A free public lecture that celebrates the kitchen niche and its designer Gertrude Bray is taking place at the University of Portsmouth on Wednesday 8 March.
The self-taught Leeds architect and socialist feminist Gertrude Bray (1906-1992) pioneered a new kind of kitchen design in her speculatively built modest houses: the kitchen niche.
This lecture, which takes place on International Women’s Day, is being delivered by Professor Deborah Sugg Ryan, Professor of Design History and Theory at the University of Portsmouth. Her talk, which draws on her current research for a book on the history of the modern kitchen, seeks to restore Gertrude Bray to her rightful place in history. Professor Sugg Ryan will argue that her “cooking-recess” proposed an alternative more sociable and practical kitchen as the heart of the home, which addressed women’s practical needs. It enabled those with children to keep an eye on them while they cooked and allowed them to talk to family or friends while they worked.
There is an irony in that positioning women as efficient workers, the Frankfurt kitchen replicated the isolation and loneliness that working-class women had experienced as domestic servants"
Professor Sugg Ryan said: “The 1926 Frankfurt kitchen has been writ large and positioned as the first modern kitchen. Designed by Austrian architect Grete Schütte-Lihotzky for municipal housing, this positioned women as managing housework alone without paid help through efficient processes in a compact space and separated cooking from eating. There is an irony in that positioning women as efficient workers, the Frankfurt kitchen replicated the isolation and loneliness that working-class women had experienced as domestic servants.”
The event has been organised by Dr Isabelle Cockel, from the University’s Centre for European and International Studies Research (CEISR) Women and Gender Studies Group.
The lecture, which is open to the public, starts at 6pm in the University’s Park building. Tickets are free but must be booked in advance here