HOUSING CRISIS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 135, 5 December 1944, Page 4

HOUSING CRISIS

ARCHITECTS' VIEWS

CASE FOR PREFABRICATE

The case for large-scale prefabrication as the solution of the housing prob. lem is urged by the Architectural Research Group in a statement issued in reply to the report of the national conference on housing convened by the Associated Chambers of Commerce.

The report is disappointing, the statement says, because no positive ideas for the improvement of the situation are presented. Worse even, is the negative suggestion that a poorer standard of State house should be adopted for housing the lowest income group. How this is to be done is not suggested; building costs in New Zealand being the highest in the world, the State house, like any other, has already been forced to keep down to minimum standards. Room sizes cannot be reduced, as they are already minimal; the construction standard cannot be lowered, as anything more left out will let the water in. Up to the time of the activities of the State Housing Department, the houses built in New Zealand were generally badly planned and poorly designed. Since the advent of State housing a much better standard for planning and design (factors which add nothing to the cost of- a house) has been attained, and copied to some extent in the houses erected by private enterprise, with a general all-round improvement. Owing no doubt to the terrific costs making any higher standard unattainable, the construction of the .New house still remains much as it has been for years past—the poorest in the world. Thus we built here wood-frame houses with a single outer lining of one inch of timber over the building-paper, whereas elsewhere much more robust construction is universal. In California, for instance, where there is a more equable climate, the outside lining is of two layers of one inch each; or, if the wood wall is cement rendered, the rendering is twice as thick as ours and in addition is fixed on a oneinch layer of rough wood lining. In better class work abroad there would be even more—an insulation blanket material fitted between the studding to make the house more comfortable in summer or winter.. EXPERIENCE ABROAD. To reduce costs and to save timber, our standards of construction, the poorest now, cannot be lowered'any fur-' ther. We must,find some other^way to reduce costs than by lowering the standards. The Architectural Research Group has made a close study of the methods being developed abroad, and feels that only a really bold prefabrication scheme will meet the needs of New Zealand. Prefabrication of houses is being done already in New Zealand by building firms engaged on State housing contracts, but on too small a scale for the inherent economies to be realised. The Architectural Research Group recognises that there is a prejudice against prefabrication. It is feared by the small builder as endangering his livelihood; it is thought to mean monotony and a poor-quality job. None of these objections need necessarilj' apply. In Sweden and the U.S.A., where really large-scale prefabrication methods have been extensively used for many years, the results in cost reduction and increased house output have been most satisfying. In Sweden, excellent prefabricated houses have been designed by the different municipal authorities, who supplied the various parts of the house trom their own prefabrication factories to the small builders, who assembled and erected them. The timesaving and money-saving economies were considerable and the construction was equal to the usual high standard of Swedish wood construction. In one experiment near Stockholm about 1927, the house parts were supplied to the actual occupants with printed instructions, and with official supervision and official financial assistance and erected with the help of their neighbours (neighbour helping neighbour until all the houses were built). The savings were extraordinary and the home-builder found himself with his loans paid off in half the usual number of years. These streets of houses set amongst the woodland scenery are-a delight to the eye. " AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT. In. F' S-A: c wholesale extension of prefabrication from'housing into the wartime production of huge wooden aircraft structures, landing barges hospitals,. etc.. has developed new methods of utilising timber in a sounder, more economical fashion One such method is in the form of a ' stressed double-skin" plywood con- ! struction of much greater strength and lasting qualities. In housing, it results j m a stronger, more comfortable, and durable job, yet it uses only about one-third the amount of wood. During the war its application to housing has been rather limited by the fact that production for war purposes has had priority. The possibilities for post-war! housing of such new methods of prefabrication are such that the two wellknown American prefabricators— Henry Kaiser, of ship-building fame, and William Levitt, of New York, each declare that prefabrication has come to stay and that they are in the field to commence prefabricated house-build-ing after the war on a much vaster scale than their pre-war operations. Kaiser is reported as saying, "Only by buying in bulk and producing units on a grand scale do the economies become really substantial, so that we can offer so much better value." BIG CENTRAL FACTORIES. New Zealand" can get the houses it needs, and at a cost it can afford to pay. if it will prepare the way for the postwar house-building by the introduction of the new plant and materials, and the establishment of the large prefabrication factories, probably one to each main centre. To protect the interests of the small builder, and to keep the costs of the house-parts down, it is desirable that these factories should be operated by the State (as in Sweden). Thus any builder, large or small, can- buy freely whatever panels he needs to erect the different designs. Such prefabrication factories would produce not only the wooden l sections, but also the much-needed insulation blanketing against cold and sound, which material at present does not even find its way into our homes. Efficient insulation' can be made from seaweed, which is readily available round our coasts. Provision for plumbing and electrical services would be built into the panels. The factory could also be easily capable 'of the mass-production of furniture on lines similar to the "utility" furniture standardised for England during the war. This "utility" furriiture has enabled the Englishman to discover for himself how much more beautiful is a well-designed, simple, well-built article than the meretricious article he was wont to buy before the war.