The Kitchen Space

The Kitchen Space

• The Kitchen 'Work Triangle' - "the basis of an efficiency model based on the three work centres: refrigerator, sink/dishwasher and cooker or oven (Baden-Powell, 2005)" 

"The idea is to place these three centres which form a triangle shape at the most efficient distances apart to achieve the best configuration for the space available and to minimise traffic through the work zone." 

Although, people will have their own routines as well therefore it may differ from person to person, however, in general this triangle will benefit people in their everyday navigation in the kitchen. There are also different types of kitchen space layouts, however upon reading on some research I though that I'd only highlight the layout which I think are the most effective and relevant to my research.

• One Wall Kitchen (In Kitchen) - kitchen is on  a straight line; most practical especially for small spaces, however the space between the sink and the stove may be restricted which isn't ideal as they're the most important part of food preparation. 
• L- shaped Kitchen - ideal if you want a small dining table or kitchen island, can also integrate the dining room and make use of kitchen with different activities as well. More than one person can use the kitchen at a time. (multiple work zones with additional dining options). However, the kitchen triangle may be too far apart and corner spaces can be wasted spaces as they can be hard to reach.
• U- shaped Kitchen - ideal for larger rooms, (perhaps for a multigenerational household?), maximum storage options and space. however, because it's large the kitchen triangle shouldn't be too far apart so that they are efficient and easy to reach quickly.
• Two side (Parallel Kitchen) - A big space isn't relatively needed for this layout. It's good for food preparation and can shorten the distance of the kitchen triangle, and can allow ease of movement in the space. However, it may cause traffic congestion if too many people are in the same space at the same time, and if both sides are open. Also, needs enough room for both drawers to open at the same time.

Kitchen plans with Kitchen triangle highlighted

SB2: Content for Pisces Publication

Today I started to create the content that's going to be in the publication, in order to get them ready and set to Olivia to possibly give her some inspiration for the visuals as well get her opinion on it as she more informed on the theme that I am (and I am just learning more about it now and becoming more interested in it). 

Introduction -

These pages will introduce the publication content (Pisces) to the readers and give a brief description of the Zodiac sing and its. I thought having most jargon would be most appropriate here however, I wanted to simplify it as I didn't want to overwhelm readers' with terminology they don't know and actually make them understand about it. Especially, when talking about the myth I wanted to make it sound really interesting as well as understandable and readers can follow it up on their  own. 

Quote - 

I haven't particularly added quite yet, but I thought having the quote on the first few pages on the publication, will help push the flow of the publication and smoothly start the contents following, keeping the pace of the publication. (Indicates to the readers that they are about to 'read' and take in knowledge from this point of the publication).

Contents -

For the content pages, I tried to use as little astrology/horoscope jargon as well as relate it back to the university lifestyle in order to the main audiences and readers of the publication. e.g. using examples such as "You can probably find them sitting in the “secret corners” of the university. Or probably spending more time in their course studios, doing more work than they should." Similarly, for the for the summary horoscope for each of the signs, I used simple descriptions and general overviews as I thought it would be very convenient and easy or the readers to understand it better than having fancy words to describe. 

After finishing creating the content I sent an email to Olivia in order to give her some context behind the visuals that she might be creating. As I've already told her that I'm focusing of the fantasy, ethereal aesthetic for Pisces, I'm hoping that she will create visuals that are similar to what I have in mind as she seems to agree with my descriptions about Pisces as well. Also, as she knows more about Zodiac signs than me I feel that she will be able to create visuals witch will be perfect and successful in presenting the mood that we are trying to bring out of this publication.

Thoughts & Reflection:

Overall, I think this is sufficient amount of content information. I also got a reply from Olivia, and it seems that she is on track with everything and also thought the content that I have are good enough and will be sufficient information for the publication and the readers. Though, because she did say she just had a hand in, I didn't want to be pushy and ask her to do a lot as I understand that she may be quite tired. However, because we are meeting on Wednesday, hopefully she'll have stuff to show us by then!

SB1 - Small Tote Bag Live Brief

In the midst of doing my studio briefs I've also decided to enter one of the university's live brief competitions which I thought was quite nice and something I can do that's relatively easy and will not take me a lot of time. I thought it's also a good start for me to get used to entering live briefs and possibly more in the future.

