GOVERNMENT FLATS

Evening Star, Issue 23273, 23 May 1939, Page 3

GOVERNMENT FLATS

HEW TYPES IN WELLINGTON HOVEL FEATURES INCORPORATED CONSTRUCTED ON A COMMUNAL SYSTEM Buildings for a residential housing project novel in New Zealand, 50 Hats constructed on a communial system, are being erected in Berhampore, Wellington. It is three months since work began on the site, but, though the contractors have been delayed by shortage of labour, half the foundations have been laid and part of the structures have reached the height of the first floors. The site has been vacant for many years. The buildings, which will be ferroconcrete, will form the four sides of a hollow square, and the centre, about half the area of the site, will be laid out in lawns and paths. The long, narrow buildings will hardly anywhere be more than one flat thick, so that each flat will have doors and tyindows both front and back. The height of the buildings will vary from one story to three stories, the lowest parts allowing the rising and setting sun to pen*'trate the square as long as possible, and the blocks rise in steps to follow the conformation of the gently sloping land. A model which has been made shows that, with these variations in height and the numerous -porches and balconies, the group of buildings should not have a severe appearance, ever, though they will have flat roofs. SPACE FOR GARDEN. Each ground-floor flat will have a little porch at its front door, and a space for garden front and back, so that the sensation of living in them should not be very different from that of living in a cottage. Most of the upper flats will be entered by way of balconies running along the outsides of the walls, and their occupants will he able to take the fresh air also from their small balconies on the other sides. All the flats have separate entrances, many of them even separate front and back doors on the ground level, which is uncommon in large blocks of flats in Wellington. There are to be 12 of one room, 11 of two rooms, and 25 of three rooms, each flat having in addition its bathroom and kitchen. There are five laundries distributed throughout the buildings for the tenants to use in turns. Each flat will have its electric hot water heating system, its fireplace if it is on the ground floor, or its gas radiators if it is on an upper floor, and its own gas and electricity meters. The water pipes and drainage are to be arranged so that adjustments and repairs can be made to the services of one flat without interference with those of others, Each apartment will have its own coal bin and place for a. rubbish bin. The flat roofs are to be fitted for drying washing. In each flat there will be a place where a radio receiver can be connected to an aerial to be provided. RECREATION HALL. A feature of the plan is a recreation hall in a circular portion of one of the

buildings that projects into the quadrangle or courtyard. The recreation hall is about 32ft across with french windows opening northward on to a verandah and the lawns. It has a dais and other facilities for small meetings or entertainments, and one can imagine the tenants, who will number about 150. forming a club. Other communal facilities are a drying room and a storeroom divided into cubicles, in which occupants of the flats may place under lock and key articles which they do not want in their apartments, such as luggage. In the basement at one corner of the Adelaide road frontage will be 11 garages. These have already been built. The grounds and outsides of the buildings will be lit by the Government. Within the quadrange will be two public telephone booths. Many details remain to be decided, including the rents, which it is believed will be comparable to the rent of_ half of a two-unit Government house, 17s 6d.