You are taking these pictures out of context. They are open kitchens surrounded by areas with windows, many are full walls of glass. These are the last three you posted.

This is the moody night time kitchen during the daytime. Plenty of great views while standing at that cooktop!

This is the other half of the pic with the grey stools. See the full wall of sliders reflected in the picture? That is your view when standing at the island sink.

This is a nicer view than out of my kitchen window! Every time you turn from the range to the sink or pull something out of the over you see tropical plants. There is also a seating area across from the island that has a wall of windows.

im sorry, but that context doesnt provide the "gotcha" you hope it does.

kitchen windows that are 12-25 feet away from the kitchen aren't "kitchen windows."

any lighting produced especially on cloudy days would offer nothing valuable in the prep/work spaces or while standing at the sink which is ideal for the majority of housewives who spend hours working in the kitchen.

i think OP brings up a valid question. WHY would a good architect design a luxury build with zero windows **IN** the kitchen?

I haven't ever owned a million dollar home, although the last home I sold is now in that price range, but was still a modest 1800 sf ranch home.

The kitchen window in every house I have lived in since leaving my parents home had a 3' window over the sink that looked out onto the side yard and my neighbors fence. Whoopi!

My mom had a fabulous galley kitchen where she prepared meals for a small army every day.

It was the only kitchen I know of where I didn't feel the need to turn on the lights as soon as I entered the kitchen. The kitchen was in the center of the main living area with rooms on all 4 sides, she had upper and lower cabinets lining both sides of the kitchen, but the entire kitchen was built with a ceiling that was about 18 inches taller than the surrounding rooms and had clerestory windows on all 4 sides. As long as it was light outside the kitchen was drenched in light. You can see where the kitchen sits with the raised roof.

I also almost bought a home with a similar setup with the kitchen in the middle of the house but instead of clerestory windows it had skylights, which drenched the kitchen in light.

I would give my right arm to have a kitchen like the white kitchen shown below by Kendrah below. I think it is a great kitchen and I don't think adding a window would make it a better kitchen.

Maybe the lack of kitchen windows is because more condos/houses are built by men, and not women. And these men believe that , since not every room can have a view, it’s better to give the views to the rooms like living, dining, bedrooms, or even baths. And these same men are not the ones standing at the sink washing dishes or baking cupcakes. It’s basically the same gender bias the OP refers to when she says that some housewives might like a view because even in her worldview it’s the women of the house that spend time in the kitchens.

houses are built according to house plans, not the men who hammer them together. architects are putting this into their plans for a reason.

Is it world view or is it simply a fact that the vast majority of woman do the cooking as a statistically whole? i haven't been everywhere on planet earth, but my time in Ecuador, Romania, Japan, Chile, and Ireland, it’s usually the woman who did the cooking and food prep. Not making a personal statement about why that is or whether it is a good thing, but i think there is worldwide consensus on this.

this doesnt explain why there seems to be a trend against having windows in a kitchen for new designs all of a sudden. i hadn't thought about it personally until now but the more i think about it, the more i also notice a trend against kitchen windows.

i also think it is totally possible to give all the bedrooms, living/dinning room AND kitchen windows. this was the case for my own upbringing at least.

The reason for window-less kitchen trends: people spend less time in them and have more money (probably).

Women used to make food from scratch and spend upwards of 6 hours a day making breakfast lunch and dinner from fresh ingredients. A sense of daylight was vital for woman who spent all day in there. Dinner used to take 2-4 hours using fresh dough or grinding corn by hand. My grandmother told me it was a full time job.

Today the most people do is boil a pot of water for pre-made pasta, open a pre-made can of sauce, and re-heat tea in a microwave. Or grab a box of cereal and dump it into a bowl. Not all, but most American families, yep. I think I saw somewhere that 80% of the new generation have never baked before. Cookies, brownies, muffins - they simply don't know how.

Much of the time, people eat out at restaurants or in drive-thrus. In my grandmother’s time that was reserved for a few times a year because most people were too poor to eat food outside of the house.

I think anybody who is still serious about cooking from scratch or washing dishes by hand would opt for windows in a kitchen every time. It’s pretty essential. But the (American) world is moving away from that. Woman are also working when back in the day, a man’s salary could support the entire family. Woman have much less time. I think kitchens nowadays are treated as a status symbol, as well.

