This is a great article from House Beautiful on the changing function of kitchens and how kitchen design must change with it, including the sacred “kitchen triangle”. I’ve been saying for years that if you are going to place a huge island in a kitchen, then the design needs to be flexible and that includes the kitchen triangle.
Kitchens have changed from a strictly cooking room to cooking and cleaning hubs to socializing venues. We have also added islands for function and for seating, new fancier appliances, coffee nooks, desk/drop stations, and pet feeding areas. Basically the old kitchen is now the new scullery and the new kitchen is a family gathering space.
Personally I go back and forth between wishing I had a kitchen open to my guests and wishing I had an old swinging door that hid all the goings on in there. All I know for sure is that they will continue to evolve, whether that means we move back to what worked in the past or move forward to something new remains to be seen.
