Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: How are your great room and kitchen connected?

[Laura Fitch (lfitch]

Pioneer Valley uses a simple folding door that fills a 3'x 6'8 opening.  It
is easy to use, and fairly attractive, and cuts out enough sound.  I will
bring picture to meeting.

Laura Fitch, AIA, LEED
Kraus-Fitch Architects, Inc
110 Pulpit Hill Rd.
Amherst, MA  01002
413-549-5799
lfitch [at] krausfitch.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Sharon Villines [mailto:sharon [at] sharonvillines.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2008 3:53 PM
To: Cohousing-L
Subject: Re: [C-L]_ How are your great room and kitchen connected?




>
> At 02:01 PM 3/11/2008, Kristen wrote:
>
>> Does your kitchen completely open to the great room/dining room?
>> What works
>> or doesn't work about this?

Ours is open and while it is nice for the cooks not to be closed off,
it is noisy. And some think it is unsightly.

It doesn't work well when people want to have a meeting in the dining
room after meals because the dishwasher is too noisy. And when people
are trying to prepare a meal when a meeting is going on, it is
distracting and hard to hear.

We don't have anything that closes it off and to do so would not be
really comfortable either. The things I've seen are not very effective
or unsightly.

The best arrangement I've seen is at Blueberry Hill. Their kitchen
opens to a space like a breakfast nook with a table. The dining room
is  beside the nook and the kitchen. People can see out of the kitchen
but the dining room doesn't look directly into the kitchen.

Having the table adjacent to the kitchen also allows for easier buffet
serving because people can circulate around the table back into the
dining room. There is also a counter on the kitchen side so more
things can be placed there, or to just serve coffee and rolls from
there.

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing,Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org


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