HEARTH AND HOME

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18015, 6 March 1924, Page 7

HEARTH AND HOME

ARCHITECTURE AND FUEL.

MODERN TENDENCIES. Although modern construction has made a revolution in methods of building, habits of design tend to produce the familiar features of building in which the traditional forms persist. There is nothing necessarily wrong in a habit; on the contrary, modern hygiene is a system of good habits that is being built up in an entire people. But we are here concerned with the continuance of ouf.-of-date methods, and the persistence of forms that have ceased to have meaning, and are therefore very properly the subject of scrutiny. It is our business to sec if we may not gain in efficiency by discarding what is unnecessary in the construction of modern building. Tlie development that has taken place during the last twenty years in the gas industry has completely altered the problem of heating, cooking, and domestic laundry work. The use of gas for these purposes is so vastly more efficient and economical than any alternative method that it needed but the domestic servant difficulties of recent years to convince us that gas is the fuel of the future for the great majority of purposes. In what a number of houses could not the waste spaces be used as domestic laundries through the agency of gas fcr heating purposes. The dust trap known as the attic and the unworkable basement could be made invaluable for tht household business of washing! All that is required is a gas-heated copper and gas ironheater tp create a small-scale model laundry, with the result that the lifo of the linen is doubled and the laundry bills eliminated. A sink being necessary, a wooden cover to the sink will make an excellent ironing board.

With gas fires in all the rooms we find that it is no longer necessary to spend large sums upon the costly obstruction of chimney breasts in rooms and chimneys on the roof, or of coal cellars in the basements. The acquisition of coal scuttles and fire-irons and the sweeping of flues will bo things of the past, and with them will go the most fruitful cause of dirt in the house

and in the atmosphere, to say nothing of the endless labour of fetching anu enrrving fuel. The most perfect fuel for calorme value can he obtained I>}' turning 11. tap, and yet our buildings are still < e signed for open fires to ever> room. This can be njerely from habit, tor rarely is more than one coal fire used in a house. , , Architecture is popularly supposed be confined to the externals of buildings, but the external form is merely the expression of the internal ar s an ß, < :" ments. It is the or bo i in a satisfactory manner that is meant by architecture. We are therefore concerned with the proper realisation _ modern requirements and their logica expression in the outwards forms we use. Anything more than this becomes ornament, and we have to beware of using structural forms solely for ornamental effects. The structural requirements of_ a gas fire are very simple. An efficient, flue Din by 3in can be formed in an ordinary f>in wall —thus doing jvway with tiie chimney-breast projections, which are built to contain much larger flues. The costly chimney is not required, since a grating in the parapet wall or in the roof is sufficient vent. A stone laid on the floor makes a good hearth and saves trimming the floors 11 they are of wood construction. There is a natural reluctance on the part of architects to leave out the chim. neys. For centuries the design of these features has marked stages in the development of the English house. The Elizabethans were justly proud or the magnificent cut brickwork in which the chimneys were built, and the later Renaissance was remarkable for a massive treatment of the same subject. Modern architects have been greatly influenced by the Romantic school of the last century, which paid much attention to these features. _ But the coal fire is doomed, and with it the outward expression by means of a chimney. The large unbroken root surfaces will be found to satisfy the eye, as they do in the new Anglo-Persian Oil Buildings in Finsburv Pavement, one of the finest of modern commercial buildings. With the disappearance of the coai fire goes the coal cellar and the difficulty of always getting good access for coal carts and the construction of chutes. Instead of a depository for fuel in the basement, from whence it must be laboriously carried to the fire, the gaspipe is laid direct from the gasholder to the point of application.

A simpler form of life is indicated for the future, and with its coming a certain rational quality in the design of buildings. Our mental outlook will surely change with the times, and we shall be satisfied with the new forms in so far as meet new needs. The glories of Greelc find Roman civilisation will no longer be borrowed to give interest to a twentieth-century building. Its interest will be supplied by twentieth-century ideas of comfort and fitness—all in the direction of efficiency, and simplicity. The architecture of the future will, above all things else, express this simplified life. For the whole tendency of recent developments is to eliminate what is unnecessary —obsolete forms in building no less than swords with our modern dress. The minimum of labour, absence of dirt, and maximum of efficiency will find their own expression in buildings which owe their character to the complete expression of their purpose.

ST. LUKE'S SUNDAY SCHOOL

Tenders have now closed for the new Sunday school buildings in brick an stone at St. Luke's Church. The, old building, which will now be partially replaced, has been doing service for some GO years. It consists of a larg© hall and two small lean-to rooms, lor a long time the need has been felt of more up-to-date accommodation to meet the demands made by the various activities of the church. Preparations were well in hand for proceeding with the erection of the new building when the war broke out, and it was thought right not to make an appeal for money at that time. The matter was, therefore, left in abeyance till the armistice. The new building will make a handsome addition to the church property. It will be of two storeys, provision being made 011 the ground floor for the church parlour, the deaconesses' room and the kitchen. Above will be the schoolroom, a commodious place 3oft Gin by 24ft. The new building will occupy the site of the present lean-to rooms, which will be pulled down, and will be built on to the hall building in such a way as to permit of the removal of the latter when it is possible to complete the whole scheme. The building now about to be erected forms the first portion ot the scheme. A sum of £IGOO has so far been collected towards an estimated expenditure of-£2600.