Kitchen 2

With my post, people told that there is an optimal kitchen design. Not sure this can be implemented in an apartment, but it is good to work from this “template”. I shall implement this in our new kitchen where it has an island.

If you understand the basic principles of kitchen layout will help take much of the mystery out of the design process. The most basic layout principle is the work triangle. The work triangle is the line drawn from each of the three primary work stations in the kitchen – the food storage, cooktop, and sink. By drawing these lines, you can see the distance you’ll walk to move to and from each area.

The sum of the ideal triangle is supposed to be between 15 and 22 feet, putting each of the three appliances within two or three steps of one another.

Restroom Door

I wonder why all the restroom doors open inside… meaning there is a handle inside the bathroom. (Maybe I am not aware of the ones that open by pushing from inside, so let me know if anybody sees it!) You have to wash your hands and then you have to pull a handle to open the door. I hope everybody washes their hands,  but especially at a public restroom where they don’t look so clean, I hate to touch the handle. I wonder if there is any regulations about which side the door has to open, but I wonder if the sanitation and user experience was considered for designing doors of public restrooms.

Road signage

Boston has too many tolls. It is annoying that I have to pay a toll, but it’s more annoying that there is no good signage to indicate which lane I should be in until the last minute. I always see that too many cars are lined up for one side of the road because the other side is for fast lane. But if you see it carefully, between fast lanes, there is usually a cash lane. Most places, the sign does not become visible to drivers until you are too close to a toll and it’s too late to change the lane without making other drivers annoyed that you are trying to change the lanes. This of course creates traffic. This is true for when two lanes are becoming one lane. If there is a good sign way beforehand to prepare drivers and control their expectations, this will reduce much traffic. If you calculate economic impact, creating good signage must pay off a lot both for drivers and for the city….