Sink Design
Kitchens and bathrooms:
Used regularly by almost everyone. Often shared and swapped, leading to broadly-experienced users. Long update iteration times. Great insight has been drawn from them. Great designers started their careers designing things for them. Time for me to add my 2c.
All the houses I've lived in have an inch or so of bench-top between the kitchen sink and the wall behind it. The space has always been part of the bench-top, often melamine covered chipboard, which is damaged if water seeps into it. This section is in a prime position to get wet, is hard to clean and isn't big enough for storage. I've usually stood my chopping board there, but it's not really the right place for it, with it occasional slipping and breaking of a wine glass etc.
Why is the gap there?
Best guess, is it's an engineering compromise to fit the sink in. Second guess, it's aesthetically pleasing for the sink 'island' to be surrounded by bench-top. Third guess is that it's a usability factor like providing space for the tap to rotate over to clear the general sink area.
Can anyone help explain?