Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky

comprising: ironing board, sink, side unit, stool, towel rail and sideboard, the latter with three cupboard doors above ten aluminium storage scoops and two frieze drawers, the lower section with two further cupboard doors flanked by open shelves

Christopher Wilk, 1914-1939 modernism, designing a new world, London, 2006, p. 180;

Restauro, Forum für Restauratoren, Konservatoren und Denkmalpfleger, issue 7, October/November 2004, p. 461 ff.

In a time following a World War which was succeeded by an economic depression, Europe provided fertile ground for change. Bright young architects such as Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Bruno Taut analysed the needs of a society which was deprived of adequate and affordable living space. The revolutionary ideas were pre- and mass-fabrication, standardised sizes, economical space, hygiene, light and air. Their studios created large settlements with low cost housing which offered the basic requirements under the umbrella of the Existenzminimum known as ‘machines for living’.

The area of Frankfurt commissioned several of those programmes between 1925 and 1930 and in 1926 Grete Lihotzky, one of the first generation of female architects, who worked for the architect Ernst May, applied the ideas of maximum functionality within a minimal space to a new kitchen design. Her so-called Frankfurter Küche was the first mass-produced fitted kitchen and although around 10,000 were installed at the time, only a few survive today. She took the modern concepts of catering in aeroplanes, trains and ocean liners and applied them to the busy tasks of a housewife. She considered studies of movement within the kitchen and minimised it to a few steps. The surfaces including sink and ironing board were low to accommodate seated work. The latter could be folded away to save time and space. The cupboards were fitted with scoops to avoid opening cupboards and jars, and wasting time on spooning. The idea was to turn the kitchen into the ‘housewife’s laboratory’ to facilitate time for factory work and leisure.

The example in this lot was made for the housing of professors from the psychiatric unit in Niederrad near Frankfurt. The hospital project was designed by architect Martin Elsaesser who also left his mark with the Frankfurt Market Hall. The accommodation for the management of the hospital required more comfort and allowed to work within slightly more space than other projects. As a result the main sideboard is slightly larger than in other projects and can be used as a free standing unit. In other versions of the kitchen used for social housing the cupboards were installed directly onto the wall which did not require a back panel.

The idea of the Frankfurt kitchens embodied the most modern principles of their time. They were used for decades and only lost their appeal when refrigerators entered the household. They now enjoy a renaissance as rare iconic features, embodying the seed of the spirit of our time: simple, functional design, providing comfort for a large population and the emancipation of woman.