Are big, open kitchens green?

While recently lamenting the cramped cooking quarters in my 1950’s New York City apartment, I wondered why designers in that post-war period wanted to close off the kitchen. Now the room is such a hub of living, and today’s trend is to leave it open to the rest of the home. Was it to hide the mess? Was it to stop cooking heat from warming up the rest of the apartment? I began posing this question to some of our green design friends: Are big, open kitchen layouts environmentally friendly, and how so or how not?

I began at Treehugger.com, where I located an article that supports the theory that bigger is not necessarily better when it comes to green design. It includes an excerpt from author, educator and environmentalist Bill McKibben in a recent issue of Sierra talking about the impact of McMansions. “The environmental costs are myriad, of course—more materials used in construction (making cement for foundations alone is a prime contributor to global warming) and more energy used to heat and power all the resulting square footage,” he writes. “You can turn the thermostat and power a degree or two, but if the furnace is warming 4,500 square feet, it's a token gesture."

But what about kitchens specifically? Lloyd Alter, writer for Treehugger.com, took a slightly different view:

“Local food, fresh ingredients—the slow food movement is all fashionable these days. A green kitchen will have tons of storage, big work areas and sinks for preserving, but will not have a 4-ft.-wide fridge or a six-burner Viking range. It will open to outdoors to vent the heat in summer, to the rest of the house to retain the heat in winter. The dining area will be integrated into it, perhaps right in the middle. A green kitchen will be like grandma's farm kitchen—big, open, the focus of the house and no energy from the appliances will be wasted in winter or kept inside in summer.

“There is nothing inherently not green about a big open kitchen, if it is not filled with monster appliances, formaldehyde and vinyl,” concludes Alter.

Next, I decided to check out GreenHomeGuide.com’s primer on kitchens. Among the many resources was an article by green designer Erika Doering on “Tips for Efficient Use of Kitchen Space”. I later spoke with Doering to get her take on big, open kitchens. “When there are less walls enclosing a kitchen you can share daylight,” she says, “which is great for reducing light usage. In terms of cross ventilation, you don’t need to moderate the temperature of a home if it is set up to work. An open layout could be better in the kitchen because you wouldn’t be running the air conditioner as much. You need to cool a small kitchen more aggressively because appliances give off heat all the time, especially gas ranges and refrigerators. In larger kitchens, appliance heat can dissipate easier. In an open plan you can keep air moving, especially by installing ceiling fans where you can reverse the blades to push hot air down in the winter and pull cold air up near your face—where you register temperature—in the summer.”

I turned to the U.S. Green Building Council for some final thoughts on green kitchen design. “LEED for Homes encourages a whole-house integrated design process, which is the key to environmentally responsible homes,” according to Emily Mitchell, assistant manager of LEED for Homes. “Floor plans for individual rooms should be considered a part of this whole-house integrated design process. Additionally, some critical elements to consider in the design of a kitchen include environmentally preferable materials for the flooring, cabinets and paint and Energy Star-labeled appliances and lighting fixtures.”

What do you think? Is a large, open kitchen green?

—Ellen Sturm Niz, K+BB editor

Comments

[Tony Napolitano]

We published an article in our March issue about designing an efficient kitchen. You can read it here: http://www.smart-homeowner.com/articles/9746/. Smart HomeOwner's goal is to help people create efficient, healthy and eco-friendly homes. Enjoy the article.

Tony Napolitano
Publisher

[Ellen Niz, K+BB Editor]

Thanks for sharing the article, Tony. It has a lot of great basic and specific information about planning a new kitchen. An efficient use of space not only makes a kitchen more functional but can make it more green, too.
Ellen Niz
K+BB Editor

[Ellen Niz, K+BB Editor]

Check out Treehugger for more of Lloyd Alter's thoughts on open kitchen design, as well as some great photos of a big, open and green kitchen by Donald Chong: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/10/can_big_kitchen.php

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