It gathers high-end outlets together, giving you the chance to take away delicious food or eat in and watch your meal being prepared in the open kitchens.

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The Italian-accented Cornerstone restaurant brought one of the first open kitchens to Korea, but the showstopper spot for wining and dining is the Timber House lounge on the belowground level of the hotel.

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Homeowners are tearing down walls and building open-plan kitchens that blend into dens or great rooms, and in some cases include homework stations or home offices.

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Only two of the nine wards at Cannock Chase Hospital are currently open, while the kitchens have also been closed by Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust.

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Yet the way people live has become increasingly contemporary, say architects and designers, so more owners are demanding interior changes to incorporate bigger kitchens, cleaner lines and open floor plans.

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Both have large, open living spaces on the second floors, with kitchens, dining areas and living rooms and two bedrooms each on the third floors.

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Some designers say the sprawling closets are in part a reaction to the rise of modern, open floor plans, particularly loftlike great rooms that include both kitchens and dens.

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