Dr. Annie Gray

In 1927, there was a large exhibition in Frankfurt about the modern household, where the kitchen was displayed in various forms.

This new kitchen was a sensation.

There is one thing about Margarita that may surprise you.

Here she is talking to ORF Austrian Broadcasting Corporation in 1994.

I had never cooked before.

She just saw and worked on this kitchen as an order.

And that was also the case even in her older age.

She loved going to a restaurant almost every day.

Despite everything, she never wanted to speak about the kitchen.

On January the 18th, 2000, five days before her 103rd birthday, Margareta Schütte-Lihotzky died in Vienna.

Christina has worked hard to preserve her legacy in a special museum.

it reflects or reintroduces many of the elements that already existed in Frankfurt.

And these same elements we still see in many kitchens throughout the world.

Yes, this kitchen was the forerunner to all fitted kitchens.

Yet the ideas had originated from an Austrian woman in Frankfurt.

For me, the glory of the Frankfurt kitchen is the adjustability of it.

So things like the fact that you've got a little worktop with an adjustable stool for a woman to sit down and chop up vegetables.

Today, all of our kitchens are designed around this very French male professional chef idea of standing up and chopping vegetables.

sitting down and adjusting that stool to your height is brilliant.

And also the original kitchen had a light on the ceiling which you could pull across the full length of the room so you could have the light where you wanted it to be.