I'm reading "In New Luxury Kitchens, Everything Is Hidden — Even the Sink
Camouflaging the fridge is just the beginning for high-end kitchens" in The New York Times, which often lets its adoration of wealth show.
Now, how rich are the people who get things like that installed in their homes?
ADDED: If everything is hidden, how does the human being use it?I'm blogging this because I love to use my tag "seen and unseen" and because I find this photograph — "a marble island with a retractable countertop that conceals an induction stovetop and sink" — hilarious:
It looks like a sarcophagus.
“Unfortunately, a lot of my clients make me do incredible kitchens that they never use,” lamented Stefano Venier, the other co-founder and design director of Nero Cucine. He noted that many of these highly streamlined designs end up in second or third homes — getting used for mere weeks out of a year.
In some cases, the kitchen’s primary purpose is purely presentational. [Gabellini Sheppard, whose design firm "pushes concealment into a Kubrickian realm"] said some of his clients build multiple kitchens on a single site, adding catering kitchens, warming kitchens and secondary prep spaces that handle much of the actual cooking. The main kitchen becomes a “show kitchen.”
"Kubrickian realm" refers to this:
For reference, here's Kubrick's monolith:
Do you look at that and think that's what I want in a refrigerator... in my show kitchen... not my catering kitchen or warming kitchen?
Does it help us NYT readers with our envy to see impossibly expensive things that we quite adamantly do not want?
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71 comments:
…no fair! the homeowners try to use it but it does this
Ah, "Kubrickian". I believe you've discovered the intent of the design of Obama's presidential monolith. It's so his many followers will have a place to come, look quizzically up at it and toss bones up into the air. Chuck, IEE, you guys going?
That awaiting Hitchcock treatment mystery
OT -
I recently learned that, having seen 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Who asked Kubrick to direct Tommy.
He turned them down, and the cover of Who's Next is the band pissing on The Monolith.
Ken Russell ended up directing the movie.
That hidden island brings to mind the 1950s to 1960s hidden console stereo and TV units, and the much later flat-panel TVs that slid up from hiding. When one has budget $X for a house, one wants to spend $X?
Half of home design/remodeling marketing is fashion/planned obsolescence, and half is making rooms and features that are profitable to the builders and cost $$$$$ to execute. Veblen goods.
Prior examples include the shift from functional tile to stone countertops, commercial-sized stoves and refrigerators, elevated ceilings with recessed trays and fake beams, ultra-high cabinets that are unreachable but 'stylish', wooden wall cladding panels, waterfall countertops, huge stone slabs (here in kitchens) and in bathrooms, basin-style sinks, etc. etc. etc.
What's novel is interesting and what's old is new. Showing that you have the money for hilarious nonsense is no different than the luxury watch or car or handbag industries.
I go the exact opposite way. Restored antique stoves like this https://i.etsystatic.com/8396633/r/il/8a9c51/484170309/il_1588xN.484170309_5e5d.jpg
Get out of there.
“Of course, you’ll want a full set of canopic jars to go with your kitchen sarcophagus and Kubrickian monolith.”
It won't last. Ease of use always wins out over time.
The latest in kitchen concealment is the "Kitchen Terrain" Ghillie suit so you can't even see the cook.
Oh ann.
Not everything is for everybody. Some people likely think you are silly for hanging album covers on the wall, like a teen girl bedroom. Many of us without generational mone buy art to hang on our walls. Don't be envious! You do you. Art isn't your thing...some ppl dont cook at home. Tolerate differences?
OMG, I haven’t watched Tati in decades. Love that scene.
"... Ms. Calderone said that her design “blur[s] the lines between what is a kitchen and what is just a beautiful space for entertaining.”...
Entertaining what? It's a cold, empty room now. Are we here for dinner, or an autopsy?
I swear, every once so often we're reminded that the ultra-rich can be as dumb as rocks, just like regular people. I don't know anybody that wouldn't look upon this as a ridiculous pretension by someone that never cooks, and for some reason, is proud of it. A person like that is incapable of looking after themselves.
Style is always in an unwinnable battle with utility, but the purveyors keep profiting off the war.
Helluva quote from Stefan.
Check that thing for gou'alds
Minecraftinization.
Is this NYT’s metaphor for the taxable income that the rich are also concealing?
When I was teaching school, I would work building custom cabinets during breaks in school. I worked with a master craftsman, my friend’s father who is also a dentist. We were building a custom home One time And I thought it was the height of custom cabinetry that we slid oak panels into the ground zero refrigerator to match the rest of the kitchen boy times changed.
