This dramatic circular kitchen was designed in the sixties by General Electric planners for a house in Rancho Bernardo, near San Diego.
It was a superb example of a smoothly-functioning kitchen back when it was built in 1968.
Everything was placed for the greatest convenience: appliances, curved counters, the cylindrical work island enclosing handy storage space, and creative innovations in lighting.
Its shape, perhaps inspired by contemporary theatres in the round, was an encouragement to the fluidity of movement.
For efficiency and for decoration, this unique 60s kitchen also had an inventive lighting system.
Radiating out from the center of the circular ceiling, fluorescent lamps behind slender wood shields cast their brilliance upward to spread generously and evenly over the whole avocado green and harvest gold-colored kitchen.
Part of this bright idea was the spoke-like architectural pattern formed by these shields. Where they all met, a half-recessed floodlight shined directly down on the central work island.
ALSO SEE: 16 kitchen islands: Home inspiration from the 60s
Dimmer controls permitted lighting variation according to what is going on where and how many people are on stage — a flexibility of illumination that was both good engineering and good theatre.
In a wheel of a kitchen, everything rolls along easily — including meal service. Note the wide entrance into the dining room; opposite it, a counter for serving the patio.
