GLIMPSE OF FUTURE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23034, 11 May 1938, Page 7

GLIMPSE OF FUTURE

LIVING IN GLASS HOUSES

SPACIOUS AND BRIGHT MODERN FITMENTS [from our own correspondent] LONDON, April fi The Glass-House, which is given the premier position in tlie City of Glass at the Ideal Home Exhibition this year, commands attention for many reasons. The glass utilised in it is wholly of British manufacture, and ifc is employed effectively to show not only a great variety of material that the industry is now able, with confidence, to place at the disposal of architects and builders, but also that glass, in the hands of artist-craftsmen of imagination can and has achieved a beauty of form that compels attention to it as a decoration a,t once refreshingly effective and serviceable. Furthermore, the house of glass is an eminently sound, habitable and practicable home, such as might well be built in any suburb, while its details might be adapted with advantage for use in any already established residence. The Glass House stands in nn ornamental garden 30ft. above the floor of the City of Glass. Its top floor is cantilevered to project over the ground floor, making a sheltered recessed entrance to the front door. There is a flat roof suitable for a garden, and, on the first floor, a sunbathing terrace. Generous windows of clear glass are a striking feature of the house. Glass Bricks and Tiles Its light-diffusing outer walls are formed of fluted glass bricks four inches thick and glass tiles. The ingenious fluting permits no observation of the interior. The bricks have a partial vacuum inside which renders them highly useful for the insulation of temperature and sound. A sense of spaciousness and light and the appeal of new and delicate decorative harmonies are immediately apparent in the entrance hall, with its figured glass and steel doorway, its illuminated glass staircase, its general air of elegance. The living room is walled completely with translucent glass, with the south wall built up almost entirely of folding windows. With its floor of narrow gauge pitch pine, this room is wel prepared to withstand the wear and tear of "comings and goings' in a small house. An unusual and instantly arresting feature in it is the glass surround above the fireplace. It is finished in corrugated glass, and displays a verv beautiful sandblasted and brilliaiitlv cut picture on glass, which gives'a character to the whole room. Walls of Pearl Grey An effective glass tiled screen sep- | arates the dining recess from the main I livin" room, from which _in turn | folding shuttered windows give access I to a garden terrace. The walls of pleasing pearl grey, with shell pink woodwork and silk curtains, make an effective colour scheme. The house has a modern gas cooker, refrigerator and a water heater made specially in moulded armourplate glass and contrived to show-in an ingenious way with colours the flow of the water through it. Much of the furniture has been soeciallv designed for the house, is of \a modern and practical type which goes well with the familiar cosiness of thick carpets and the of polished flooring in most of the rooms. •