Do a google search for "Faith Popcorn." She invented the term "cocooning" around 25 years ago.

Your comment about the demise of the kitchen is soon to be happening here. Any apartment buildings/condos being built are all high-end scale. There's one that's designed with a bunch of 1-bedroom and some 2-bedroom with no appliances in the kitchen aside from a bar frig and perhaps a microwave. The builder said he's attracting the millenials who like to eat out and order in. smh And no parking at all, because transit is so handy.

Well frankly I predict that increasing diseases being spread by going out to eat is going to eventually curtail that. Coronavirus epidemic got its start in a public market, for example. I wouldn't buy stock in the restaurant biz is all I'm saying. Of course, YMMV. Not trying to be alarmist, just making my predictions for the future based on current scientific information. The current food supply trends are ripe for some crises . . . not trying to be a crepe hanger, just a scientist. But hey, maybe I could start up a "safe food" delivery service. Folks where I live are too poor to keep something like that going though . . . I couldn't do it, the waste would bug me too much. Although I have given some thought to community kitchens . . . we volunteer at one for our church but that's not quite the same as ones for food prep. I know such things exist in some places. Ruthanna from the Lehigh Valley who used to post on CF belonged to a neighborhood one.

I loved Faith Popcorn, it's nice to see someone remember her!

Y'know, having a kitchen in an apartment, or "suite of rooms", is kind of newfangled. Before the marvels of the 20th Century, and the closed stoves of the 19th Century (which were found in wealthier accommodations), there was a fireplace where you could keep warm, and it probably had a hob, which was a shelf to warm things on recessed into the wall inside the fireplace. There was probably also a hook for a kettle. You might have a cupboard for a larder. You might even have a closed cupboard and an aerated cupboard. Most likely, however, what food you had was probably stored right on the table, the mantle if there was one, or an open shelf. Ice was an expensive luxury and not to be wasted on food preservation. Pubs. taverns, bake shops and cookshops abounded. Urban people might cook a stew at home, or a simple meal of bread, cheese, and vegetables, but often either ate out or brought home fully prepared foods.

This is the everyday folks I'm talking about. Those well to do enough to have a big house with servants did have kitchens, but if they were well off in apartments, they ate similarly as above, but finer foods, bought and prepared by the servant, rather than their own hands.

The California I grew up in was mostly built after the Depression. Even the smallest, poorest house or apartment, short of SRO's, had a kitchen with cupboards, sink, tiled counter and backsplash, fridge, range and hood or fan which vented outside (by the '50's the fan in the ceiling was replaced by simple hoods). It's kind of unimaginable not to have a kitchen, but everything old is new again, I guess. Though I've seen vans with better equipped kitchens than the "upscale" apartments for millennials that Jasdip described. :

I loved getting my own apartment all to myself when I was a Junior/Senior in college. I'd tried to find a share house again, but too many were too far or too weird or otherwise wrong. There was one where the roommates were dwelling in a purgatory of self-flagellating abnegation. I'm all for conservation and not wasting resources, but they carried this to such a fervent extreme that they all looked sad and anxious. My apartment was perfectly located (unless there was fog--then getting back was scary), like in the article, had a beautiful pool and recreation room, and a lot of older folks. The living room and dining room were tiny, the kitchen was fine, and the bedroom was huge. That's due to the architect just slicing down the middle with the courtyard windows and door on the north side and the bathroom and bedroom on the south, same length. If there was any thought of livability, it was probably that it was okay that way so you could have a king sized bed (I had my single), and big dressers and maybe a sofa or daybed. It was pretty empty except the bed, dresser and 9' ballet barre. :)

It took some thinking to realized that in that apartment I was a lot like the cocooners in the article. I had occasional friends over, but mostly not. The entertaining area was too small for a real party and I didn't have time anyway.. Social life, work and classes were all on campus. I mostly went home for sleep. I didn't cook much. More soup, cottage cheese, frozen veg, toast. Brought in sometimes. Ate on campus a lot. I had a little TV. I had a lot of books that had to be read. There was stretching and trying to work out choreography in the big open bedroom on the carpet, or the tiny hard floor in the bathroom. I don't remember why the kitchen didn't work, not that it was that much bigger. That wasn't cocooning, though. It was the opposite.

