RESEARCH ON BUILDING

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25304, 2 October 1947, Page 3

RESEARCH ON BUILDING

DANGER OF ABUSING STANDARDISATION > J WELLINGTON, October 1 Ine danger of abusing mass production and standardisation in building was emphasised by Sir Reginaia Strad- ■ '’-g.y ll ?'scientific adviser to the British Ministry of Works, when he addressed a meeting of Wellington architects engineers and artists. Under mass production, he said conditions could be produced that might be disastrous for coming generations. • 2 safeguard for posterity, the B >itish Government was conducting buildmg (research. He thought that New Zealand, too, should have its research programme.

In England, he said, 150 experimental houses would shortly be erected in groups of 10. Nine in each group would be occupied by families awaiting accommodation, and the tenth would be let to “observer tenants.” The latter would be people who were interested in social science, and who were qualified to compile reports on living conditions. The houses would be equipped with all kinds of gadgets, and the reactions of their tenants would be measured by automatic recorders. For example, a machine would record how many times a door was opened during a week, or how much hot water was used in a day. By such means, the British housing authorities would be able to build up an intrinsic knowledge of what was required in a modern home. The same scheme would ultimately be applied in factories and offices.