They engineered this, it seems perfectly reasonable (all that squatting for the crisper?), so why does it seem so bizarre!
I postulate that one reason that the cabinet refrigerator never caught on was because of standardization. Most new homes are built to accommodate a stand-up fridge. Home builders would have to choose: stand-up or cabinet level? Whatever home builders chose is what most home buyers would go with, unless they re-modeled their kitchens. Standardization, while quite useful, can also kill innovation.
NEW (Apr. ’10)! Another example (bottom left):
ALSO NEW (Apr. ’10)! In the comments, ckilgore linked to a photograph of her grandma’s kitchen… that totally had, and still has, one of these fridges! People in the comments had lots of good reasons for why it was impractical… but I still think it’s cool:Lisa Wade is a professor of sociology at Occidental College and the co-author of Gender: Ideas, Interactions, Institutions. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.