In India most of the people opt for Semi-modular kitchen. People keep calling it Modular, but its not 100% modular.
Modular Kitchen in short means completely fabricated components reach your home and are installed (fixed in day or two). Before you know, your kitchen Platform and many other parts are ready to use. You get a Platform top made out of Wood.
In Semi Modular kitchen, people make Platform Top out of some stone ( mainly Granite). Making Granite involves Civil work ( involves Cement Sand etc ) . Once your Platform top is ready, inner components like Trolley etc are brought and installed inside.
Why Modular Kitchen?
In a middle class and upper middle class scenario, if a home Owner is busy and does not have time for Carpenter to spend days to complete the kitchen, then you go for Modular kitchen.
There are different types of Modular Kitchen Vendor. Many big branded companies have ready to use to components. Hence the delivery time is less. Many vendors take measurements and then spend almost a month to get things ready in their workshop. Once things are ready they come down to your place and install it in day or two.
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I don’t know why we in India are fixated with the phrase “modular kitchen” . We often think it is better/superior to whatever is the opposite of “Modular” . But what exactly is the opposite of Modular? I don’t think I have seen anyone define it properly. Now we have someone who is claiming to be a design enthusiast saying that ” branded company ..Takes measurements.. constructs it off site… Installs it in a couple if days at client site.” This is a very poor understanding of the types of manufacturing/fabrication process. It also indicates poor understanding of language. Let me clarify these terms and process and I hope you will think about it and incorporate what you understand in your technical vocabulary. First the term ” Modular” refers to modules ie typically limited number of fixed modules. One uses various kinds of such modules to design a kitchen. Obviously there are some limitations like one does not have flexibility of unlimited customisation. Modern brands do have enough variety both in looks and size to fullfil most requirements, but that is not the point. While defining terms it is important to be correct. Even a custom designed and manufactured/fabricated kitchen can be fabricated off site and installed on client site. What differentiates a “modular Kitchen” is pre-designed cabinet modules which when put together complete the total kitchen cabinets in the available kitchen area . Now one can make custom size (ie completely start the design of each cabinet piece ,height,width, style etc)and make multiple modules of each of these and then make a few such custom modules and arrange them as per storage requirements and size and layout of kitchen. Make all these off site and then install them at site in a couple of days. Would this be a “modular” kitchen? It certainly has modules. No we need to have a more clearer definition of the term. Internationally the term means making/designing a kitchen from a set of pre- manufactured modules to fit the kitchen layout and the storage and other requirements of the client. Essentially it means that the size of the modules is pre-set by the manufacturer and the designer chooses from the given options of different modules to make the whole design. The manufacturer brings economy of scale in manufacturing a fixed set of designs and size so that material and time is not wasted. By definition such a design will be limited in satisfying all requirements. There are other issues with these type of cabinets. One is wastage, I terms of each module being a complete cabinet and the next cabinet does not share the wall . If a manufacturer is buying material in very huge quantity and not spending time time in redesigning his manufacturing process he saves enough money to offset the extra material that is used in cabinets not sharing walls. He passes on this saving to the customer. However in India with some exceptions most manufacturers are not really big in fact most are small scale operations. They really don’t save enough on material to pass on any savings to the customer. Thus pre-manufactured designs are more costlier than custom fabrication at site or those manufactures off site. We then come to the sad state of Carpenter s making custom cabinet. They don’t have access to good materials, they usually don’t have wide range of experience in using different materials, obviously they are not good designers either. I understand why people prefer pre-manufactured cabinets. But there a few firms who are capable of good design have access to decent material and machinery and have in their employ trained Carpenters and people who have studied modern fabrication techniques. They will give you good custom cabinets.