This is an interesting topic.

Windows in kitchens don’t have much to do with the function of cooking and washing.

Light? Since you’re often cooking after dark, the kitchen needs lots of artificial light anyway.

Ventilation? The (modern) kitchen has a vent hood, mine will in theory evacuate my entire kitchen in three minutes.

Views? Well, are we there to cook, or to drink wine and look out the window?

I just spent a week in a San Francisco apartment with a windowless kitchen. The adjoining rooms had windows, but the kitchen had none. I did quite a bit of cooking and washing in that kitchen. Thinking back, I don’t think I ever noticed or cared about the lack of fenestration. It wasn’t a ”lifestyle kitchen”, rather an efficient and effective place to make food.

Of course, commercial kitchens are usually windowless.

My own kitchen has a window with a great view of . . . the garage . . . and a French door to the back yard. I think these windows are nice-to-haves but hardly required. In my climate and with my schedule, at least two thirds of the time what they show is rain or darkness.

I do like windows. In a perfect world, all rooms have windows. If the choice is a kitchen with windows, or an interior windowless kitchen so that other rooms get more windows, I can see choosing the latter.

Granted, I don’t use my kitchen as a place to hang out when I’m not cooking. I don’t have seating there. It’s a room with a single purpose, for me. If my kitchen was also a place to eat breakfast or read a newspaper or have coffee or wine with someone, then windows would be nearly required.

Of the four houses I’ve lived in, only the current one has had a kitchen window. It’s nice, but never something that I’ve considered a need. M

It's FLORIDA!!It's MIAMI!

You think any of these homes are going to have kitchens with a Mrs in them baking cinnamon rolls?

No.......The Mrs calls the caterer. She calls for reservations..... She books her favorite table at the "club" who knows which.

The kitchen is there because you can't sell a home without a kitchen, and if you have to have one and you have money? You make it as good looking as the living room.....because you will wander into it for morning coffee.

I’m laughing because the last thing in the world I’m going to be doing is washing dishes and watching birds! I have a machine that washes my dishes!

^^

I have a windowless galley. I haven't starved and I love my galley. Most efficient kitchen ever, and I need nobody in there with me.

no windows but open spaces. windows beyond the kitchen and kitchen then devoted to large valuable storage and zones so the place is not cluttered or cramped..... People gather in various combinations of friends/relatives ......storage and zones are desired . I do think they cook ..in fact multiple people cook or gather in these kitchens so the zone set up for task//functions is important. People move between the living areas and kitchen and theres probably more activity in these kitchens than people are making assumptions about.

I am one who doesn’t love the trend of huge kitchens with SO MANY cabinets - what is even in them?

Bigger is def not better when it comes to functionality - give me a human scaled kitchen any day (and always better with some lovely windows imo)

Interesting topic. Many posters have come on here complaining about their dark kitchens, even with windows.

Lighting, lighting and lighting is always the answer.

In the examples posted, it wouldn’t make sense to have the kitchen on the window side.

And again, these homes are constructed with entertaining in mind.

I have an interior kitchen. Zero windows. It is connected to a large eating area with plenty of natural light, and the sink area gives me a view into my great room, which is wall-to-wall windows on three sides. I also have plenty of overhead lighting. I like this kitchen much more than the kitchens in my other two houses, which both had windows -- it's about the whole of the house, not one room taken in isolation.

My kitchen originally had one window and dark cabinets. When I renovated it in 2014, I added 4 more windows (3 of them on the sink wall) and a sliding French door to the patio. And white cabinets. And replaced a small island with a larger peninsula. It's fairly large, and I LOVE working in it now. It's so much roomier, airier and brighter than before. And the "before" was designed by a certified KD.

However, years ago I lived in a small one-bedroom apartment in NYC. It had a small windowless galley kitchen, but there were 3 huge windows in the adjacent living/dining room. I loved that apartment too, and cooked many a meal for myself and for dinner parties. As with a lot of questions, the answer is "it depends."

@stacey56 - You've gotta be kidding me that the context doesn't provide a gotcha for adding views to those kitchens. Floor to ceiling windows with gardens, pools, and bodies of water outside isn't enough for you?

