Making Open-Plan Living and Dining Work in an Indian Apartment

Extraction is the whole ballgame

Indian cooking puts oil and spice aerosol into the air at a rate that a decorative hood will not handle. Specify a minimum 1,200 m3/h ducted extractor with a short duct run, and keep the hob as far from the seating as the plan allows.

Divide with the ceiling and the floor, not with walls

A change of ceiling plane over the dining table, or a rug under the seating, defines zones while keeping the volume open. Partial walls usually give you the disadvantages of both approaches.

Give the kitchen a closable back-of-house

A small utility with a door, taking the sink, the washing and the heavy prep, is what makes an open kitchen liveable. It is the single most valuable 30 square feet in an open-plan flat.

Plan for acoustic soft mass

Open plan means hard surfaces face each other across a large volume. Curtains, a rug, upholstered seating and a bookcase are what stop the room ringing.

Keep one material palette across the whole volume

In an open plan you see the kitchen, the dining and the living at once. Three separate schemes in one sightline is the most common reason open-plan flats look unresolved.