SHAVINGS

Evening Star, Issue 21004, 19 January 1932, Page 2

SHAVINGS

The Glasgow Ideal Home Exhibition, which has been run under the direction of ‘ The Daily Mail ’ for the first time, has proved a great success, about 250,000 visitors having paid for* admission.

Professor T. G. Hill, in a presidential address to the Botanical Section of the Royal School of Mines, predicted a world famine in soft timber ,in about forty years unless afforestation is established on a widespread scale. Search, he said, must be made for quick-growing “ exotic ” trees and substitutes for timber.

If the public hold aloof from the employment of architects in ordinary buildings, it is not always, it must be remembered, because they ignore art, but because the architect ignores the practical elements of cost and construction, and has, by his own action, made it possible that a building can be erected without art, and at less cost (says an English architectural journal.

Two giant pylons are to carry the Electricity Board’s main transmission cables from Barking to Swanscombo over the Thames at Cross Ness. One is to stand on the north bank at Horse Shoe Corner, while that on the south bank will be near the L.C.C. Southern Sewage Outfall. The pylons will be 490 ft high, giving a clearance of 250 ft between the cables and spring tides mean high-water level. The base width will be about 120 ft. Six lino conducand an earth conductor will bo earned between the two towers.

A feature of the camping kitchen which has been erected on Tahuna Park for the benefit of touring motorists, is the system of hot water supply. An ordinary copper cylinder, covered with' an asbestos heating jacket, and coupled to a domestic copper destructor, is alb that has been installed for the provision of adequate supply of hot water for 10 sinks, 2 basins,, and 10 baths in succession. The cylinder is only a thirty gallon container, but it has been proved to meet the abovementioned demand. ' The system demonstrates the superiority of copper over cast iron for heating purposes.

The future city, as forecasted by Mr Joseph Emberton to the Birmingham Architectural Association, takes the form of high towers widely spaced amid pleasant garden, an arrangement which has also comftiended itself to M. Le Corbusier and Mr Raymond Hood. “ The city to come ” was not exactly Mr Emberton’s text, but it grew out of his theme—the influence of modern material in architectural treatment, and it was led up to by a survey of housing. Working people, he held, got far less comfortable and well-equipped houses than they were entitled to in these days, and a typo of accommodation that had hardly changed for 300 years. All this for 15s a week, when they could only really afford 10s. The small detached or semi-detached cottages provided were extravagant in the use .of land, destroyed large potential food-growing areas or pleasure grounds, and formed large, scattered, dreary suburban areas, which had to be traversed to reach the country.

It has been officially announced that the British, Government proposes to erect new buildings for the Admiralty and the War Office on the site of the present Admiralty, tho PaymasterGeneral’s Office, and the area now occupied by Spring Gardens, New Street, and Spring Gardens Terrace. ... It is intended that the architectural features of the new building shall be subordinate to its main purpose of a great public office, and not the determining cause of its internal arrangements; but the frontage to Whitehall and to the Parade, and that looking up the Mall, will afford opportunities for well-proportioned and handsome facades. • • * America is a land of vast enterprises.' Hot-foot upon ’ the opening of _ tho world’s longest-span suspension bridge, connecting New York with New Jersey across the Hudson River, comes the announcement that tho American President is to ask Congress to establish a system of homo loan discount banks for the purpose of granting loans for house-building purposes. These discount banks will relievo banking institutions that deal in these securities, and are to speed up the building of houses. The initial capital suggested is £30.000,000, which would enable £360,000.000 to be raised by contributions from participating banks. The 'figures are somewhat staggering, but if this scheme will enable intending house owners to get properly designed houses built to suit their individual requirements, iri place of purchasing the stock designs of the speculative builders, the United States will solve the housing problem much better than we have; so far, been able to do, states an English architectural journal.

The man who mixes with his fellows is for ever learning something new. He’s on a voyage of discovery, and what he discovers on his journey teaches him more about himself.