ANY kitchen, whether it is one with a two story tall window 20 feet away or a small ranch with a sink window, needs stellar artificial lighting design so you can see at night. Windows never replace good lighting design.

I think it is weird that we are still talking housewives and baking. Plenty of women hate to cook, plenty of dudes like to. Anyone who owns these homes had houses elsewhere. They may cook in this kitchen, they may just mix drinks in them. Who knows.

Housewives? Gad I haven't heard anyone use that term in ages. None of the kitchens in my current homes have windows in the kitchen. However they all have large windows directly across from the sink with beautiful views. I would not buy a home with a sink facing a wall - just could not live with that. I would also rather have a nearby window with a great view than one in the kitchen with a suboptimal view.

In my experience most arhitects do not care about kitchens and I have friends who live in Miami Beach she cooks , and bakes and has a huge wall of patio doors out to the pool. I agree lighting is huge must in an enclosed kitchen and the fact is most people in Miami eat out more than in. I have no clue about washing dishes by hand I run a catering biz from my home the DW 6 x a day for sure . I do have a huge paitr of windows in my kitchen but honestly when working in there I rarely look out the window. I know most of my friends love to cook and some bake they have all sorts of different kitchens all of which function for them. If windows in the kitchen are a must maybe you need to make that a priority with your realtor.

"i think OP brings up a valid question. WHY would a good architect design a luxury build with zero windows **IN** the kitchen? "

Because, in many homes these days, the kitchen isn't a room, it's a space within a larger room. I don't have a room that is a kitchen, I have an area in a big room that contains a kitchen setup of counters and appliances, marked off by an island counter - my kitchen area. That big room also contains my living room and dining room/office areas. If the architects' clients want an open concept house with few interior walls, big rooms will have multiple areas for different use.

I almost bought a converted church to use as my home......It was gorgeous and, as you can imagine, other than the bedrooms and bathrooms, there was just one big room. The kitchen area was in the chancel of the former church, but it had no windows. It did open to a 1000 sq ft room with a 20' ceiling though. (I didn't buy it because it had no garage, and parking for just 1 small car. Otherwise it was perfect.)

As someone who cooks several times a day, I've got to say natural light is necessary. For my family to stay healthy, we eat whole foods and cook from scratch so our kitchen is a "workspace" a la FLW. That said, it's lovely when it's also a beautiful space, not so much FLW in this regard. I despise open floor plans. For us, cooking smells and noises are horrible when filtering into the den. Many people I know don't cook and/or don't know how to cook so the kitchen's function is unimportant.

"For us, cooking smells and noises are horrible when filtering into the den. "

For me, it's a plus. It's a good thing we all don't like the same things in life, or it would be boring.

WTH are you cooking that smells "horrible? :) ?

My healthy fixins" can waft right into my living room. Including the organic roaster chicken on a Sunday afternoon. ......the lemon laced salmon...as well along with a pork chop sizzling on The George Forman. Cookies? Of course. Yes all in a zero window galley.

A $10 mill waterfront Miami FL home is not on a large lot and your neighbors will be relatively close. The bedrooms and living areas get the windows, with the master bedroom and main living area getting large sliders to the water view out back. You can only fit so much in a cube, so the kitchen will be in the center with no windows, but open to that main living area with the large sliders.

Many non waterfront homes also have this design, which I don't love. When we designed and built, I made sure my kitchen had windows, but to get "everything", my kitchen windows face the side and not the back of the house. Luckily the neighbor build their house further back, so my side kitchen windows face tropical FL landscaping and not the side of their house. My breakfast/casual table area and family room have large sliders that face the pond and golf course views ... the places where you would actually linger and enjoy the view.

Some homes in the'50s had kitchens like that not all I think mirror on the door or a wall somewhere would be nice to bring in some light and of course light colors but I like a window somewhere in the kitchen I like looking out while I'm eating or doing dishes

As a man who spends hours cooking a window-less kitchen would be a hard no for me. Sliding glass doors over in the nearby living room is not the same experience as having a row of countertop right under a wall of windows. It's just not the same feeling or experience. Not even comparable. Natural light directly over prep and cleaning zones makes a huge difference in experience.

