Kitchen Design

[Eric D. Hart]

At 04:25 PM 5/8/97 -0700, Will Firstbrook  WCB of BC wrote:

>In working out a potential design for a Cob home, I find the kitchen /
>food preparing area the most challenging. I would like to build a
>thermal mass refrigerator as well as a solar oven. Thus part of it must
>be on the North side (refrigerator) and part on the South side for the
>solar oven to work.  Since it is used early in the morning it should
>have a view to the East. This will give it light in the morning and some
>passive heat. It will also reduce the late afternoon direct heat
>(Western view).
        This one seems fairly easy to me, just build an 'addition' onto the
main body of the house for your kitchen.  The exterior walls could each be
15 feet long.  The sink and main counter space either side of the sink would
face east with a nice window above the sink.  The solar oven would be to the
right of the sink (south) and the refrig to the left.  You could put the
greywater storage tank below the solar oven (assuming you want your stove 3
or 4 feet off the ground).  This does two things, it saves space and
captures some of the heat from the greywater for use in your stove.  The
latent eat from greywater is significant and is normally wasted.  I don't
know how your particular solar oven will work but it might need some mass
which would absorb the heat from the greywater.  
        Behind the sink could be one of those 'islands' with more counter
space and perhaps a small seating area.  Beyond that island could be the
dining room in the main part of the house.  This addition would be
completely open to the rest of the house.  You can put the interior planter
in the main part of the house.  The addition concept would allow you to
isolate the refrig and freezer as much as you need to.  Might even punch the
refrig out from the north addition wall if necessary.  Would draw an ASCII
art illustration, but that never works very well.
        Where do you live (British Columbia)?  If I would have know ahead of
time, I might have done things differently.  Hope this helps.


Eric D. Hart			
Community Eco-design Network	
PO Box 6241  
Minneapolis, MN  55406-6241   USA		
(612) 306-2326 
erichart at mtn.org			
http://www.tc.umn.edu/nlhome/m037/kurtdand/cen