MODERN ARCHITECTURE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 37, 13 February 1932, Page 10 (Supplement)

MODERN ARCHITECTURE.

SCIENTIFIC HOMES OF TO-MORROW. ELIMINATING DRUDGERY. PUBLIC WELFARE AND HEALTH. (By DEXTER MORAND, Author of "Commercial Architecture of Great Britain," etc.)

From Germany comes the news that the latest thing in houses is the round glass tower. This is fitted, with special glass to admit the ultra violet rays of the sun, and is made circular so as to admit those rays from sunrise to sunset. This is but another step forward in the planning of the home, which since the war nas Deen revolutionised by progressive discoveries of scientific research.

To begin with the home of to-day, we find that the kitchen plays as important a part as the drawing room. New inventions are heard "of almost daily, the majority of which tend to lessen household drudgery. This incessant progress is in part due to the fact that many wealthy corporations are alive to the valuable market opened up by the home and its requirements, and engage eminent scientists and inventors to search for suitable devices.

The architect of to-day in planning the home must make himself thoroughly conversant with any new invention or idea in order to satisfy the needs of his clients. The average suburban house erected around London and other big cities is an example of concentrated planning. Every inch of space has been utilised. Labour-saving devices have in many eases been incorporated or provision made for them. This progressive movement in the near future will not only apply to the house but to the whole suburb or town. A town in 50 or CO years' time will he deliberately planned and developed logically from tho start. The civic centre will take pride of place. This is already the case in some of the new towns springing up in the United States.

Shops Will Be Abolished,

The administrative and the commercial area will be in the centre of the town. The industrial will be planned to be on one side, with the residential on the other. The factories will therefore be well removed from the workers. As working hours will be considerably shortened tho people will have more time for recreation. In the layout of the town due allowance will be made for this. Whole sections will be allocated for recreative purposes in the same way that Coney Island in the United States forms practically one amusement park. Zest in this direction sometimes errs on the munificent side. In ono instance, a magnificent public library was erected, forming a most imposing building. After completion it was found that , there was little accommodation left for the housing of books! In a congested area no such thing as a private house will be permitted. Housing on valuable sites will be carried out with a block as a unit. Shops will be abolished. Trades and professions will be made to concentrate in buildings specially erected for such purpose. (To-day in New York, there is a building exclusively occupied by architects and allied professions, while in Chicago an enormous structure known as the Furniture Mart caters for all requirements in this line.) The welfare and the health of the people will become a foremost consideration of the State. Each nation will strive to produce • the best health statistics. Hospitals will play a most prominent part. The housing of hospitals will always remain in a state of flux; this is easily explained by the fact that it is impossible to plan any building that can foresee the result of scientific discoveries. The life of a hospital will therefore be brief, 15 years being a reasonable average. Aerial Gardens.

Domestic blocks will be erected at great height in the favourite residential centres, commencing with a wide base, with floors set back as they rise. This will allow for terraces and gardens. The most expensive flats will be at the top, due to the advantage of quiet and of fresh, natural air, as contrasted with the purified air in the lower flats. These blocks will provide facilities common to all, such as central heating. Fires will be abolished and so will the smoke nuisance. Burst pipes will be unknown. In each block a special room will act as a sort of nerve centre. In this room will be housed telephones, television, wireless, etc. Each flat occupier will be able to plug to this room and effect his requirements. Electricity will be the slave of all, and will be controlled by the State. Gas- will not be permitted in thickly populated areas. Business blocks will be complete units in themselves. These will be built square wherever permissible, and each block will have its own post office, restaurant, and club. Letter shutes will connect directly from each office to the post office. A man will be able to post a parcel or letter without leaving his office. (To-day at Adelaide House letter shutes connect floor to floor.) Tlie average requirements of the worker, such as food and drink, will be available in his block. The top of the building will be flat and laid out as one big garden for fresh air and the supply of sport facilities. Swimming pools will be compulsory.

No Roof 'Plane Landings,

It is a mistake to suppose that these roofs will be used as landing stages for aeroplanes. Specially constructed buildings will be made for this purpose, forming aeroplane garages. Factories will be mainly built of concrete and glass. These will be planned to allow of every possible speed in production, and prevention of fatigue to the workers. These buildings will be specially designed for the type of goods manufactured. Factory planning will become a specialised profession. Transport facilities, as I visualise them in the town of the future, will be vastly improved. One main avenue will run through the centre of the town from north to south and be intersected by another avenue at right angles running east to west, forming a cross. All other roads will be made to run parallel to these main avenues, making a series of north to south roads and a series of east to west roads. Every alternate road will allow the flow of fast traffic, the others will carry the slow trafficonly. The advantage of the block unit will be immediately apparent. A block having four sides will overlook four roads, two being north to south roads' and two east to west roads. One north to south road will be a fast traffic road; 1 the other will be for slow traffic, and; similar with the east and west roads.

Each Mock will therefore have a fast north to eouth road and a fast cast to west road, and also a slow north to south road and a slow east to west road.

Each block will have a basement, ground floor, and first floor respectively specially free for traffic. The basement will house the cars of tenants, the ground floor will look out on the east to west roads, while the first floor will face the .north and south roads—just as tho corner houses of Holborn Viaduct and Farringdon Street look out on different streets from different floors.

There will be no cross-roads. Each block will have spiral (rump) roads, permitting north-south traffic to pass on to east-west roads, and vice versa.

The town of to-morrow and the home of to-morrow will be the concentrated effort of architectural experience and scientific knowledge. These will be coordinated on a common basis of utility. The day is not far distant when a State commissioner of works will be able to mark off a section of land and from this evolvo a complete town scientifically and (let us hope) aesthetically planned.