In my previous house, I always wanted to go out and do errands. In the current one, I'm so happy to be home, I'd rather be in. I'm not so sure about the whole premise. I think, like I was in college, people are just tired and want to come home to destress, relax and catch up on a little sleep.

Random thoughts:

• My mother said she was "looking for a house without a kitchen." She absolutely hated to cook even though she was good at it.
• I'm all for customizing a space for one's own comfort. For me that will always include a kitchen because I like to cook. Even when I lived alone, I ate off china and silver in the dining room. I never saw the point in using better things for guests than I use for myself.
• Regarding physical solitude combined with electronic communication, I remember the beginning of video conferencing. My first thought was "here comes The Naked Sun." Isaac Asimov's 1957 sci-fi whodunit is set in a society avoids person-to-contact and use video communication.

My kids who live in big cities have kitchens (one daughter has two kitchens in her house), but they order most of their dinners in. It's easy, there is virtually no waste , everybody gets what they want. The kids eat lunch in school, the parents eat lunch out. They keep loaves of bread in the freezer, peanut butter and honey and popcorn for snacks, have soda streams for bubbly water.

Even the teenagers don't want to drive. Public transportation gets.them everywhere they want to go.

But lpink, no one can produce enough food in a garden to avoid going to public markets. We are all exposed in thousands of ways every day. If we all begin telecommuting tomore, we will.still be exposed constantly. Obviously I am not correctly reading what you wrote.

I truly enjoy cooking, but because of my spouse's work schedule and currently work location, I often cook and eat alone. I do not think I could function without a kitchen, or at least not happily. But I know other people who never ever cook. They order takeout or eat out every single meal. Ironically one of them recently spent an inheritance on remodeling their kitchen - that they never use. But I guess my version of cocooning includes a functional kitchen whereas others may not. Is the "article" suggesting that in the past people would create their homes for the purpose of the comfort of others rather than themselves?

I think it was saying that the entertaining spaces were given precedence. That's certainly true in houses built from the '30's to the '70's here. Then in the '80's they started building massive master suites that are bigger than the living + dining rooms. Then in the '90's, shrinking those houses a bit, they kept the huge masters and added separate office and work out spaces in the masters, and shrank the kids/guest rooms and make they difficult shapes, then did away with kitchens and dining rooms and just slapped them in the living rooms without adequate size or separation (they're called "great" rooms, but aren't big enough to actual be "great"). Housing trends are weird. It's all about having a hook to entice people to buy from the developers.

A kitchen is a place to prepare food. Even 200 years ago...even small houses had kitchens. Cold foods like meat butter and milk was often kept in the spring house or the well house....even the cellar....depending on cold from the earth to keep things cool. 100 years ago houses were built to accommodate ice boxes.
I wonder which came first? The way people lived or housing design? The great room concept in the midwest began in the 1970's
I know people who never cook....couldn't if their life depended in it. They have kitchens but they are mostly a place to lay the take out stuff and put it onto a paper plate.

LOL "the demise of the kitchen" I totally agree with the OP but have also been very flabbergasted at the top of the line OVER THE TOP gourmet kitchens people put in--when the home cooked meal has become a seldom experienced phenom. A quick glance at the article gave me the impression WHAT we are all becoming MEN!!!??? Remember all the old books on men and their 10k words a day and their need to be left alone after a hard day!! Work is STRESSFUL--and we have created a world where everyone works--no one is nurturing, no one has the time or inclination to tend to the matters of a home. "The kitchen is the heart of a home" they used to say. Where is this all leading?

