DININGROOMS are obsolete, according to students of St Brendan's College, Bray, Co Wicklow.
Clifton Rooney and Colin McCarthy were prompted to look at the layout of the modern home by the number of complaints they heard about small kitchens. They conducted a survey of 300 people in semi-detached homes in the south
Dublin and north Wicklow areas, all of which had separate diningrooms.
They found that 51 per cent ate in their din ing rooms between two and six times a year and 16 per cent never did so.
Diningrooms were mostly vacant in 50 per cent of cases. However, a huge amount of time was spent in the kitchen every day, with the average person spending 3.5 hours there.
They concluded that the diningroom was obsolete and out of place in the modern home and served little purpose except to house expensive furnishings, which were rarely if ever used.
They propose that homes should have large open-plan kitchens, especially with land values high and space at a premium.