I. Forino, Dagli archivi: Cucinare all'italiana, 1923-2023 / From the Archives: The Italian Kitchen, 1923-2023, in N. Bassoli, ed. Home Sweet Home, 76-101, Electa-Triennale di Milano, Milano 2023. (original) (raw)

Between 1923 and 2023, some pivotal moments mark the evolution of the kitchen. The environment's design and furnishings accompany the social history of Western culture, sometimes inveigling human lives. During a centenary of changes - wars, political upheavals, restructuring of work - and inventions - modern materials, other techniques, different technologies - specific existential programmes are reversed in this domestic space. Realised in concrete terms or only set up in national and international exhibitions, they are, in any case, demonstrative projects, that is, aimed at reinforcing a political-economic idea of society, in which gender roles trigger battles, establish compromises or achieve (precarious) balances. In Italy, it is mainly, but not only, the exhibitions at the Triennale in Milan that act as a real seismograph of the changes in housing concerning those in society. On the other hand, those exhibitions relate to or otherwise react to, what is happening in the contemporary architectural culture of Western countries, whose stimuli and influences are collected experimentally and disseminated with agility to the non-specialist public and professionals.