The small amount of water that will come off the average pot, pan, crockery or cutlery won't overwhelm the grooves cut into the worktop and it will drain away fine. But whereas a sink has a natural border that stops water draining over the sides and back, a worktop with grooves cut in won't, meaning you will have water standing on the worktop around the grooves. This won't be too much of a problem if you are washing a few items as there's not a greart deal of water on a typical piece of crockery or cutlery, but it will mean water standing on the surface. In a hard water area this may will eventually lead to limescale build up so you do have to try and keep on top of this. We install a lot of kitchens and for maximum durability I'd choose quartz, personally. In fact I did and have it installed in my home, looks great and very durable and in my experience it is not as expensive as Corian.

As someone who has unblocked more than a few drains in my time, I would say as close to the window or outside wall as possible. I prefer a sink with a view but that may just be because everywhere I have ever lived was built that way. Having the shortest, straightest run for the drains to the outside makes cleaning and maintenance easier and if you are paying a plumber, cheaper if he has to unblock them. In this case the kitchen being small you shouldn't have much of a problem wherever you place it, think about where the drains have to run to, drains generally need more maintenance than the water supply, plus water pipes now are mostly plastic and therefore unlikely to corrode. Outside your window looks like Northern Spain? If it is in Spain then make sure the water supply is the modern plastic as much of Spain has problems with very hard water and corrosion in copper pipes.

Pending confirmation of where the WC can go on the other side of the Utility wall, I decided to shrink the bathroom down to make way for a better shape of utility. The OH is never interested in looking/discussing the designs but the other night, made a suggestion that would work if I can make the room slightly bigger. So now I propose my bathroom at 6' x 7'4 (posting on the other thread for Minnie) and the utility room would be 110cm deep x 7'4 wide. Keeping the original opening of that brick outer wall (currently a tall window in!) will save spending more on building work and bigger steels as well. What do ya think?? It will have a sliding door on to block out the washer/dryer noise of course... drying racks on the wall above the sink to hold pans/delicate glasses. rad for drying tea towels and anything else above it. Plus the ceilings are 2.75m high so I have lots of shelving/storage space for anything I can't fit in the kitchen. Loving it now

Are you having a boiling water tap? lf so don’t have a ceramic sink as they are prone to cracking. I have a stainless steel. Easy to clean. Just one large bowl in mine. l do have drainer grooves, but they’re not effective.