Small spaces often need to accommodate essential functions. How can you incorporate a kitchen into your design in the best possible way when floor space is limited? We've carefully reviewed our published projects to select seven houses where architects have effectively addressed this challenge through intelligent and innovative configurations.
These kitchens manage to appear larger than they actually are by being connected to adjacent spaces such as living rooms or dining rooms. They occupy very small areas themselves, taking a different approach from the traditional kitchen, which usually occupies a separate and exclusive room.
Curtain Cottage / Apparte Studio
In this case, the architects have remodeled a narrow house in Carlton North, Australia. Although it was kept in its original location, the kitchen has been extended longitudinally to become the most important part of the house. With a width of no more than 3 meters, the kitchen is integrated into the dining room and is illuminated mainly from above, introducing the main storage within an island and exposing the original brick of the house to increase the warmth of the space.
Key Features
- Integrated kitchen and dining room
- Double-height space with skylight
- Direct connection to an interior courtyard
House 28 / studio edwards
This small kitchen is completely integrated into the living room of the house through a sculptural island that includes storage and a dishwasher. Of particular importance is the use of a single material for all the elements of the kitchen, including the refrigerator, allowing it to go unnoticed in the middle of the space thanks to the warmth of the wood.
Key Features
- Integrated kitchen and living room
- Use of a single material as a way of integration
Retreat in José Ignacio / MAPA
This beach house integrates the kitchen like an element of furniture in the simplicity of its structure, using a linear width of no more than 60 centimeters in one of the walls that frame the living room. This single bar incorporates all the necessary equipment, in addition to storage of different sizes. Using the same material throughout the wall, the kitchen is integrated into the total space, highlighted by a strip of marble that allows the proper functioning of its wet areas and work surfaces.
Key Features
- Integrated kitchen, dining, and living room
- All equipment—and lots of storage space—in a minimal width
097 • Yojigen Poketto / elii
In this dynamic dwelling, the kitchen is part of an L-shaped "service band" that contains wet areas, storage, and other support furniture. Leaving behind the traditional kitchen format in which the kitchen is completely separated from the other rooms and functions, the space functions as a kitchen when the user so decides. In this way, the whole house can become the kitchen and be the focus of attraction, but it can also be relegated to the background when the space is occupied by other activities.
Key Features
- Kitchen integrated with all the rest of the spaces
- Flexible and mobile furniture
- Totally variable space
Cabin Kvitfjell / Lund Hagem Architects
This is not a particularly small house, but it's an interesting case because the kitchen has been "exploited" with a set of super-efficient furniture to be fully integrated into the living/dining room. As we saw in previous cases, the kitchen becomes a focal point in the house, and the act of cooking becomes visible and important in the lives of the users. Here, the island is almost completely transparent and the kitchen equipment only appears when you unfold the furniture completely.
Key Features
- Integrated kitchen and living/dining room
- Super efficient and deployable furniture
- The flooring material is continuous throughout the space
Old Town Refurbishment / Habitan Architecture
This restoration of an old apartment in Barcelona fuses the kitchen and the dining room to form the central point of the space. The central furniture, a large square table, includes equipment, smart storage, and free space for cooking and eating. Its central arrangement puts it in direct relation to the living room and the bedroom, only differentiating itself from these spaces through the change of flooring.
Key Features
- Kitchen as a central point in space
- Super efficient and deployable furniture
House in Rua Faria Guimarães / Fala Atelier
Color is used here to highlight a furniture addition that covers the entire height of one of the walls of the space, incorporating a wardrobe, support storages, appliances and of course, the kitchen. In this case, all the elements can be completely hidden when the folding doors are closed. Breaking with the blue theme used on most surfaces, marble has been used for the worktop and in a triangle on the floor, just below the sink.
Key Features
- Use of color
- Totally hidden kitchen