Our campus dorm rooms have a shared kitchen area around individual bedroom pods.

But count me as one person who after I come home from work, generally doesn't want to interact with others besides DH. Although I do have Mustang club scheduled for tonight. It is supposed to be very heavy rain so we'll see if I'm able to make it. When it rains here, all hell breaks loose on the roads.

I work and DH is a stay-at-home partner. He does the majority of our cooking and cleaning, laundry, etc., and all of our grocery shopping. (I'm so out of touch that I am consistently amazed at prices on the rare occasion when I do venture into a grocery store.) I completely relate to locking oneself in and coccooning, and although we have the space and setup for it, we very rarely entertain. We consider our home to be our sanctuary and there are countless weeknights and weekends where we don't even venture out more than a few steps to get the mail before turning right back around and closing ourselves away in our little nest. This has become a routine that I thrive on, although there are times when I realize it's making me less of a social creature. We do have opportunities to socialize, but we frequently turn them down. We have created our comfort zone and it's very hard to break free of that.

DH and I have wondered who all of these food delivery services are geared towards, though, as it's not us. I understand that people who live in busy cities would find it a great convenience, but for us suburbanites, there's a grocery store and restaurant on every corner, so it's just a matter of getting dressed and going there. Then again, it may be our age demographic as well; I think younger folks probably avail themselves of delivery services more often than boomers do.

Thanks plllog for clarifying. Your description makes a lot more sense to me than the "article". This also explains why some of the homes we looked at while house-shopping a few years ago had oddly massive master suites in some of the homes built in the 90s. It seems completely logical that builders/architects design homes for the current lifestyle trends - whatever they may be.

arcy_gw, I completely agree with your assessment of over the top kitchens. I'm all for a sizable kitchen that allows for multiple occupants, but some of these kitchens are ridiculously over the top demonstrations of wealth more than functional spaces. Whether it's design shows on TV or some of the remodels people post here, I'm often shocked at elaborate kitchens that are so massive they look unusable even for multiple cooks.

One of my favorite changes I've seen in homes built in the 2000s and 2010s has been the demise of the "formal" living room and openness between the shared spaces (kitchen, dining, living/family room). I hope that isn't disappearing anytime soon.

And yet, there are many in these forums who lambast today's open concept. Not sure if that's just a backlash against anything that has become a trend, or if people have actually lived in such spaces and just decided for whatever reason that they hate them. Ours is the second house I've owned with a relatively open concept -- kitchen open to dining open to living -- and it works beautifully for us. I enjoy being able to spend time in the kitchen and enjoy the fireplace in the adjacent living space, while watching something on the TV that yes, is mounted above the fireplace (quelle horreur!).

We do use DoorDash maybe once or twice a month. We generally cook at home every day. But sometimes we are tired at the end of the week and don't feel like fighting traffic to go out. Yes, we realize there is an upcharge but if we go out we'd have beer and wine most likely.

Beer and wine and the upcharge! Now why didn't I think of that? Thanks for a bit of rationale, gscience.

I do like to cook but we also like to go out. I think about food and recipes all the time.

I totally get eating takeout frequently due to being busy, but as the main way of eating, not so much. For us and so many others, it's just plain economics and also for me, the waste is staggering. I am confounded by our cash strapped kids and their constant use of junk, takeout and processed and packaged foods. Grandkids being raised with it as the norm. We don't live in an area with much variety in restaurants or processed foods from the deli, so even if it did make sense for us economically, we wouldn't want to do it just because we can make the same foods at home better and cheaper than we get at restaurants, and our restaurants aren't even that nice so no impetus to go to them. That's why I grew up with folks entertaining at home, so few options in our small town rural area.

I can also understand that you don't need a big kitchen to cook at home or entertain. I've lived in small apartments and often tiny kitchens all my life, and still cooked my own food and even canned. We are cocooners too, but I miss entertaining. Back when I was growing up, most women worked at home and handled the main part of the entertaining work. If you're an introvert you probably won't want to entertain anyway, but I'm an extrovert. I also remember social groups meeting at homes back when I was a kid, such as book clubs, women's clubs, political parties, etc. Now it seems these things happen more often in public meeting room spaces.

Edited to add that I think one's love of "open concept" depends on who you are sharing the open concept with. I don't like the big TV and hubs big stereo blaring thruoughout our open concept. I have become a cocooner in the guest bedrooms and back part of the house. At our old "closed concept" house hubs had a man cave with all his media in one of the upstairs bedrooms, but we don't have that at our house right now. As a result of the open concept and the media, the family room, dining room, kitchen and sitting room/parlor are all filled with hubs blaring media. I've asked him to keep it down but he doesn't see this as a problem and he's got his likes and habits too. That's why I like a combo of both open and closed areas. I can understand particularly with kids wanting to have sight lines from working areas for mom or dad into kids play areas, either inside or outside.

As far as germ exposure, long complex food chains increase liklihood of weaknesses becoming a factor. Statistical math. Of course everyone can't grow their own food. I'm not sure but something like 40% of our food comes from other countries, particularly China. (Don't quote me on that statistic, but it is considerable). Complex food distribution system have complex vulnerabilities including weather, pests, transportation issues, wars etc. This is not a new danger just because coronavirus is in the news. I've been aware and working on these issues for decades. There are lots of issues relating to the access and use of foods. Only some can enjoy the luxury of easily accessible commercial food, for a whole lot of reasons, including the "food desert" phenomenon and straight up poverty. But that's not a design issue. One can cook even without a kitchen. I'd just not bet the farm on designs that are custom made for eating out . . . It also confounds me that ubiquitous designs are promoted without question in so many spaces. It was not that way in the past. In my home town, horrid inappropriate designs have been implemented for the last 50+ years or more, due to it just being the "cheapest" (short term) and "everyone is doing it" don't fight the system mentality. Unique solutions tailored to specific local conditions are rare. This has been documented too, the mass marketing effect of design on the landscape of America. This phenomenon is ruining my home town, not just aesthetically, but driving away business because it doesn't fit our circumstances but that's where they money is short term. Slums of the future. Here is a description of some of the problem.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-02-13/why-america-s-new-apartment-buildings-all-look-the-same

Clarification: Linda is right that in the past houses had kitchens or keeping rooms. If there was land around the house, the kitchen might be in a separate building, especially where the climate was warm. I was talking about urban apartments (and also classic two room houses that had a hearth room/keeping room and a bedroom) not having a kitchen or much stored food.

Great rooms were a thing in PNW in the '60's, and maybe before, but the ones I'm familiar with were the kitchen plus breakfast plus family room and really large with defined areas, plus the formal living room and formal dining room. The point, as was told to me by the locals, is that the climate, especially close to or in the rainforest, was not conducive to a lot of outdoor living. They created the illusion of space indoors with high ceilings, tall, wide windows, medium toned natural woods that often matched some kind of deck to extend the illusion to the outdoors, and a lot of square footage, much of it in the great room (really a "great" size), to dilute cabin fever. I'd think the snowbound places would need it more, but I guess the lower temperatures call for a compact, cozy heatable space, more than an expansive tree house.

In SoCal, we have a lot of tiny houses with tiny rooms that were built in a hurry for GIs returning from war to start families and wanting to stay here rather than return to those colder climates. A lot of the houses really weren't expected to last more than 10 years, but a whole lot are still standing. The current fashion for updating is to open up the tiny rooms to create an open concept which works better for contemporary family life. That was the formal rooms that got thrown together with the kitchen, but the 6" wide lengths of wall disappearing, and sometimes incorporation of an otherwise unnecessary hall, dramatically increased the useable square footage. The compromises for the lack of the separations were a good trade-off.

