Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Connection between kitchen and dining room

[Rob Sandelin (Floriferous]

Unless you have incredable acoustics, the noise from 30 people eating and 
talking, kids etc. will completely drown out any noise from the kitchen. The 
dishwasher only runs after dinner, and only for 60-90 second bursts covering a 
total of 12-15 minutes so its noise is not a big deal.

At Sharingwood our kitchen is not only totally open, its on the main path from 
door to dining to encourage people to drop in, sample whats happening, check 
in with the cooks, help with last minute prep if needed. 

I would encourage you to open that space up as much as you can, isolating the 
cooks from the rest of the scene would be, in my experience, a bad social 
design.

Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood