1950s 1970s

1990s 2005
The Furniture Business in India - A Case Study

Business happening

Indian furniture market:INR 135 billion ofwhich 85% falls in the unorganized sector.
The total addressable Market for Retail (Urban Areas):INR 5,266 Crore.

Furniture imports India ranked first from 1-1-04 to 15-7-05 importing 17 per cent of the
total imports in furniture worldwide

Furniture Import Value Growth 03-04

Wooden Kitchen Furniture INR 66 million 93%

Wooden Residential Furniture INR 56 million 40%
Real Estate Overview of India

The growth of the service sector which now constitutes more than the 50% of the
GDP

Average household income in urban areas has grown at a 5% Compounded Annual

Growth Rate over the last decade. By 2010 the higher income earning group (>USD
2000) is expected to constitute 48% of the total earning population.

Social Indicator

India today boasts of 547 million strong populations that is below 25 years of age. The
size of the market at Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) is estimated around US$ 1.5 trillion
It also produces a large pool of educated professionals as under
Over 3 million scientific & technical manpower
Over 1 million graduate engineers and 0.4 million doctors and 0.8 million post
graduates in science.
0.3 million graduates in agriculture and veterinary sciences.
In addition 50,000 computer professionals and 360,000 engineering graduates
each year.
Buying Power and Consumption

The number of middle classhouseholds in these categories combined is expected to grow

by 38.8% over the period 2005-2006. The lower income categories are projected
to decline by 10.7%, while the very rich category is projected to double. Retailers will
now focus on the consumption patterns of the middle class to map their future strategies
as this upward push will lead to greatly increased purchasing power.
Kitchen Planning
& Furniture Design
Kitchens 2 should face North East or North West .
Kitchens should be well located internally with respect to pantry, dining room and living.
Places of meeting and have social significance .
Occupy large amount of users time andpeak attention periods.
In residences Kitchens should be placed strategically for easy accessibility to all major work
areas and rooms
Work Sequence

A place for everything, everything in place

Organized work centers and storage facilities

Walking distance between work centers

Ideal sequence

Storage - Cooking area - Preparation area Draining area

Basic Kitchen Layouts

Single Line kitchen

A very basic layout that should be kept as compact as possible. The cooker and sink
must be kept closer in this layout
L Shaped kitchen

A work sequence runs around two walls, keeping work triangle reasonable compact. In
a very small room it may be difficult to avoid placing refrigerator close to cooker, so not
an ideal arrangement as refrigerator looses efficiency in cooling.
Gallery Layout

Gallery kitchen have a compact work triangle than any of the arrangements so are less
tiring in usage. Sink and cooker can be placed in opposite sides. This plan possesses
least safety hazards.
U shaped layout
This adaptable layout is wrapped around three
walls in an unbroken sequence .This
layout provides lots of work surface but the
two corners would give some wasted space

Island kitchen
This should be used in places where space is
plentiful, if cooking activity involves lots of
walking then work triangles are inconvenient in
this case.
Work Zones in Kitchen
Minimum Area for kitchen planning
Cooking recess 5 - 6 m2
Normal kitchens 8 - 10 m2
kitchens with dinning 12 - 14 m2
Each work center in a kitchen should have three components.
1. Adequate work area on counter space
2. Adequate storage areas and volume
3. Sufficient access to facilities like ventilation, lighting ,drainage etc
Different types of furniture in kitchen can be classified as
1. Base units or under counter units - These units are used for storing large, heavy
or seldom used kitchen equipment.
2. Wall mounted units - Wall mounted have small depth so worktops beneath them
can be used without hindrance. They allow crockery to be reached without
bending
3. Tall units - Full height cupboards are suitable for storing cleaning materials,
brooms etc. they can also house refrigerator or microwave
Human Factors & Kitchen Ergonomics
Frankfurt kitchen

The idea of efficient kitchens evolved from the much celebrated Frankfurt
kitchen.
Architect Christine Fredrick in 1927- 28 created the kitchen in a social
housing project.
The kitchen was analyzed following Taylorist principles using detailed time
and motion studies which were published from 1913 in a series of articles on
"New Household Management"
Kitchen Work Triangle

The idea of kitchen work triangle was formulated at the School of Architecture of the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, founded in 1944 with aims at reducing cost
through standardization.

Work triangle is simply an efficient

arrangement of three major work points i.e
cooking,storageand sink. It is necessary to
design arrangement which cuts down
travelling distances of the user.

1 Fridge
2 - Sink
3 - Cook top
4 Oven
5 - Dishwasher
Kitchen Equipments
Commercial Kitchens