Then come the small houses that are built with just a living room with the kitchen dumped in. Not a truly great great room like in big houses in the PNW, nor the opened up floor plans of dingbats and cracker boxes with their separate spaces de-walled, but made on purpose rooms that just throw together all the waking functions into one small open room. To me, that's where open concepts fail. That works for the two room urban apartment or house that would always have been that way,, but a drag for an active family.

I’ve never been an open concept fan because I have always liked a large, eat in kitchen that was just a kitchen. Thats what I grew up with in the 60s, no island per se but a big table that also served as a work surface and was a good place to do your homework. My parents entertained all the time but never in the kitchen, which was a work / eating space just for the family. The kitchen doors were swinging doors with porthole windows. We ate in our dining room for most family dinners. As an adult I liked a separate kitchen and always had them, even if the formal living and dining rooms were a larger, contiguous space with fewer walls. Our current house has a tiny sitting room and a generous formal dining room at the front of the house, with a larger contiguous kitchen / living area / sunroom / screened porch beyond. I am still getting used to it, but at least it still affords us separate formal spaces, which we do use.

We have had three dinner parties since we moved in mid December. At each one we had drinks and appetizers in the less formal area or on the porch, moved to the dining room for dinner and dessert, then had coffee on the porch or back in the informal living area. It has worked very well from a logistical standpoint EXCEPT that we are in the area open to the kitchen when the dishes need to be done. I’ve solved this so far by simply stacking the flatware and dishes in the sink and leaving everything else on the table. For eight people and needing no hired help, this works. For ten or more dinner guests and a helper I think the detritus from dinner might be visible from the living area. Certainly the cleaning up would be on full display. In those instances I suppose we could linger longer at the table, and when the weather is nicer we can go to the porch while the dishes are being done, but this is the reason I WANT and NEED that Miele catering dishwasher that runs in 6 minutes!

I will be interested to see how a party will work with this floor plan. DH prefers dinners to cocktail parties so our entertaining leans in that direction. I think the open concept would be great for a party. But I still miss kitchen walls on four sides!

adding.... it seems to me that every floor plan in existence Is supposedly “great for entertaining,” and this seems to be a factor in home buying decisions even when the buyers have obviously never hosted people for dinner, ever. I’m pointing the finger at HGTV, of course!

LOL! HGTV indeed is responsible for a lot of odd notions. :)

Kswl 2, there are things you can do to manage your parties. I don't have open concept, but never did get a kitchen door after remodelling. :) When I have dozens for sit down it's for family for holidays so I don't worry, but for other occasions, I have tubs, dishpans and carts. One cart has shelves and baskets and a fitted ankle length cover. The bigger issue, as I see it, than hiding the detritus, is if you want the help to do the washing up while the party is going. You can use clever decorative screens or even large blinds from the ceiling to hide them, but there's no masking the clatter, splash and other noises, and dishwasher noises, 6 min. or 2 hr.,, even if they're Miele quiet.

How tiny is your tiny sitting room? One option might be to move the daily furniture into the great room, and have benches, tuffets, etc., with some little, stable drink holder tables for larger groups. I bet even in tiny, you can comfortably seat a couple dozen for a group chat. It just doesn't lend itself to "conversation groups".

You talk about coffee on the porch. Perhaps heaters and some wind resistant blinds would make it into an all weather party reception room.

Or... Is there a laundry room or garage near the kitchen? A tub sink, which could be run on hoses if there's no plumbing there, could be a good clean up station. Add a couple of tea carts for wheeling out the dishes, and they can be scraped and washed away from your great room. The cooking aromas might linger but the mess and noise could be on the other side of a door. If you have room for it, and the plumbing, you could even put that Miele pro DW with a big steel sink and sinkboard in the garage, and put a cover over them which can be a general work surface when the sink area isn't in use. (This idea comes to you from caterers we've employed who set up portable kitchens in the garage. Other than having to park the cars on the street up the block.)

Anyway, get creative and I'm sure you'll find a way to make your dinners work out!