MULTIPLE FLATS

Evening Star, Issue 23122, 23 November 1938, Page 20

MULTIPLE FLATS

LARGE WELLINGTON BLOCK STATE HOUSING SCHEME [Per United Press Association.] WELLINGTON, Nov. 22. Mr R. McKeen, M.P. for Wellington South, has been advised that a contract has been let for the erection of a large block of flats for the Government Housing Department at Berhampore. “ The area on which the block will be erected was purchased from the Education Department, and is in an ideal situation for the purpose,” said Mr McKeen. “ It is within easy reach of the city, is sunny, and the arrangement of the buildings will give shelter to a wide central court, one of the features of the design. “ In March plans were drawn for 48 flats and 11 garages,” he said, “ but the final design provides for 50 flats and 11 garages. The accommodation will consist of varied units from living room and bed recess to living room and one, two and.three bedrooms. The contract has been let to the Wellington firm of Messrs Lindsay and Meidment. New High Standard “ Designed on modern lines with ample air and light for every flat, the block will set a new high standard for this type of housing,” Mr McKeen said, “not merely for Wellington, but for the Dominion as a whole, for though during the last three or. four years quite a number of flat buildings have been erected, none have been planned with such regard to open space and surroundings in lawn and garden. Each flat has been designed on scientific lines as to sound-proofing, and each will give as great a degree of privacy as can be had in a single dwelling. The site is sufficiently far back from the main traffic route to give quietness, and is in close proximity to recreation grounds, within two minutes of the municipal golf links, and two tram sections from Courtenay place. First Multiple-unit Venture Nothing, Mr McKeen said, would delight him more than to see the contractors making an early start and carrying the scheme through to a successful conclusion. “This,” he added, “ is, the first of the department’s multiple-unit ventures. New Zealanders have not yet accepted the idea of the multiple-unit plan so widely adopted overseas in the replanning of city areas and the extension of cities over new areas, but the idea has not gained acceptance here largely because flats in the past have not been scientifically planned, have lacked space about them, and have too often been rooms rather that dwellings with little or no aesthetic effort in design and surroundings. “The recent report of the city engineer upon the housing situation in Wellington,” Mr McKeen said, “ disclosed a disgraceful state of affairs in overcrowding and .the occupancy of insanitary and totally unsatisfactory tenements and rooms. Mr Luke emphasised that a large proportion of Wellington’s population was a rooming population, and he recommended that the speediest and most satisfactory solution of this problem would be the erection if multiple flats within easy access of the city. The Berhampore flats will adequately fulfil these requirements.”