To answer your question as to why this trend is happening I'd probably agree with others who have said it comes down to the fact people aren't spending as much time in kitchens to begin with and they're more concerned with having kitchens look aesthetically pleasing and it's easier to create those long modern visual lines without windows in the way. That, and the fact most new construction is open floor plan so they feel that the sliding glass in nearby dining or living space will be sufficient. And for many people it probably is.

It is a condo with no exterior kitchen wall. I've been in a few. The front door is from the hallway, as is the kitchen/dining area, and two bathrooms. None has a window. The living room and two bedrooms have sliders leading to the balcony. The problem is the building is east/west facing. All front doors are off the hallway, but the east side of the building gets pretty dull light all day. The west side of the building at least gets a warmer light in the afternoon. These are in the million dollar range. I find the entire layout kind of depressing. It could be because front doors are in a windowless hallway. Kind of like a nursing home...

Plenty of poor design choices come with the restrictions in orientation required for condo development. It's almost a given because condos are a way to maximize the return on a valuable piece of property in a prime location. And imo, architects are not that good at designing interior spaces for function. Of course, some of the condos will have the better orientation, views and then maybe the layout can be acceptable. In those spaces, with an open concept design, a window over the sink is not important. Just like a double sink is an anachronism. The design of the space for living, dining and food prep as a whole is priority. If that includes a wall of windows down to the counter to maximize a view, make that choice.

We live in a twin home, and the kitchen is on the shared wall, so no window. But the kitchen is open to the living room with an 18' vaulted ceiling, and an 8' east-facing window in the living room. The kitchen gets a ton of natural light. The other rooms on the shared wall are a bedroom (which has a south-facing window), primary bathroom, laundry room, and second bathroom. While I like windows in bathrooms, I would rather have all our living and bedroom space on the outside walls.

It's due to all of the added rooms in many of the current plans being presented here: home office, gym, play area, "flex" room, 10 bathrooms, luxury tub area, dog wash, etc. They all vie for exterior wall space.

Is this a growing trend? Why????

I suspect this has more to do with the big-city location. More high-rise condos, more houses on postage-stamp lots, more privacy concerns. Even away from the city, single-family houses are often built with more rooms than in the past (an office, a music room, a rec-room for the kids, etc.) and an attached garage -- these all take away walls that could've provided windows.

But overall, no, windowless kitchens are not a trend -- more like an unintended reaction necessitated by other parts of the build.

Washing dishes is a pleasure with the birds hopping around and the fresh breeze coming in...

Cinderella, is that you? 'Cause I've never had that happy experience washing dishes -- and every kitchen I've ever had has had a window over the kitchen sink.

Presumably these are kitchens for the caterers. The homeowners will never set foot in them.

Disagree. No one caters every meal and no one eats out every meal. Even a person who doesn't cook goes into the kitchen to fetch a drink, make a pot of coffee, or stash left overs in the fridge.

Most houses aren't big enough for rooms without external walls, but some are.

Sounds like you're praising houses "big enough" to have rooms without external walls and, thus, windows. The best rooms have windows on two walls, allowing for excellent light and ventilation.

Poor design or perhaps there is nothing worth looking at outside or both.

Even if the view isn't worthwhile, a window still allows in light.

My mom had a fabulous galley kitchen where she prepared meals for a small army every day.

That kitchen sounds wonderful, even if it wasn't typical.

Dinner used to take 2-4 hours using fresh dough or grinding corn by hand. My grandmother told me it was a full time job.

Admittedly, it's been quite some time since grinding corn by hand was an everyday activity.

I think kitchens nowadays are treated as a status symbol, as well.

Definitely -- oversized appliances, duplicate seating areas within the kitchen, etc.

Bigger is def not better when it comes to functionality

Definitely true.

" Sounds like you're praising houses "big enough" to have rooms without external walls and, thus, windows. "

Not praising, but stating a fact. In my opinion, most houses are way too large, and I would love to find a 1000-1200 sq ft house that isn't a teardown. But my preferences and tastes are unimportant when looking at the facts of what's available in the marketplace.

Has anyone considered that this may not be poor design? Prior to the 1950s/60s windows in a kitchen were pretty important because you didn't have a big vent over the stove and needed to open the windows. We also didn't have central air so to get the heat out of the kitchen meant putting a fan in the window.

Now it is more of a choice. Do you want more storage or a whole wall of windows?

