FLATS AND HOMES

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 78, 3 April 1925, Page 7

FLATS AND HOMES

MODERN HOUSEKEEPING

REMARKS OF PROFESSOR OF

ARCHITECTURE

Speaking to an Auckland "Star" reporter, Professor C. R. Knight, who arrived at Auckland this week to take the new Chair of Architecture at the Auckland University, laughingly denied having any particular plans for teaching new architecture to New Zealand. Every town, he pointed out, had to be judged from an architectural point of view by its local conditions, and a stranger could not make up his mind about it until he had made a comprehensive inspection. Location, trade, and lay-out all had their influences on building. Trained in England, France, and America, Professor Knight is a young Australian whose work is his hobby. He says that the most striking thing about architecture in New York at the present time is the development of the "flat." The modern tendency is all for the construction of vast apartmenthouses [apartment-houses], and there is more of this than any other kind of building going on in America's greatest city. The majority of the people seem to have grown tired of house-keeping, and go in for selfcontained [self-contained ] flats, which do away with a lot of trouble, including the servant problem. On the other hand, of course, there are many people who will have a home of their own, with a suburban lot or garden, at any price. The fiat tendency in London is also growing enormously. One of the most attractive schemes in New York is the Jackson Heights Community Dwelling, at which not only is every domestic necessity found, but tennis courts and golf links are also provided in the grounds. This settlement is within 25 minutes of the Grand Central Station in the heart of New York. Here a barren waste has been developed into a really delightful district. "For mysel [myself]," said Professor Knight, "I would prefer a small home, but in New York you would have to go from 15 to 20 miles out to get one. Flats appeal to people in New York, too, because of the variable climate. In summer it is very hot ; in winter very cold. In the hot weather the people can close up their flats and run off to the seaside or the country." Architecture of the apartment-house or flat type, declares Professor Knight, has been more or less evolved into something unusual. The building are plain and simple, yet dignified in appearance. The great difficulty in erecting flats is to construct buildngs [buildings], which, needing so many rooms, will yet not resemble barracks. Of the architects in New York, Andrew Thompson was to the lore in this subject, and he had done delightful work, shown in the "chateau" appearance of the Jackson Heights Community Dwelling. There he has designed flats in the French Renaissance style, and their picturesque roofs and broken facades, with handsome gardens in the rear, made an entirely picturesque scheme. Of course, added the professor, rents in America were very high. It was reckoned that if a man paid no more than 25 per cent, of his income for rent he did well, but most people paid considerably more than that. "I think, by what I have seen in Australia, and other parts of the world recently, that this building of flats will continue to grow with the cities," added Professor Knight, who instanced one or two very large Sydney flats. As the business of a city grew, private houses gave way to shops and stores. The people had then to either live in flats or get out to the far suburbs, and a very large proportion of them preferred the flat with its close proximity to the theatres, shops, and restaurants, and its absence of many of the usual household worries including the servant."