Nearly a century separates the first fitted kitchen from today's bespoke designs. Throughout this transformative period, designers and architects have continually innovated, responding to technological advances and shifting social needs. The evolution spans everything from efficient kitchenettes to the kitchen as a vibrant hub of home life. It began with Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky's Frankfurt Kitchen (1926)—the first mass-produced fitted kitchen, manufactured for some 10,000 apartments. Its mission was clear: to streamline household work and maximize efficiency for women.

The post-war period offers striking examples of the kitchen's pivotal role in functionalist architecture. Consider Le Corbusier, Charlotte Perriand, and André Wogenscky's kitchen unit for the Unité d'habitation in Marseille (1946-1952), serving approximately 330 residents, or Arne Jacobsen's kitchen design for the 1957 International Building Exhibition in Berlin—positioned as the heart of a single-family home. The Eschebach K21 modular kitchen system by VEB Küchenmöbel Radeberg (1956) thrived throughout the GDR and Soviet Union, celebrated for its flexibility and expansive color range. Stefan Wewerka's Küchenbaum (1984) and the Kunstflug collective's Kaffeebaum (1984) pushed into new, playfully subversive territory. The bulthaup workbench (1984) revived the modern cooking island concept, culminating in J*Gast's striking solitary design, Erlkönig (2020/2021).

The exhibition broadens its lens with carefully selected household appliances that have shaped everyday kitchen life. A wall of roughly 300 trays from the Ludmila and Rolf Podlasly Collection celebrates the overlooked beauty of East German industrial design. Loans from the Munich-based Goetz Collection—works by artists including Rosemarie Trockel, Laurie Simmons, and Mona Hatoum—add critical perspectives on kitchen labor and women's traditional roles. The exhibition design by Munich's OHA (Office Heinzelmann Ayadi) employs pressboard, the foundation material of nearly every modern fitted kitchen, creating revealing vistas into the world of kitchen design and craftsmanship.

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