What is worse is when you see the people posting their ideas and they have a 10' wide kitchen and want a wall of windows on the outside wall, a 48" range, double ovens, a full size freezer, a full size refrigerator and an island facing the living room. They have 4 lower cabinets and no upper cabinets anywhere. . . so where are they keeping all the things you use to prepare a meal? May look pretty, but how does it function?

" so where are they keeping all the things you use to prepare a meal? "

In the pantry.

Like all design, it's a matter of choices and personal preferences. What someone sees as poorly functional might be very functional for someone else, and there are always trade-offs for limits (cost and space), lifestyle needs, and personal aesthetics. There are common ways to best design a kitchen, but there are no rules that must be followed.

edited for typos

In both the kitchens I designed, there are a few people on this forum that would say the fridge is "too far" from the "work zone". I actually posted the second kitchen and got exactly that feedback from 2 people! The fridge positions in both kitchens worked perfectly for us and we have no regrets. Both were med/large kitchens, so you are already stretching things out, so a few more feet don't really make a difference. We all have our personal preferences and there isn't just one "perfect" way of designing a kitchen.

I got some horrible comments on the kitchen design I agreed to (from the KD), and it was a wonderful kitchen setup that I adored. I still miss it, years after I've moved away.

@Toronto Veterinarian I know this is off topic, but I'm curious what comments you recieved and what made your kitchen layout uniquiely special?

If you are addicted to natural light, as I am (long story from a traumatic basement apartment a long time ago), windows in the kitchen are a necessity. Not just for light, but for fresh air as well. I have never had a kitchen with a sink against a wall, and I never will. And given that kitchens have become the central gathering area when entertaining, windows and views to the outside are even more important. For single family homes there will often be site constraints and sometimes not so desirable views, but a good designer will work around this and provide adequate, if not abundant, natural light in the most important room in the house.

So no, I don't think it is a trend.

" but I'm curious what comments you recieved and what made your kitchen layout uniquiely special? "

I put my range in my island, rather than against a wall, and the space around my island was smaller than "the rules" say it should be. I was told it was a ridiculous plan that didn't maximize efficiency, I'd be wasting too many steps walking around to get things done, and that I'd hate cooking at my island. Except in much nastier language. Apparently, not being able to waltz in the kitchen when the dishwasher door is open is considered a problem ;)

Cooking in my island, rather than along the wall, was the best thing about it. Additionally, I had a length of countertop that was about 2" shorter than standard, which is my preferred height for rolling dough, which I really liked. And the large pantry :)

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/4751866/my-reveal

Thank you for sharing. I can see why you made the choices you made and in your situation it looks much better than before.

Also I think I can agree with you on the aisle rules. I'm a one person cook. Even in my old house nobody was allowed to come into the kitchen when I was in there. It was U-shaped with a generous 6 foot aisle. Even with that, I disliked people breathing down my neck while I was cooking, so nobody was allowed in without me barking.

People say never go less than 4' aisles, but for a single cook, there's nothing wrong with 3.5'. I actually prefer it.

I am still chuckling about ” housewives” cooking. My husband cooked our dinners for 30 years. My kitchen has a garden window over the sink, and i love it!

My mother's house, built in 1972, they bought it in 1983, has no window in the kitchen, which has not thus far presented as a problem.

I want to meet all these people that get mentioned in these forums that have large fancy kitchens and never cook! Does it happen ... sure ... but this forum insists it is 98% of people with those pretty kitchens!

My sister-in-law made a comment about my pots/pans and cookie sheets looking really new ... like I didn't use them! Well, my mother would kill me if she saw that my cookware wasn't spotless, so that is a major driver of that behavior, LOL. I also use parchment paper as much as possible to cut back on the work needed to clean things. As far as pots/pans, many are actually new since we switched to induction when we built and I've just thrown out pots/pans in the past that were not easy to clean or got ruined after years of use. Her mother never kept her cookware spotless and would never dream of throwing out and replacing something that looks really old/dirty. Bottom line is learned family behavior on maintaining household things and not really an indication of how much one cooks or doesn't cook.

You know, a kitchen without walls would have no windows.

You could have windows hanging from the kitchen ceiling and still have no walls!

What would support the ceiling?

Large support posts, like commercial construction. This game would probably be better after happy hour! lol