"I've thought of creating a very illustrative design in order to represent all the different aspects that we as students get to experience and learn in University. Some of the illustrations refer to certain courses such as Graphic Design, Photography etc., as well as key words which are part of the university's ethos. I use a circular design to showcase the inclusiveness of the university and how it's very helpful not just to one but to every single student. I've incorporated the logo in the design to show how the composition can work and the balance between the design and the logo in accordance to its size"

Initially, I thought of using typography for the design, however when one of the requirements said the logo was needed, I quickly changed my idea to be very illustrative. I chosen something that very fun and vibrant as I thought this represented the uni very well, and taking aspects of the course and making illustrations for them adds details to it as well. I thought this would also work really well screen printed and when actually produced I think it would attract attention due to it's details and overall bright and exciting atmosphere.

I'm not really hoping to win, because other people also probably thought of very good ideas and made great stuff, however I quite enjoyed this small brief and I think in the future I will continue on doing this; possibly following with small briefs like these to undertaking big briefs for companies. 

SB1: Research (Problems Elderly People Face in the Kitchen)

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d38b/e35cb19f25d5356d15f0caf45b3f81eb905d.pdf

Ageing Population: Difficulties in the Kitchen

After doing initial research on the topic, I found that maybe I took the wrong approach to it and have decided to review it again, Upon reviewing I found that it was best for me to pick a specific problem which I could tackle within the topic. One that stood out to me was the problems elderly people face in the kitchen and the ageing population today, which is rising and will continue to rise in the future.

In the UK, 18% of the population were aged 65 years and over, whilst 2.4% aged 85 and over. Seeing this, more kitchen design should be more focused on accommodating to the elderly generation.

Physical Difficulty Reasons

• Health Problems - older people naturally will have more health problems especially physical ones, such as arthritis and other bone, muscle and joint problems which will hinder them from doing movements in the kitchen particularly while cooking e.g. cutting vegetable, getting pans. In addition, most of the accidents happen in the kitchen (where 9.7% of accidents happen at home *2002).

"These difficulties are because of the inability of the older individual to meet the environmental and tasks demands."

• Bad Kitchen Design - the bad arrangement and layout of the kitchen is another reason why elderly people struggle in the kitchen. Such as low hoods and cookers or positioning the container cabinets too low which meant older users have to adopt to an awkward bending position all the time, not helping the fact that they could also develop or worsen their health problems. Furthermore, this can result to bad cooking performance and bad kitchen time in general making them feel less motivated and less will in communicated during meal preparations. 

• Safety - "Main causes are the age-related changes and the design of the kitchen environment."

"a continuous worktop is very useful for older people so that they can slide things along without having to lift anything"  

*low hoods were a concern as older people won't realise they still retained heat after being turned off, resulting in burns and scalds. 

*opening tins (especially for key operated and ring pull tins requiring significant amount of strength and awkward position to open it with).  *Maybe focus on this as a lot of older people may struggle with this ?? 

https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/dspace-jspui/bitstream/2134/22283/3/Maguire_1216-6644-2-PB.pdf

• Kitchen Ergonomics - "One area for ergonomic guidance is to provide dimensions for the kitchen environment such as heights of worktops and shelving. For example, a survey by Ward (1971 and 1972) of kitchen worktop and sink heights, which drew from research conducted between 1943 and 1968, produced a number of recommendations. " p 73 

Having an optimum kitchen sink height of 90 - 105 cm, worktop 85 - 100 cm and cooker of 85 - 100 cm. However, this does not always apply to everyone and may not even beneficial at all for some people as people will need custom measurements for themselves; highlighting the need for adjustable kitchens. 

Emotional/ Social Aspects

• Social (Past Memories) - Compared to the houses the elder generation grew up in, houses now and smaller and often furnished and equipped. However, overtime as the income the family size increases they will acquire other appliances and equipment which are more efficient and useful. 

In the past(1920's-1930's) English kitchen where much more larger and a variety of activities were done in the kitchen, creating a warm and engaging environment for all the family members. 

