Reasonable kitchen space for urban residences: based on an investigation in Beijing

ABSTRACT

Undersized space in kitchens remains a widespread and enduring problem in urban residences in China. However, no consensus exists on the area a satisfactory kitchen should take up and the causes of an undersized kitchen are still not sufficiently understood. This study examined reasonable spatial indices for kitchen design from the perspective of user satisfaction, based on 80 kitchens selected from multi-family residences in Beijing, People’s Republic of China. Data were collected using on-site measurement and face-to-face questionnaires, including spatial features, household structure, cooking habits, possession of appliances and residents’ binary judgement about the kitchen area. Factors associated with residents’ kitchen area perception were explored using correlation analysis, while the reasonable design indices were proposed by scatter diagram analysis. This study confirmed the influence of floor space and width of the kitchen and recommends 5.11–6.10 m² and 1.71–2.00 m as a reasonable scope for the respective dimensions. It also demonstrates that the area requirement increased in families with higher cooking frequency and decreased in youthful households and suggests that the accommodation of the refrigerator and large appliances should be considered in kitchen area allocation.

KEYWORDS:

• Kitchen in urban residence
• kitchen area
• design indices
• characteristics of residents

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the 73 student volunteers in Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture for data collection and the 80 households for the cooperation during the course of the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 ‘Service balcony’ in this study refers to a balcony connected to the kitchen.

2 To avoid confusion caused by various correlation analysis methods, they are collectively referred to as ‘correlation analysis’ in the main body of the text, but the specific methods are given in Table 3.

Additional information

Funding

This research is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 51908019] and General Project of Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission [grant number KM201810016001].