NOT SO ENDURING

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 105, 27 January 1933, Page 4

NOT SO ENDURING

Changes in Design of Future Homes

EXPERT’S PREDICTION

In the opinion of an English expert ideas in house building are changing so rapidly, and will continue to do so at an even faster rate as time goes on, that the house of the futurp will have to be neither so expensive nor so enduring. It will be only in the fittings and fixtures—accessories that can change with the times —that most expense will be caused. For example, by the coming of cheap electricity further developments in details may be confidently expected. Or central heating may raise an enthusiasm that will have to be acknowledged, while municipally supplied hot water is not so fantastic as it sounds. Taking either of these details from this point it is easy to discern the bearings they may have on the interior arrangements of the house. Results may be completely revolutionary. For instance, with a uniform warmth, the partitions between rooms need not be so substantial and yet be quite soundproof. This would mean the elimination of many bricks and much lath and plaster. By means of sliding panels these

partitions could be opened and the rooms made into one large apartment, as in Japanese houses. The housewife would be quick to perceive the advantages accruing from this, and once the fashion was started it would probably catch on and become a desired requirement of every tenant. “With such modes of heating new ideas in food storage would develop, and the refrigerator would become a necessity," the expert continues, writing in a trade journal. “Probably this would be built up with the house as the larder is to-day, and, with the new materials now available, there would be no difficulty in satisfying requirements of this kind quite easily and inexpensively. The fancy pictures of every householder owning his family aeroplane and the accommodation this would need, etc., which the stunt writer is so fond of picturing for us, may be left as outside the-bounds of practical consideration, but changes in modes of transport will nevertheless probably affect the house building of the future. The garage has already come to stay, and certain other developments in the accommodation required by motor-car owners may be expected. “Consequently, it seems that beyond making a house resistant to bad atmospheric conditions, the internal arrangements should only involve the lightest construction, so that coming changes may be made with a minimum of expense and inconvenience.” BRAN WATER WASH How to Improve Loose Covers Loose covers of cretonne that are soiled all over may be washed at home quite successfully in bran water. Bran water is prepared by tying a pint of bran loosely in a piece of muslin, covering this with two quarts of cold water, and then simmering the whole for half an hour. A third of this bran water may be added to the water in which the cretonne covers are washed, andikth', emainder added to the rinsing vyata Professional dry-cleaning is, of course, the best method if it can be afforded.