Margarete (Grete) Schütte-Lihotzky: Die Frankfurter Küche: “Designed by a Woman for Women.”
By Jensen Pulling
Margarete (Grete) Schütte-Lihotzky, born 1897, was an inventive mind as well as one of the first female Austrian architects. She was a student of architecture at the Kunstgewerbeschule (the Vienna School for Applied Arts) under Josef Hoffman and Heinrich Tessenow. In 1917 she began designing for the Siedlungsbewegung, or Settlement Movement, with Adolf Loos where she was later recruited by Ernst May and the notion for the Frankfurt kitchen was born.
In post-war Weimar Germany women vastly outnumbered men, mainly due to casualties. Women had been forced into the roles that men previously filled, such as working outside the home, while they were adjusting to being the only source of income and stability for the family at the same time as they were learning how to become both mother and father to their children. Their duties had doubled, as efficiency was necessary to survive, and there were the same amount of hours in the day. Architect Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky worked for Ernst May’s Municipal Building Department, and her goal was to produce a design concept for suitable, affordable housing of single German woman. This went hand in hand with the Neue Sachlichkeit or “New Objectivity” school of thought, which incorporated concepts such as reliability, affordability, precision, order, material and structure. In 1926 Social Democrat Elsa Bauer explained to the community the need for units with kitchenettes,
I probably don’t need to tell you about the poor wages women make; I will only point out that the workers living in boarding houses earn between 17 and 24 marks per week. And yet, such women couldn’t rent the worst unheated garret for 30…[T]hese women are independent; they don’t want to be forever under the eye of landlady. We are asking that units with small kitchenettes be built for them.
Schütte-Lihotzky’s objective took this need into consideration and used Frederick Winslow Taylor’s ‘Scientific Management’ system to maximize efficiency in a small living space for the home.
It is from this need that the Frankfurt Kitchen was born.
For women this kitchen was an important symbol not only of advantageous change, but also of hope- this social advance shows life in the new Republic as synonymous with the new life of the independent woman. Susan Henderson, author of A Revolution in the Woman’s Sphere: Grete Lihotzky and the Frankfurt Kitchen, stated that functionality such as ship galleys, the railroad dining car kitchen, and the lunch wagon inspired Schütte-Lihotzky. The kitchen grew to full maturity as a “piece of highly specialized equipment—a work station where all implements were a simple extension of the operator’s hand.”
Devoid of ornamentation and clutter, this functional space was attractive with its stark lack of decoration that encouraged productivity. When designed in 1926-1927, the Frankfurt Kitchen had eight main design considerations:
1. The distance from the stove, countertop, and sink to the eating area was to be no more than 2.75–3 meters.
2. The floor plan was to be organized in such a way that the housewife and mother could keep an eye on children in the living room while she was occupied in the kitchen. This meant that the door opening between kitchen and living room had to be at least ninety centimeters wide, and could be closed off with a sliding door.
3. The kitchen must have direct access to the hall.
4. Lighting during the day was to come through an external window. Artificial lighting was to be positioned so that no shadows fell upon the work areas (stove, preparation surface, sink).
5. Cooking vapors were to be extracted through a hood and ventilation pipe to the roof.
6. The work-only kitchen was to be small enough to make the greatest possible economies of steps and handling, yet big enough so that two people could work alongside one another without getting in each other’s way.
7. The kitchens could only make a significant labor-saving impact on housework if they were fitted with all the necessary equipment. These were made ready for people at the same time as the houses. This system had two great advantages. First, constructing kitchens with fittings already built in took up less space. Second, with the money saved it was possible to hand over the homes to tenants with a complete kitchen fitted and arranged according to all the principles of labor-saving housework.
8. When kitchens were included in the building costs, they were financed from public funds. The rental costs in Frankfurt were calculated according to the building costs. The addition of a kitchen raised the rents by one deutsche mark a month, but this was offset by savings made on space, so that ultimately the inhabitants did not have to bear any increase in rent.
Each and every feature of this kitchen was built-in and manufactured in a factory. The layout included an “ironing board [that] was hinged to the wall to be pulled down for use; [a] rubbish bin [which] could be emptied from another door in the hallway outside; cabinets painted a deep blue to repel flies…and [debatably the most important feature:] wipe-clean linoleum surfaces, a major hygienic advance.”
There are, however, some issues to consider concerning the layout of the kitchen. Due to the elongated, slim layout of the kitchen it comfortably fits only one person at a time and the labeled aluminum pouring organization containers are at a level at which it would be easy for a child to knock them out and spill the contents. From more effective food storage, to spinning adjustable chairs and convenient waste receptacles, the new kitchen is presented to women as an upgrade.
Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky has been quoted pointing out that “’Frankfurt Kitchen’ is a misleading term since it does not just refer to the design of a kitchen with more or less practical arrangements and facilities.”
