Apple Pie Proxemics: Edward T. Hall in the Kitchen Work Triangle

Abstract

Introduction A prototype for the common kitchen “work triangle” may be seen in a 1913 diagram drawn by American home economist Christine Frederick, who used a thin dotted line to describe the “chains of steps” taken while doing chores. Frederick’s abstraction of the working body to a moving point in space is still used today to describe kitchen work, establishing a two-dimensional linear rhetoric that obscures the importance of three-dimensional body mass in proper planning. An attempt to review that oversight using the 1960s “proxemics” concepts of anthropologist Edward T. Hall reveals that his heritage suffers from significant citation distortion. To refresh his insights, and to introduce the context of the kitchen, this new study measures the effect of a hot apple pie on domestic body spacing inside the author’s home. The study’s method permits access to qualitative insider “emic” insights, as well as quantitative outsider “etic” observations. The results reveal flaws in accepted principles of proxemics, kitchen function, and ergonomics. Design planning suffers when complex problems are oversimplified.2 The common kitchen work triangle is one such oversimplification. As a geometric shape linking the stove, sink, and fridge on an architectural floor-plan, a work triangle describes kitchen walking distances. But distance is not the only factor affecting kitchen actions, which must also consider the tangible human body and its adjacent “bubble” of empty “personal space.” However, dimensions are hard to establish for personal working space. Anthropometric body measurements neglect the effects of posture, as when jutting elbows increase effective body width. Anthropological studies review social distances in conversation but neglect non-conversational activities. Both neglect architecture, motion, and the manipulation of objects. In short, no 1 Edward T. Hall, The Hidden Dimension (New York: Random House, 1966), 53. 2 Kevin B. Bennett and John M. Flach, Display and Interface Design: Subtle Science, Exact Art (Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2011), 7.