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nutritional intake and nutritional benefits. Unfortunately, regulatory compliance in some areas may require the separation of areas and equipment for meal preparation from areas and equipment for resident activities that involve food. If carefully planned, however, these two areas can share several features and remain connected, in the form of a great room or of a pantry combining both functions in a visually open, yet physically separated space.
Fire safety and building codes will generally require some spatial separation between flame and/or heat generating appliances and other living area spaces of the household, particularly bedrooms and exit corridors. Fire safety regulations will vary not only from state to state, but also from county to county within a state, but generally any time the household kitchen has an open cooking appliance, additional fire suppression systems and/or physical separation of this appliance from exits will be needed. In fact, some interpretations of the codes may require a 20-minute firewall and/or a physical smoke partition between cooking appliances and all other living spaces. This often necessitates a “back of house” kitchen immediately behind a “front of house” kitchen, usually designated by fire officials as an “activity center.” Careful planning and coordination with a committed architect or kitchen planner, combined with a powerful sense of advocacy for the resident benefits of dining at home will result in creative solutions to any perceived obstacles. Through these efforts, the residents of the household will experience the full benefits associated with the kitchen as the heart of the home.
Accept and plan that you will have more expense creating this household kitchen than one in your own home. For example, you will most likely need two refrigerators – one for residents’ food so that they can come and get a drink or a snack as desired and one for the food that will be served to all residents at a meal. You may also need two dishwashers depending on your state regulations; one residential washer for resident use and one in a staff access only pantry or “back of house” kitchen that maintains higher temperatures.
Other common amenities like a sunroom or game room, depending upon your budgetary constraints, are wonderful enhancements to the physical design of the household. The challenge, if budgets don’t allow specific use space, is to pack as much punch as you can into the living room, dining room, and private dining room to encourage multipurpose use.
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