HOME-BUILDING COMPETITION

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27444, 2 September 1954, Page 6

HOME-BUILDING COMPETITION

MORE EXTENSIVE USE OF MATERIALS

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, September

To encourage more extensive use o. permanent materials in home building, the Government is to conduct a competition which will be open to anyone associated with the building industry, both here and overseas. Announcing this today, the Minister of Housing (Mr W. Sullivan) said that the Government’s objective was to seek ideas for methods of construction and use of materials that could be applied to a standard house plan that would be supplied to entrants. This was to enable them to devote all their efforts to structural design and selection of materials. General requirements of the competition, said Mr Sullivan, were that the house should be proof against damp, fire, weather, and vermin, and it should eliminate or reduce the use of heart timbers. Economical use of materials and labour would also be important factors in deciding the winners. The closing date of the competition would be December 1, 1954, and the prize money would be £2OO for first, £lOO for second, £5O for third, and two prizes of £25. The judges of the competition, said Mr Sullivan, would be the Minister of Housing, Mr W. A Levelle (New Zealand Institute of Architects), Mr T. N. Dickson (president of the Master Builders’ Federation), and Mr L. E. Brooker (chief architect and property supervisor, State Advances Corporation, on behalf of the lending institutions).