Exhibition in Munich "Kitchen Culture" - The Design Museum
The Design Museum in Munich shows kitchen culture from the first fitted kitchen to the individually configured kitchen
From November 26th, 2025 exhibition in the Design Museum in the Pinakothek der Moderne
Munich. From November 26, 2024, the exhibition "KITCHEN CULTURE. FROM THE FIRST BUILT-IN KITCHEN TO THE INDIVIDUALLY CONFIGURED KITCHEN" will be shown in the "Neuesammlung - The Design Museum" in the Pinakothek der Moderne. The first fitted kitchen was designed around 100 years ago. That was the starting signal for designers and architects who responded to society, needs and technology to develop “the” tailor-made kitchen. A lot has happened in the last 100 years, from simple, space-saving kitchenettes to individual kitchen-living rooms in contemporary design. It all began in 1926 with the famous “Frankfurt Kitchen” by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky. This fitted kitchen became a series model for around 10,000 apartments. The household became more efficient and the design was always the most modern... An exhibition in the Pinakothek der Moderne that not only design and architecture students can look forward to, but also anyone who wants to get to know the historical design development of living spaces. A cultural history of living spaces, kitchen culture and cooking dreams...
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| The Design Museum in the Pinakothek der Moderne (Mitte) in the Kunstareal in Munich, photo/collage: Helga Waess |
The design history of the fitted kitchen is visualized in the new exhibition at the Design Museum
In the post-war period, functionalism began to dominate kitchens in architecture. The exhibition summarizes global trends and developments:
- The kitchen unit for the residential high-rise Unité d'habitation in Marseille (1946-1952) by Le Corbusier, Charlotte Perriand and André Wogenscky was installed in around 330 apartments
- ArneJacobsen's kitchen was the attraction at the 1957 International Building Exhibition in Berlin - the kitchen became a central location in the single-family home
- The Eschebach K21 serial kitchen modules from VEB Küchen Möbel Radeberg (1956) impressed the development of kitchen design in the GDR and the Soviet Union with their color spectrum
- The latest or ironic approaches can be found in Stefan Wewerka's Küchenbaum (1984)
- in the Kaffeebaum (1984) by the Kunstflug group
- or in the workbench (1984) by Herbert H. Schultes, all three of which took up the modern kitchen island
- The solitary kitchen design Erlkönig by J-Gast (2020/2021) once again showed new kitchen design.
The kitchen culture also produced new household appliances, which from then on determined everyday life in the kitchen
The wall installation with 300 trays from the Ludmila and Rolf Podlasly collection brings popular design from GDR production to the museum.
Artistic inspiration on cuisine and the role of women is presented using some groundbreaking works of art
Works of art by artists such as Rosemarie Trockel, Laurie Simmons and Mona Hatoum will be shown, expanding the loans from the Goetz Collection (Munich).
The exhibition architecture was designed by the design office OHA (Office Heinzelmann Ayadi) from Munich
In keeping with the exhibition theme, the design office OHA chose pressboard as the base material, the boards that are also crucial for industrially manufactured fitted kitchens. The exhibition area opens up new insights and perspectives into a well-known and here redesigned history of the kitchen world.
The exhibition was made possible through loans from the Goetz Collection, Munich, and the Ludmila and Rolf Podlasy Collection, which act as cooperation partners of the Design Museum.
The New Collection in the Munich Art Area - The Design Museum
is one of the oldest and most important museums in the world for applied art and design of the 20th and 21st centuries
The “largest design collection in the world” is exhibited here with 120,000 objects, creating the first design museum. The exhibition rooms of the New Collection belong to the Pinakothek der Moderne
Visitors can experience design history on 4,000 square meters in permanent exhibitions and additional temporary exhibitions.
NEW DESIGN EXHIBITION IN MUNICH
"Kitchen Culture
From the first fitted kitchen to the individually configured kitchen"
Location:
Pinakothek der Moderne
Barer Str. 40, 80333 Munich
One house, four museums:
- Art
- Graphics
- architecture
- design
Opening hours
- Daily 10 a.m. – 6 p.m
- Thursday 10 a.m. – 8 p.m
- Closed on Mondays