Stargate references
They have two kitchens, one that looks like a kitchen that they hang out in with guests, "You'll always find him in the kitchen at parties" is a song I remember from the '80s, and a hidden one that is the working kitchen, they call it a scullery. Don't ask me how I know.
They call it the K economy, one line slopes up, representing the fortunes of the already wealthy, and the other points down, you figure that one out.
This is a new one on me though, and the only thing that I can imagine is that they don't have the square footage for a true scullery to hide keep unwashed pots out of site.
"Weniger ist mehr" - Dieter
If they have a scullery maid, they know they have made it.
Weren't you bemoaning a couple years ago that replacing your fridge would cost $10,000? Making fun of rich people's kitchens is a little like the pot calling the kettle black.
Is this NYT’s metaphor for the taxable income that the rich are also concealing?
… our tax system inappropriately imo focuses heavily on earned income which shifts incentives to favor of entities that compensate work and assumption of financial risk through instruments that trigger capital gains on sale. The trick: since they’re assets that can secure loans, they never have to be sold, so no trigger if taxation. All legal, all good imo…
The kitchen device we need is one-use disposable pots and pans.
i prefer dirty kitchen to scullery, sounds less downton abby
some wealthy people like to brag about all the cool stuff they can buy.
Some wealthy people waste a lot of money on trends that are lame.
“Unfortunately, a lot of my clients make me do incredible kitchens that they never use,”
This is the important take away for me. Everyone's home will be a different blend of utility and style. And frequently different rooms will be at different points on the spectrum of utility and style. Many homes have a family room or den that the family spends lots of time in, but also the living room that is usually much more nicely decorated but rarely has people in it. The kitchen ought to be very far on the utility side of the spectrum. I roll my eyes whenever I see a new, sleek, chic kitchen but it is missing a hood over the stovetop.
"If everything is hidden, how does the human being use it?"
They completely fail Dieter Rams's fourth Principle of Good Design, "Good design makes a product understandable...At best, it is self-explanatory."
And thanks for Tati. I think he is best in small doses.
Honey if you can afford stand up paddleboards that stay in the closet, a camper van to sit in the driveway, and a backyard ramp for the backyard boys bike club, you can afford a fancy unused kitchen to show off....lol
This is yet another instance of wealth being used to disguise our inescapably animal natures. People would rather pretend that they aren't just smelly mammals, sedulously wrapping ourselves in costumes, cosmetics, and artificial environments that enable is to pretend that we are disembodied consciousnesses.
I differ from Enigma about the utility of stone counters. Tile counters are a b*tch to clean - stone is easy. Care is not difficult if it's properly chosen - I'd never put marble or limestone in a kitchen or bath because they are soft, and stain and scratch readily, but I've never had an issue with granitic rock. The stuff they call "quartz" is fine too.
Now, waterfall counters seem like a huge waste to me.
I have known people who have done beautiful kitchen remodels and then only use the microwave (mostly they dine out, though I imagine the richie rich under discussion here have catered food brought in). I'm fortunate to enjoy cooking, so I can't imagine ever doing that. I've also been fortunate - like, really fortunate, mmm - to have two friends who were professional chefs; both cooked all the time, because (as one of them put it) why go to a restaurant when you can make better food at home? Now, one of those two, Cordon Bleu-trained, did enjoy visiting new restaurants, but a) she always tried to find places with viewable kitchens because she wanted to see how they ran things, and b) she had zero compunctions about telling the server or chef when things weren't as she requested. She was always polite, but with steel behind the words. Her son recently finished his training and has already worked the line in two restaurants with Michelin stars. I can't wait for him to have his own place...
I was shocked when I saw (apparently) actual food inside that fridge.
This is all so classically Veblen. Plain upper middle class kitchens are tending toward temple architecture. Please don't actually cook, it makes a mess.
Being trend setter, my kitchen tends toward lab chic. If only I could find soap stone counters and a really good hood.
W.T.F.
Rehajm’s system is fine until you run into the gambler’s ruin, also known as a margin call, then you find yourself jumping out of skyscraper windows.
yes I suppose there’s an element of that but don’t make the erroneous assumption ‘margin call’ and ruin is the inevitable result. The overextended are ruined, the merely wealthy make out just fine…
…the error of assumption is that it’s ‘gambling’…maybe its gambling where the wealthy are the casino…
I’ll spill the dirty secret that those ‘margin’ loans are almost always unsecured lines of credit. Crazy that, huh?
Smeg is still doing just fine…
@Jamie : Tile counters are a b*tch to clean - stone is easy.
