I get that some people like their privacy, and they can have it. But for me, social time is the peak of my day. My dream home would the social nature of daily life, and I’m liking that this is starting to become more of a thing in interior design trends. I’m talking spatial layouts, fittings and furniture that encourage people to gather ‘round and get down to doing everyday tasks together.
For example, I recently saw a kitchen sink positioned on the corner of a floating island workbench, arranged so that two people could easily use it at once – all without making a big thing of it. It’s this kind of basic consideration for shared space that I’m talking about. It might be something as simple as a thoroughfare between stove top, sink and bench that’s big enough for an extra person to squeeze through without causing a chopping board to go flying. Simple elbow room, really.
It could also be as elaborate as, say, two smaller sinks next to each other, instead of one big one. This is not that far out, if you think of things like double showers, which are now not unheard of inclusions in bathroom renovations. I’m waiting for this type of thing to catch on with companies that do kitchen design and installation. Melbourne homeowners are pretty open minded, and I’m sure there’ll be a demand for it when people start noticing the possibilities.
The way I see it, a lot of us spend our workdays on a computer, with minimal social interaction and even less collaborating on manual tasks. This seems out of kilter with our evolutionary origins as primates, and it could explain why so many people aren’t having a great time on the health and wellbeing front. That’s why it’s important to me to band together with other people over things like food preparation.