"mike" wrote
Counters should be next to your fridge (to get stuff out), next to the
range, and on both sides of the sink. A countertop on an island in
isolation is an indication that the design of the kitchen was
inefficient from the very beginning.

No. There are many factors in kitchen design and use. No one design is
best for everyone for every job to be done so you cannot make
generalizations. We do not have an island, don't have the room for one, but
often use the kitchen table for the uses an island would serve.


Efficient planning of countertop
space would expand on the necessary basic service areas, rather than
place the extra space in isolation. Ideally, the biggest countertop
space should be contiguous with the sink for easy clean-up.

True to a point but my last kitchen had 24' of counter top. That would make
one hell of a long counter following your design criteria and a long way to
the sink, not to mention inefficient.

My kitchen is likely to have three or four operations going at the same
time, all needing a work area. The stove may have a pot or two cooking and
some space is needed to hold seasoning, utensils used during the process.
At the same time, bread may be rising and kneaded. In another spot, I may
be grinding meat for sausage. I'll need three large stainless steel bowls
to separate and mix the seasonings for three different types. Grinder gets
put away, now the stuffer comes out and space is needed to make the links

While this is going on, a cake may be mixed too. Items are coming out of
the fridge while others are going in the fridge. Some will be transported
to the freezer or second fridge. It can be a very busy place.

Plenty of people are content to have morning coffee and later heat up a can
of Chef Boy-ar-dee for dinner. They probably don't need an island.

A friend had a very large kitchen with a table in the center. Each corner
had a door; outside, dinging room, to the basements, to the powder room.
One wall had the refrigerator and range with counter, the opposing wall had
the sink and lots of counter space. It was a horrendous design that looked
spacious, but was terrible to work in with that layout. Moving the table to
one side and putting an island would have saved miles of walking.