Kitchen work triangle : The three main functions in a kitchen are storage, preparation, and cooking. The work at one place should not interfere with work at another place. A natural arrangement is a triangle, with the refrigerator, the sink, and the stove at a vertex each.Common kitchen forms characterized by the arrangement of the kitchen cabinets and sink, stove, and refrigerator:
A single-file Kitchen has all of these along one wall; the work triangle degenerates to a line. This is not optimal, but often the only solution if space is restricted.
The double-file kitchen has two rows of cabinets at opposite walls, one containing the stove and the sink, the other the refrigerator. This is the classical work kitchen.
In the L-kitchen, the cabinets occupy two adjacent walls. Again, the work triangle is preserved, and there may even be space for an additional table at a third wall, provided it does not intersect the triangle.
A U-kitchen has cabinets along three walls, typically with the sink at the base of the “U”.
The block kitchen (island) is typically found in open kitchens. The stove or both the stove and the sink are placed where an L or U kitchen would have a table, in a freestanding “island”, separated from the other cabinets. It makes the stove accessible from all sides such that two persons can cook together, and allows for contact with guests or the rest of the family, since the cook does not face the wall anymore