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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 mo

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 transparency, maybe it never was about transparency, or it was about the one way kind of transparency. And also about control.

MichaelRo 3y ago
Well the article is at best incomplete, there's open kitchens in restaurants but an increasingly annoying trend is encountering them in private homes. 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.
- inglor_cz 3y ago
  We cook at home too and I love our open kitchen. I lived in apartments with "proper" enclosed kitchen and I didn't like it. Give me an open kitchen anyday. True, the foods we cook don't smell as much and we have very good ventilation. Plus my sense of smell is a bit shot (though not defunct), so I don't mind. People have different esthetic and practical preferences.
- Xcelerate 3y ago
  > an increasingly annoying trend is encountering them in private homes. Speak for yourself; I love open kitchens. For me, cooking is an enjoyable and relaxing hobby. If I could throw out the living room and television and replace them with more kitchen space, I would (but I’m concerned about the resale value of the home). The open kitchen is for entertaining guests and family members, and I like watching how others cook when I visit their homes as well.
- least 3y ago
  What exactly is a closed kitchen? One with doors completely shutting it off from the rest of the home? That seems to be exceptionally rare in the US. So much so I don't think I've ever been into any home that that was the case. There's of course ones with and without walls that partition it off from the rest of the living space, but I can't remember the last time i saw a door on one. Even when I lived in Germany, while the kitchen was a separate room, it had a big opening that went into a small hallway and right next to it was a dining room. In none of these scenarios would I think you'd ever magically block off the smell of cooking. I walk by some houses and I can certainly smell what they're cooking, so it's not like even the entirely closed off house is going to prevent that. I think your issue is actually a ventilation one. You don't dissipate the smell of something by letting it fester in a closed off space. You open a window (like you said) or find an apartment that has a range hood, vented or not.
  - MichaelRo 3y ago
    >> What exactly is a closed kitchen? One with doors completely shutting it off from the rest of the home? Precisely. My apartment has 55 square meters in all and was pretty expensive as is. My cousin who lives in Paris in a 30 meters (yes, 30 square meters!) apartment was thinking to move to an 80 square meters apartment and was asked €1,000,000 for it (one million, yes, ridiculous but these are the prices). And his 30 meters is close to half a million! So space in major cities is very expensive. Thus having a closed kitchen effectively gains another room, I have one bedroom and a retractable couch in the living room. Because the kitchen is separated by actual walls, I have sort of a two-bedroom apartment. Two people can sleep in different rooms and it's possible to go into the kitchen or prepare food without bothering them. That becomes especially important when one has kids. I love how you love your open space kitchens, I dare you do that with kids in a 50 square meters apartment! On the other hand gipsy lifestyle is a thing, extended family of 15 in a tent around the fire, gotta love that.
extragood 3y ago
The intent of the original was for spectacle, inspored by theater, and I would think that other upscale restaurants with similar configurations would choose to do that for the same reason. It has entertainment value. The article contrasted it with diners and sushi restaurants where it serves a different purpose: ensuring sanitary standards. Open floor plans in offices serve yet other functions: cost savings and employee management. While it's interesting to note the parallel trend of removing walls in offices and restaurants, I don't know that they actually have that much in common

MichaelRo 3y ago

Well the article is at best incomplete, there's open kitchens in restaurants but an increasingly annoying trend is encountering them in private homes. 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.

inglor_cz 3y ago
We cook at home too and I love our open kitchen. I lived in apartments with "proper" enclosed kitchen and I didn't like it. Give me an open kitchen anyday. True, the foods we cook don't smell as much and we have very good ventilation. Plus my sense of smell is a bit shot (though not defunct), so I don't mind. People have different esthetic and practical preferences.
Xcelerate 3y ago
> an increasingly annoying trend is encountering them in private homes. Speak for yourself; I love open kitchens. For me, cooking is an enjoyable and relaxing hobby. If I could throw out the living room and television and replace them with more kitchen space, I would (but I’m concerned about the resale value of the home). The open kitchen is for entertaining guests and family members, and I like watching how others cook when I visit their homes as well.
least 3y ago
What exactly is a closed kitchen? One with doors completely shutting it off from the rest of the home? That seems to be exceptionally rare in the US. So much so I don't think I've ever been into any home that that was the case. There's of course ones with and without walls that partition it off from the rest of the living space, but I can't remember the last time i saw a door on one. Even when I lived in Germany, while the kitchen was a separate room, it had a big opening that went into a small hallway and right next to it was a dining room. In none of these scenarios would I think you'd ever magically block off the smell of cooking. I walk by some houses and I can certainly smell what they're cooking, so it's not like even the entirely closed off house is going to prevent that. I think your issue is actually a ventilation one. You don't dissipate the smell of something by letting it fester in a closed off space. You open a window (like you said) or find an apartment that has a range hood, vented or not.
- MichaelRo 3y ago
  >> What exactly is a closed kitchen? One with doors completely shutting it off from the rest of the home? Precisely. My apartment has 55 square meters in all and was pretty expensive as is. My cousin who lives in Paris in a 30 meters (yes, 30 square meters!) apartment was thinking to move to an 80 square meters apartment and was asked €1,000,000 for it (one million, yes, ridiculous but these are the prices). And his 30 meters is close to half a million! So space in major cities is very expensive. Thus having a closed kitchen effectively gains another room, I have one bedroom and a retractable couch in the living room. Because the kitchen is separated by actual walls, I have sort of a two-bedroom apartment. Two people can sleep in different rooms and it's possible to go into the kitchen or prepare food without bothering them. That becomes especially important when one has kids. I love how you love your open space kitchens, I dare you do that with kids in a 50 square meters apartment! On the other hand gipsy lifestyle is a thing, extended family of 15 in a tent around the fire, gotta love that.

extragood 3y ago

The intent of the original was for spectacle, inspored by theater, and I would think that other upscale restaurants with similar configurations would choose to do that for the same reason. It has entertainment value. The article contrasted it with diners and sushi restaurants where it serves a different purpose: ensuring sanitary standards. Open floor plans in offices serve yet other functions: cost savings and employee management. While it's interesting to note the parallel trend of removing walls in offices and restaurants, I don't know that they actually have that much in common