Old synthetic Corian was the peak of functional technology in a prior era, and it still has a niche in "luxury" boats and RVs. Some stone stains badly, some is treated with epoxy that melts if you use the wrong cleaner (ask me how I know). Stone performance depends heavily on the type of stone, and from a functional standpoint, modern quartz competes well.
The true luxury market buys giant slabs of rare/pricey stone and certainly has no consideration of durability over style. "We'll just remodel in 5 or 10 years anyway."
Words missing from the article and Althouse's post: female, status, competition
how rich are the people who get things like that installed in their homes?
Nancy Pelosi rich! Then again, she only has a $25k refrigerator, not one that is hidden.
"OMG, I haven’t watched Tati in decades. Love that scene."
He's the best. I like how you can watch it scene by scene. There's a lot about architecture and interior design in relation to the human being.
Cleanup's a breeze with a power washer
A good contrast to "2001," where there's also a lot about architecture and interior design in relation to the human being.
Like Curious George, if money were no object, I would go in the other direction. I'd have modern appliances, but they'd be designed to look like 18th century appliances. Including a giant walk-in fireplace.
It’s a strategy for the very wealthy, it’s gambling when you can’t afford to lose if the market drops by 20%, and they start selling your stock into a dumpster fire of a market without the courtesy of a phone call. The gamble is that it won’t happen.
He's the best
…the youngsters asked for a list of movies from me. They were mesmerized by Playtime…
…all accurate there, Tim…
Frankly, this stuff would fit well inside the Barack Obama Library.
I don't get the covered up sink and cooktops. We've spent the last 3 or so decades watching the evolution of sinks and cooktops to become ever more beautiful- if you're willing to spend on them. I guess some clever designer finally said "F*** that. I'm just going to cover the whole thing with a retractable stone and let them pay for it."
Form follows function— except perhaps in end stage decadent civilization, which repudiates the natural harmony between form and function. Ditto nature. So the question, “what is sex for? “ is no longer understood as procreative. Men become women, women sport pink hair, wear negligees to the grocery. We elevate destruction to an art form— as in graffiti. What does this have to do with an ultra luxe kitchen concealing all its function? Because the kitchen has a function. The form has always served the function— but now obliterates it. The kitchen is the heart of the home, but here it is … like someone already commented— a sarcophagus. Here lies the dearly beloved kitchen, RIP.
I have also often observed that those who install fabulous kitchens rarely use it.
I want my tools, basins and fires handy. They tell a story about how we live.
#StuffRichPeopleLike. A while back, kitchen "islands" were the fashion. So was showing off all the cool stuff you had in your kitchen. I guess that became middle class and something scorned by the rich who could eat out or have their meals delivered in.
We looked at pictures of our parents' house after it was renovated and before it was sold. They knocked out the wall between the kitchen and the dining room (which we never used for dining or anything else) and put in a kitchen island. I was surprised that the wall wasn't holding up the house.
"Now, one of those two, Cordon Bleu-trained, did enjoy visiting new restaurants, but a) she always tried to find places with viewable kitchens because she wanted to see how they ran things, and b) she had zero compunctions about telling the server or chef when things weren't as she requested. She was always polite, but with steel behind the words."
The reason for a) is b). She wanted to see if they spit in her food after she sent it back.
"They knocked out the wall between the kitchen and the dining room (which we never used for dining or anything else) and put in a kitchen island. I was surprised that the wall wasn't holding up the house."
It might have been. They can always use a beam to carry the load.
Bow down before The Obamalith?
LBJ's (cubical) library was often compared to the pyramids as a monument to an American pharaoh. JFK's combined the cube and the polyhedron. The Bushes' were squat and sprawling. Given its urban setting, Obama's was going to be a tower ... but what a tower it turned out to be ...
A sarcophagus is a ghoulish gateway where a nonviable fetus and its host are believed to be reborn.
My kitchen is essentially the same now as it was in 1916 when the house was built, aside from the refrigerator and stove being perhaps 20 years old. Original counters and cabinets. Not cute and vintage so much as just old and functional. I feel no urge to make any changes to it.
Retired chef here. If I were younger and money was not an issue, I'd have a prep kitchen and an open "show kitchen" so I could chat with family and friends while I was finishing each course.
I try not to care what people spend their money on. It's their money. Complaining that others' money could be better spent on feeding the poor, and other vomit-inducing phrases, is a Liberal Disease™.
It's Clarke's monolith, which was very well recreated for the movie based on Arthur's great description.
