CHILLED ROLLING PINS AND RUBBER CURTAINS

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 113, 6 February 1937, Page 20

CHILLED ROLLING PINS AND RUBBER CURTAINS

The Magic House Of The Future Domestic architecture has gone ahead by leaps and bounds m this country during the last few years, l America,_ however, is still several streets ahead of us, and a recent publication bungs news of “The Prefabricated House!

Synthetic wood, eteel, asbestos, aluminium, and glass, are the media which will be most in demand for the home of to-morrow —the prefabricated home, according to the “Sydney Morning Herald.” It is hinted that these ready-made houses tend to give a stereotyped appearance to the suburban landscape, but those who have seen a hillside dotted with the soft grey houses, gay with window-boxes and striped canvas blinds, admit that a settlement of this type could not possibly be any more unsightly than the average “developed estate!” And the interiors! . . . Kitchens come in for the most spectacular improvements. They are frequently U-shaped, to eliminate foot-work; the fixtures are 1 arranged in progressive order. Next I the delivery door, a space to receive food; then a place to store it—refrigerator. A table or shelf for preparation purposes should adjoin this, then the stove. If more space is available., a bench for soiled dishes should fill it.

In the newest American kitchens there are gadgets for every possible purpose. Electric towel-driers; an electric garbage crusher that pulverises small refuse so that it goes down the drain like coffee-grounds; a chilled rolling-pin in the refrigerator, so that the pastry will be flaky—not so much flouring. There is even a compressedair machine for blowing the sand out of spinach, asparagus, and lettuce. Sloping Kitchen Floors.

One well-known industrial designer goes so far as to suggest that the kitchen should not only be U-shaped—-it should be built right around the cook! The floor should be of slightly inclined rubber, which would be hosed down each day. A revolving stool in the centre would give access to all drawers and cupboards, and even the range.

The gas range with a thermometer and tinier is quite well known here. In America, many housewives are now using electric ranges which ring a bell when the joint is cooked! And there is a stove just on the market, which sounds like “magic.” It only consumes half a ton of coal a year. It boils water in 15 seconds, aud yet food can be kept cooking in the dven for 24 hours without burning. Further attention has been given to bathrooms, which can now be bought and installed in sections. One panel carries a medicine chest with inside lighting, another a lavatory fitting, and yet another, the linen cupboard. Nonslip towel rails are a feature of these up-to-the-minute improvements. And about floors. The latest medium seems to be a composition known as “tempered-pressed-wood.” It is

made of wood chips, exploded under high steam pressure into long fibres. This fibre is waterproofed with an oil impregnation, and then compressed and tempered by a process which reduces it to a layer one-eighth of an meh thick. This floor was laid in the demonstration house of a New York store recently; 300,000 visitors are known to have walked over it, and yet the pressed-wood floor, with an occasional waxing, showed no signs ol wear. Bedroom Floor Lights. Gone, too, are the days bf “dark coiners.” In the congested sections of our residential areas there are often windows which must of necessity be close up against an adjoining wall, or over a well which may supply a certain amount of air, but no light. In these wfindows are cunningly built ‘ sunlight lamps,” and, for a romantic mood, a “moonlight” lamp! There are bedroom lights whjeh can be switched on silently to illumine the floor only. Thus a mother may attend to a restless child without disturbing her husband —or stubbing her toes! Glass walls and roofs have been extensively experimented upon—they must let in sunshine, but they must also preserve privacy.- This sounds reasonable enough, but the ideas of a German architect, Mies Van den Rohe, project us into a world of revolutionary domestic architecture which is, to say the least, somewhat staggering. He has already built homes with movable walls, and a fellow-countryman, Frederick Kiesler, has designed a “space house” in America. It has heavy, soundproof rubber curtains that will cut one largo room up into smaller ones. Country houses .with folding screens and sliding walls which arc constructed so that bedrooms and din-ing-rooms which are only in part-time use can be neatly camouflaged, and the whole structure thrown into one large room.

The home of the future is going to be a very different place from the home of the past. There will always be a conservative section of society which will move forward at its own steady pace and act as a brake to the ultrarevolutionary designers, but the art of living must either advance or retrogress. The imagination of man is being stimulated and helped daily by the swiftness and precision of machines, and our daughters will probably live iu “prefabricated homes’'! Prune Shape Take 11b. prunes (weighed without the stones), 3oz. sugar, 1 pint water, rind half lemon, -Joz. gelatine, 2oz. almonds, custard. Put the prunes into a stewpan with the water, lemon rind, pared very thinly, and the sugar. Simmer till tender, stirring occasionally to prevent the fruit from sticking. Dissolve the gelatine in some of the liquid and mix it thoroughly with the prunes. Bring the mixture just to the boil, aud add a few of the almonds blanched and shredded, then pour into a wet mould. When set, turn out into a glass dish. Shred the remainder of the almonds finely, and stick them all over the shape, to represent a hedgehog. Pour custard round the base of the shape and serve.