05. "Fresher, More Delicious Meals Begin at Sub-Zero." Sub-Zero Freezer Company, Inc.; Madison, WI; 2006.

According to historians, no other room in the modern home has been more “radically altered by the technological, social, and aesthetic revolutions of the twentieth century” than the kitchen. As what had been, historically, a purely functional space transformed into a “space central to daily life and social encounters between family and friends,” consumers sought more than just a place to prepare meals.

The post-war age of affluence was largely the result of a rapid increase in automation, which “loosened a fresh windfall of inexpensive goods… to bring more comfort and enjoyment into daily life.” As the new center of home life, the kitchen benefited from this windfall perhaps more than any other domestic space.


Juliet Kinchin with Aidan O’Connor, Counter Space: Design and the Modern Kitchen. (New York : Museum of Modern Art, [2011]), 5.

Ibid.

“Cause of Breakthrough Toward Life of Plenty,” Life, 12/28/1959, 36.



"Tools of the Trade: 19th- and 20th-Century Architectural Trade Catalogs," Case 5, Ryerson & Burnham Libraries, August 4, 2015-October 12, 2015.

Link to R&B Archives Digital Collections record