Hello, Juliet and Aidan here. We’ll be posting here regularly to share behind-the-scenes stories and to expand on themes and objects explored in the Counter Space exhibition, as well as to feature some bits that did not make the final cut.

We are kicking off our series of blog posts with this image from one of the many wonderful books/magazines/adverts we stumbled across while preparing Counter Space, which opens this Wednesday. The House for You: To Build, Buy, or Rent by Catharine and Harold Sleeper was published in 1948, amidst a flood of post-war sources interested in kitchens. Here’s a quote from the section on kitchen layout, which echoes some of the principles of the 1926–27 Frankfurt Kitchen, on view in the exhibition:

“Whatever shape or size your kitchen may take, keep the range, sink, and work centers grouped as near together as possible. These three centers should form an assembly line as efficient as those in an industrial plant. Feeding people is the world’s largest industry. Your family food-workshop can and should be both efficient and home-like. You may design the general effect to be super-sanitary or tavern-like, as your taste dictates.”