N.Z. women ‘no idea’ about metrics

Press, 14 May 1981, Page 12

N.Z. women ‘no idea’ about metrics

By.

DAVID SWIFT

The average New Zealand homemaker wanted the best for her home, quickly, and had “no idea” about metrics, Christchurch interior designer (Miss Anna Thomas) told the national Institute of Building Inspectors’ training course, at Lincoln College this week.

She was critical of the philosophy that the more colour there was in a home, the better.

"Many homes are a confusion of’pattern, colour, and textures. How a woman can remain sane in one of them I've no idea,” she said. Miss Thomas called for closer co-operation between building inspectors and the public, although the former should perhaps speak in imperial terms when addressing the woman of the house. “A woman has no concept of what a metre or a millimetre are. She really doesn’t know what you are talking about.” An English-trained designer, and a draughtswoman, Miss Thomas has her own design consultancy business. This, she explained, had taken her into hundreds of New Zealand homes, representing a wide cross-

section of society. She told the delegates of the problems that were common in the building and designing of houses. The first mistakes, she found, often occurred before the building began, because of a lack of thought on the part of the prospective owners. A “bad house" could result.

"A careful plan should be drawn. Measure up all the furniture, including the bookshelves and television. A room may look beautiful, but it's no use to anyone if it doesn’t work,” she said. Long, narrow passages, clashing doors, and badly designed kitchens were features she often saw in her work. Common mistakes in kitchen design were not enough power points, bad lighting, excessive distances between cooking and food preparation points and badly designed benches. Anna Thomas did have good news (or bad, depending on your point of view) for New Zealanders. Women here are far more versatile than English housewives who were “absolutely staggered” at the range of tasks their New Zealand counterparts performed.