"family members would talk, read, listen to the radio, mend clothes, bake or make jam, do homework, play board games, prepare and eat meals and do the laundry. Allied spaces, such as the scullery or utility room, were highly valued ‘back kitchen’ areas with a Belfast or Butler sink, where laundry equipment such as the copper, the wash board and the mangle might be stored and used, or where food preparation or even bathing might take place" 

Modernised social etiquette changed the ways in which where families eat their dinners, there's been various ways in which have also changed the kitchen layout and the areas around it, e.g. "kitchen hatch’ linking the kitchen to the dining room, the ‘hostess trolley’, and the ‘through room’—a single lounge dining room which become a multipurpose space for leisure, social interaction and eating meals"

Not creating "walls' in which where activities should be done has resulted in a "multipurpose space for leisure, social interaction and eating meals", and also means that there's a lot more significance to the kitchen in a way as it's a place where all meetings can take place in the house, hence why it's important to create a good kitchen space layout, that can accommodate older members of the family. 

https://www.slideshare.net/design-engineering/kitchen-report

On the other hand, elderly people also suffer from psychological hardships as much as they suffer physical ones (if not worse). These problems are:

• Loneliness
• Fears of being injured e.g. burning themselves or falling
• Having to be independent or being dependent on someone

These problems may also contribute to the fact that they are having a hard time navigating in the kitchen thus, decreasing their effort to do anything in the space in the first place. Instead, of feeling productive, they somehow feel that it's a chore and fear the kitchen in turn.

• Place Attachment - elderly people may prefer their homes more due to the experiences and memories that they had overtime, such as spending time with their family/ friends. Also, it's a way for them to solidify and have pride in being independent and being stable while aging etc.

SB2: Timetable Schedule for Publication Production

SB2 (new) timetable

After meeting up our collaborators today, we talked to them about the timescale that we have for the two publication to be done in order to make sure that they were really up for the collaboration. especially, because we know they will also have their own personal courses to get on with. They said they were completely fine with it and would help in anyway we could so we decided to have interval meetings for the progress that we are all making as well as contact each other through email for any questions and suggestions that can be done with the publication.


Me and Jocel decided to create a timetable for SB2, just so we get a visual and idea of what day and date we need to get things done as well. We will try to follow this timetable as best as we could, especially for me because I've already done a timetable for myself before, I think I will need to readjust them in order for me to have equal time to spend on both briefs.

Turning Down Collaboration Responses

After receiving two responses from two Illustration students we decided to work with both of them and have already set a solid plan as well as met up with them. However, today we received tow more responses from another Illustration student and an Animation student.

We deliberated so much on whether we should add them to our collaboration:

Advantages of having them:

+ More manpower, more ideas
+ People with more experience than us can help us create better work
+ They're really enthusiastic about the project

Disadvantages of having them:

- More people = More opinions clashing?
- We already have a solid team, adding more people would mean changing/adding roles etc (take longer time)
- Would be harder to set up time to meet each other

Response from Illustration student

Response from Animation student

At the end, we decided to unfortunately decline them, because we though that it would be a bit hard to add them in the plan as well give them roles. Furthermore, me and Jocel started this brief thinking or only working with one person and we sent our brief with that intent. But, having four people response was quite surprising to us and we didn't quite know how to handle it. In addition, to the fact that we didn't have a lot of time for this brief and estimating  the designing, developing and production process it was better to start it as fast as possible and did it with the first people that responded. Although, we really liked the work of the other responders and appreciated their enthusiasm it was really hard for us to declined but we had to in order to move on with the brief with our current collaborators. Also, because this is our first endeavour in collaborating with someone outside the course we were just really overwhelmed by all of it.

SB2: Meeting up with Collaborators

Today we met up with our collaborators (Nusheen and Olivia) at lunch for a quick chat about the publication that we are going to make. We showed them the general overview of the contents and designs that we wanted the publications to look like. In addition, we also also made them aware that this is part of our module therefore we will have a tight schedule in creating the publication, which thankfully they understood and were happy to accomodate. Likewise, we also made them aware that if anything would not work with them, especially time wise, they can absolutely tell us in order for us to work properly as a team.

Me and Jocel also showed them the Pinterest boards that we made and told them that we would like to work with one of them individually as we are making two publications. Looking at the work that the illustration students gave us we though that Nusheen and Jocel and Me and Olivia would work. We also worked out that maybe we would have to meet up as individual teams and as a whole in order to make sure that the publications are up to speed and are both cohesive. As we don't actually have the content for the publications yet, we decided to meet up next week Wednesday afternoon, as all of us would be free by then (me, Jocel and Nusheen have Employability week schedules and Olivia has just started a new module). We decided that me and Jocel will create the content that will be used in the publication while our collaborators can start creating visual content for the publication, also keeping in contact with each other in order to receive and give suggestions and opinions on each others work.

Overall, we thought it was a good first meet up with both of them and we have given them a good overview of our brief as well as giving them freedom to do what they want and give suggestions back and forth in order for this to be a successful collaborative brief.