Frankfurt Kitchen

Architect Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky revolutionised housework with this fitted kitchen, 10,000 of which were installed across housing projects in Frankfurt, Germany.

By her own admission, Schütte-Lihotzky did not know how to cook. Rather she designed this compact space based on conversations with housewives about their daily work. Features like a pull-out chopping board for food preparation and easy-clean surfaces aimed to make domestic labour more efficient and hygienic. The V&A collected this kitchen for its Modernism exhibition in 2005, as an example of a successful and influential kitchen from the 1900s.