Kitchen as Spatial Border: Service, Storage, and Domestic Limits in Compact Interiors

In compact housing, the kitchen often functions as a spatial border—a service wall or boundary between domestic work and social life—rather than merely a cooking area. Its significance extends beyond food preparation to organizing the rest of the home, constrained by plumbing and ventilation requirements. Before a living space can feel open, the kitchen must absorb the practical intensity of daily life: water, heat, odors, appliances, supplies, and storage. This is particularly evident in dense East Asian interiors, where domestic space is shaped by small footprints, evolving family structures, hybrid work, and cultural cooking practices. While open kitchens are often marketed as lifestyle features, in many apartments they pose planning challenges, negotiating domestic labor, facilitating informal encounters, and sometimes replacing hallways or entryways to optimize space. Thus, the kitchen edge becomes a spatial agreement between service and dwelling, not just a design gesture. The article, written by Jonathan Yeung and published on ArchDaily on September 3, 2026, includes an image of Apartment 2415 EW by DaoHo Studio, photographed by Nguyen Thai Thach.