The Kitchen, a way of life

If the kitchen is by definition a place where we prepare meals, it is also a central living space which has aroused the interest of architects, designers, sociologists, ergonomists and journalists for a century. It is the place of the house where innovations have been the most important in the last century, resulting from the modern way of life and the evolution of technology. Every year, exhibitions display work on kitchens and welcome thousands of visitors. Accustomed to seeing marvellous installations of kitchens in the windows of department stores, in exhibitions, magazines and books,...we come to forget that the contemporary kitchen is the result of an evolution which started one century ago.

The exhibition proposes an itinary illustrated by original drawings, photographies, kitchen items and life-size reconstitutions of different types of kitchens: those of “garden cities”, middle-class villas, flats and lofts. The starting point is a 1900’s kitchen, where everything is organised around the solid-fuel stove; the end of the exhibition shows today’s kitchen, a reflection of a new way of life.