My dentist had a TV mounted on the ceiling over the chair so the patient could watch. But it was always tuned to HGTV, which was appropriate because of the similarity between remodeling kitchens and pulling teeth.
How much time goes by before one of those kitchen units malfunctions (because they will) and suddenly you're stuck with something in the open position, like one of the pop-up headlights on those sleek 80s sportscars, or worse, frozen closed and completely unusable.
I saw arrangements like this in NYC apartments some of which are very small. There would be a pull down to hide the stove and sink and the refrigerator would be in a cupboard or closet.
The Tati scene - That's me when I finally got logged into X for the first time.
I was just thinking about how when I was growing up in a house with five brothers and some sisters, our dining table doubled as a ping pong table, and poker table—I still remember once drawing four of a kind natural, and looking at the pot, we just played for chips and bragging rights, but I still didn't know how to play it, I was probably ten; four of us sat on a homemade bench on one side at dinner time. I also remember Sunday dinners when, after church, mom would serve a whole chicken roasted in the oven, with all of the fixings. Sometimes on Sunday, dad would make donuts in a big spaghetti pot full of oil over a fire in the backyard. But we never had a sarcophagus in the kitchen to cut the donuts out on. :^(
“Please don't actually cook, it makes a mess.”
My partner just went through a multiple day cookfest or something. And thanks to the cleanup, has decided that she prefers electric to gas stoves. One of those beautiful all Steele and iron stoves. To match all the other Steele in the kitchen. We can’t, of course, use the steel sink in the kitchen for sink stuff, because the water here stains it. We do the dishes out in the Costco steel utility sink in the garage by the workbench that I installed last year. No disposal, but it’s easy to pull out the trap and clean it into the trash. Still, last year, I replaced a couple garbage disposals, and it isn’t rocket science. After the sink in the downstairs 1/2 bath fills up with dirty dishes. Which all means that neither the dishwasher nor the garbage disposal work well, since both were designed to be used frequently. And teaching her how to trouble shoot the garbage disposal is a lost cause. But so is getting the dishwasher working. Aesthetic, but not functional.
We have lights and outlets all over the place in the kitchen, but they are, of course, hidden. Always finding a new one. And not all of them work. Usually, some obscure GFI circuit has to be reset. Whoever tested the house out when we bought it obviously didn’t find all of the outlets or light switches either.
She would love a prep kitchen. But nowhere really to put it. The island fills up pretty quickly when she is in the middle of one of her cookathons. Visited step-step-son’s house last year, and they have a massive island. Fine, except that the sink in the middle is effectively worthless, so they have a second, usable, one. Probably seats at least 10. My suggestion is fold up island extensions around three sides. Found our countertops at Home Depot, so it might be doable. Since it’s stone, it’s going to be heavy, so I am thinking a crank to lift it might work… While maybe adding a second set of pull down cabinets (ours are full). With 12’ ceilings, there is a lot of wasted vertical space. Currently, the crank up counter extensions and pull down extra cabinets aren’t selling well…Classic case of women not wanting solutions, just empathy.
We do have our share of beautiful unused space. Unused meaning that it is filled with furniture but never used. There is a den downstairs, complete with a beautiful rolltop desk. Probably get more use as a prep kitchen - but getting water in and out would be problematic. And a loft upstairs, with the most comfortable chairs and sofa in the house, but off limits because the brass studs on my jeans might catch on the leather. And, by now, the cat has taken ownership (he’s also the only user of the den).
My dad lost most of his money (and his third of Mom's) in 2009 at age 81 after borrowing against Wachovia and other stocks to fund the step-monster's lifestyle for 20 years. Fortunately, he had a decent Navy pension, but that was also what attracted her in the first place. When she died in 2013, they were living paycheck to paycheck to pay two mortgages and 6 credit card balances. On Friday, she announced they had to sell the $4k/mon condo in NoVa and move next door to me full time. Monday, she keeled over getting out of the Magic Chevrolet. What a relief!
I ended up paying off the last $30k CC balance in 2015 because Dad was still stuck on paying the minimum due. The pension was a good incentive to keep him alive & out of a "care" facility until 2024.
Tcrosse: I guess some doctors think home renovation shows are as content neutral as you can get for an office. But they just make me anxious about all the work I have to do. Better than my eye doctor, who features really gory eye surgery videos in the waiting room.
Why?
My BIL, who is a retired plumbing contractor, argues against garbage disposals - even though he made lots of money replacing them. Too many things go down there out of convenience or laziness. As previously mentioned, just place a strainer there and empty it now and then.
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