Journal
Process
6 min read
Why we design the kitchen before the façade
A house is lived from the inside. Starting with the rooms people use most changes everything that follows — including how the building looks from the street.
By Inês Varela
Note
Process
Most houses are designed from the outside in. The volume is set, the façade is drawn, and the interiors are fitted into whatever space is left. It is a reasonable way to make a building and a poor way to make a home.
Begin with the busiest room
We start almost every project with the kitchen, because it is where a family spends its most ordinary and most important hours. Where does the morning light fall? Who cooks, and who keeps them company? Where do the shopping bags land, and where does the dog sleep?
Answering those questions first fixes things that are hard to change later: the orientation of the house, the depth of the plan, the position of the stair. The façade follows from the rooms behind it, and is usually better for it.
A window placed for the person at the sink is a better window than one placed for the person on the street.
One team, one drawing
This only works because architecture and interiors are drawn by the same people, on the same set of drawings, from the first week. There is no moment when one firm hands over to another and the reasons behind a decision are lost.
