinets, dishwashers, or other obstacles; accomplishing this may mean having a smaller pair of doors rather than one large door for a cabinet. Even if the kitchen is a room that others in the home pass through on their way to another, the triangle path should be unimpeded.
The most popular shaped kitchens are straight, U-shaped, or L-shaped. While small, straight galley kitchens can present a work triangle challenge if the refrigerator, sink, and stove are on one wall, any shape of kitchen is amenable to this arrangement of workspace.
Changes in Kitchen Layout
In the 75 years since the triangle concept became a fundamental of kitchen design, things have changed with kitchens. As homes have become larger, so have kitchens. They may now have islands in the center, more and larger appliances, duplicate appliances and sinks, and multiple work areas. To accommodate this development, designers look at the space to determine logical work areas that may fit smaller triangles.
A kitchen might have an area for rolling out dough and baking, feature a coffee bar or prep sink, or have large amounts of counter space for other food preparation. As a result, many designers now see kitchens as a series of multiple triangles, where some components such as the refrigerator or the sink might be common. Others have put aside the idea of the kitchen triangle as a necessity and concentrate on kitchen zones for food preparation, baking, cooking, and cleaning.
The purpose of the work triangle is to make working in your kitchen more efficient. When you decide it’s time to upgrade your workspace, find a contractor who will design and present you with a layout that includes a convenient kitchen triangle.
