The Work Triangle in Real Thai Kitchens

The work triangle links the three points you move between most: cold storage, water and heat. Keeping the total of the three legs between roughly 4 and 8 metres means less walking and fewer collisions during cooking.

Wok cooking is fast and hot, and prep tends to be heavy on washing and chopping. That pushes more importance onto the sink-to-prep leg than the classic model assumes, and it makes the landing space beside the hob non-negotiable.

In a compact condo the three points can end up too close, which is its own problem: no landing space and nowhere to put a hot pan. We protect at least 300mm of clear worktop on each side of the hob and sink before optimising anything else.

Two cooks, a second sink or a separate Thai kitchen behind the show kitchen all break the single-triangle model. In those homes we plan in zones instead, giving each cook their own prep, water and heat.