It is more the description of a new lifestyle, the Frankfurt home approach. While hers wasn’t the first modern fitted kitchen to be designed, Schütte-Lihotzky’s was the most successful and the most innovative, and most importantly, it was designed by a woman, for women.
In post-war Weimar Germany women vastly outnumbered men, mainly due to casualties. Women had been forced into the roles that men previously filled, such as working outside the home, while they were adjusting to being the only source of income and stability for the family at the same time as they were learning how to become both mother and father to their children. Their duties had doubled, as efficiency was necessary to survive, and there were the same amount of hours in the day. Architect Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky worked for Ernst May’s Municipal Building Department, and her goal was to produce a design concept for suitable, affordable housing of single German woman. This went hand in hand with the Neue Sachlichkeit or “New Objectivity” school of thought, which incorporated concepts such as reliability, affordability, precision, order, material and structure. In 1926 Social Democrat Elsa Bauer explained to the community the need for units with kitchenettes,
I probably don’t need to tell you about the poor wages women make; I will only point out that the workers living in boarding houses earn between 17 and 24 marks per week. And yet, such women couldn’t rent the worst unheated garret for 30…[T]hese women are independent; they don’t want to be forever under the eye of landlady. We are asking that units with small kitchenettes be built for them.
Schütte-Lihotzky’s objective took this need into consideration and used Frederick Winslow Taylor’s ‘Scientific Management’ system to maximize efficiency in a small living space for the home.
It is from this need that the Frankfurt Kitchen was born.
For women this kitchen was an important symbol not only of advantageous change, but also of hope- this social advance shows life in the new Republic as synonymous with the new life of the independent woman. Susan Henderson, author of A Revolution in the Woman’s Sphere: Grete Lihotzky and the Frankfurt Kitchen, stated that functionality such as ship galleys, the railroad dining car kitchen, and the lunch wagon inspired Schütte-Lihotzky. The kitchen grew to full maturity as a “piece of highly specialized equipment—a work station where all implements were a simple extension of the operator’s hand.”
Devoid of ornamentation and clutter, this functional space was attractive with its stark lack of decoration that encouraged productivity. When designed in 1926-1927, the Frankfurt Kitchen had eight main design considerations:
1. The distance from the stove, countertop, and sink to the eating area was to be no more than 2.75–3 meters.
2. The floor plan was to be organized in such a way that the housewife and mother could keep an eye on children in the living room while she was occupied in the kitchen. This meant that the door opening between kitchen and living room had to be at least ninety centimeters wide, and could be closed off with a sliding door.
3. The kitchen must have direct access to the hall.
4. Lighting during the day was to come through an external window. Artificial lighting was to be positioned so that no shadows fell upon the work areas (stove, preparation surface, sink).
5. Cooking vapors were to be extracted through a hood and ventilation pipe to the roof.
6. The work-only kitchen was to be small enough to make the greatest possible economies of steps and handling, yet big enough so that two people could work alongside one another without getting in each other’s way.
7. The kitchens could only make a significant labor-saving impact on housework if they were fitted with all the necessary equipment. These were made ready for people at the same time as the houses. This system had two great advantages. First, constructing kitchens with fittings already built in took up less space. Second, with the money saved it was possible to hand over the homes to tenants with a complete kitchen fitted and arranged according to all the principles of labor-saving housework.
8. When kitchens were included in the building costs, they were financed from public funds. The rental costs in Frankfurt were calculated according to the building costs. The addition of a kitchen raised the rents by one deutsche mark a month, but this was offset by savings made on space, so that ultimately the inhabitants did not have to bear any increase in rent.
Each and every feature of this kitchen was built-in and manufactured in a factory. The layout included an “ironing board [that] was hinged to the wall to be pulled down for use; [a] rubbish bin [which] could be emptied from another door in the hallway outside; cabinets painted a deep blue to repel flies…and [debatably the most important feature:] wipe-clean linoleum surfaces, a major hygienic advance.”
There are, however, some issues to consider concerning the layout of the kitchen. Due to the elongated, slim layout of the kitchen it comfortably fits only one person at a time and the labeled aluminum pouring organization containers are at a level at which it would be easy for a child to knock them out and spill the contents. From more effective food storage, to spinning adjustable chairs and convenient waste receptacles, the new kitchen is presented to women as an upgrade.
Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky has been quoted pointing out that “’Frankfurt Kitchen’ is a misleading term since it does not just refer to the design of a kitchen with more or less practical arrangements and facilities.”
It is more the description of a new lifestyle, the Frankfurt home approach. While hers wasn’t the first modern fitted kitchen to be designed, Schütte-Lihotzky’s was the most successful and the most innovative, and most importantly, it was designed by a woman, for women.