In kitchen design, why is the window always behind the sink and never behind the stove?

Two reasons

1) Many homes have either a metallic splashpad behind the oven, or sometimes a wall protector for fire. So that block the window, if there were one, at the stove. Along with that, many homes have ,lighting and/or fan hoods above the oven, which would also block any window. And some homes have microwave ovens mounted just above the stove as well, at eye level.

2) More likely is the probability many people are washing dishes in the sink – a boring job – and they want to look out the windows while doing such a boring and unpleasant job.

Modern kitchens have a lot of flexibility and could have a window behind the stove.
But that window will get “dirty” constantly from vapors and splashes from the stove.

Not all that long ago, the stove was part of a big chimney structure.

Feng-Shui practitioners and lots of others will put a big, tempered-glass mirror behind the stove. Beats me whether/how feng-shui works, but a mirror behind the stove does open up the cook’s view of guests for chatting while cooking is in progress.

When doing the dishes, it’s nice to look outside and/or see what the kids are doing.
Behind the stove gets in the way of the hood and vent, plus there’s lots of grease flying around back there.

I’ve thought in the past it might be nice to have a window behind the stove. I doubt it’s a code issue, unless the heat is really hot enough to break the glass. There is code in many municipalities to cover the drywall to at least a certain amount of inches up the wall, because drywall catches fire fairly easily.

As far as cleaning. Cleaning a window seems just as easy as tile.

The biggest negative I can think of is you can put any window treatments on the window. They would either be highly flammable or a pain to clean.

Generally, stoves have hoods with fans, which are important for cooking.

same reason they don’t put the window behind the refrigerator.

I don’t know of any specific building code issues, but I can think of some practical ones:

1. When you’re cooking, especially on the stovetop, then your attention should be on the cooking processes, and not wandering outside.

2. Glare or excessive light from outside could change the cook’s view of what’s on the stove, which could adversely affect the results.

3. It would be embarrassing and impractical for neighbors to spot “flames in your window” (which can happen from time to time on a stovetop, even with good cooks – and sometimes it’s part of the process even for good cooking) or heavy smoke, and on that basis call the Fire Department. I’m not saying that would be a frequent occurrence, but it’s the kind of thing one wants to happen “never”.

4. People often want to place curtains next to a window, and that’s not a good idea near a stove, even if the curtains aren’t going to blow in a breeze (if the window is never opened).

Thanks, jellies. You gave me some things to think about!

Maybe it’s because a person can spend quite a bit of time in one place, idly washing dishes by hand and they wanted a window to look out of to watch the kids and to alleviate the boredom of washing dishes. What Kriptner said…