THE MODERN HOUSE.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19888, 27 March 1930, Page 4

THE MODERN HOUSE.

ARCHITECT'S PRACTICAL HINTS. Practical bints on house planning and domestic labour-saving contrivances were given by Mr R. Randal Phillips Hon. A.E.1.8.A., m a S lecture. "The House You Want." The lecturer showed on the screen a picture of tortile old K,to f„ Kont ft<s a sample of the old EnglislAvD« and explained that to repromonev as the only way to do it proWy was to do the work in the same J the old work was done. By way of comparison he showed an awtul example of what the speculative builder can put which he described as "Tea-shop ludor, a new style invented in the nineteenth century. But for th© majority of people some form of brick house more or less, in the Georgian style would be the choice, and th© most economical type was one of oblong form with an unbroken root. It was oommonly supposed that a bungalow was cheaper to build than two-storey house of the same rooms, but except in the case of a very small example, the bungalow would probably cost more. "We have beard lately a good deal about the 'bungaloid growth,' but I will show you that a bungalow need not be a disfigurement," and be cast on the screen a picture of a charming bungalow embosomed amongst trees and flowers. "Never attempt to draw your own plans," advised the lecturer. , member the case of the lady who drew out her plans and gave them to the builder. He was a strong man, and he looked at the ground floor, and then at the first floor, and then be went behind a tree and cried like a baby. So far as he could see there was nothing for it but to hang the bathroom outside on chains. (Laughter.) In a house, as in other things, woman was the primary factor, and, after all, she lived in the house more than the man and had to run it. Having considered the outside of the house and the question of garages, Mr Phillips turned to the interior. In a reference to the kitchen t he said that a plan was again the main thing. "It would be a good thing, he added, "if a young architect, besides spending some time in a builder s yard and as a clerk of works,-could also go as a 'tweny* and have a short course of washing up, and one .thing that would be borne in upon him'was the importance of a good working plan and a well-schemed equipment. Referring to the danger of considering the appearance of a house at the expense of comfort, the lecturer said that there were rooms so impeccably stylistio that they made you feel you wanted to do something desperate. "You might even be constrained to put a bowler hat on that perfect settee, or throw the < Pink- , Un r down in the . middle of the floor. We can quite easllv become victims of our rooms. They won't allow us to do what we want to do; and that is why we find so often in a house a most dignified dining-room or a charming sitting-room, but a. little nondescript room where your friends factually live, a room witfiwhicli they can be on easy terms—a room that gives itself no airs."