HOUSES OF STEEL

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1007, 25 June 1930, Page 6

HOUSES OF STEEL

POSSIBILITY OF FUTURE MANY ADVANTAGES On the walls of Paris one sees large placards with the following inscriptions: "Go today and see the houses of steel, tomorrow you will live in them.” And it is true that the houses of steel are the greatest attraction oi this year’s Housing Exhibition in Paris. Hundreds of people dally visit the exhibition, and throng chiefly in front of the houses of steel, which are built, in their natural dimensions, on the exhibition area. The idea of a house of steel rouses in us the uncomfortable feeling of something cold, heavy, and dull; but the steel house shown at the exhibition has a most cosy appearance, and one can hardly recognise that it is built of steel instead of the usual building materials. All visitors to the exhibition count it an absolute duty to touch the walls of the houses of steel, to be convinced that these buildings, so normal in appearance, really consist only of steel. For it is for the first time that small houses, cottages for housing ordinary mortals, built entirely of steel, are being shown in Europe. As a matter of fact, steel has been used as an essential part of building, though chiefly by American architects, since the end of the nineteenth century. There are in Europe, too, many large buildings constructed for the most part in steel. But the first attempt is now being made to make for the general public houses of steel to replace those of wood, stone and other building materials, that daily become dearer and more difficult to obtain. The first attempt is being made to show that that building in steel is no longer a luxury, but a thing for everyday use. Every sceptic invariably asks whether the house of steel is not too cold to be lived in. And the specialists, with a slight smile of disdain, invariably answer that, for the steel buildings, this question has long since been solved. For the question of warmth and cold is generally one of the presence of a layer of immobile air, which is the best inola-tor. This necessary layer of immobile air is created by erecting the walls as two steel laminas', the space between them being filled by such air or other isolating materials. By figures based upon long and careful experiments, the specialists prove that in the steel houses it is cooler in summer and warmer in winter than in the houses j of wood and stone. For this reason the houses of steel are suitable for ; every climate, but are particularly so | for hot countries. It is almost unnecessary to add that inside, as outside, the houses of steel do not differ from the usual houses of wood and stone, and that they possess all necessary comforts, as bathrooms, gas. central heating, and electric heating. RAPID CONSTRUCTION What are the advantages of the house of steel that are at the base of this great propaganda for its widespread use? First of all, there is the rapidity with which a house of steel can be built in three weeks only. Even if this is a record of rapidity, the fact remains that the houses of steel could be built much more rapidly than the houses of the ordinary materials. This fairy-tale rapidity of construction presents such great economical advantages, that, despite the relative expensiveness of steel as a building material, the general cost of the steel house is even lower than that of the house of wood or stone. For example, a five-roomed house amounts only to a cost of about £400; and it is hoped that in the future this price will be lowered, for the construction of a house of steel is essentially factory work, and if the demand for steel houses brings about mass production, the price will be reduced. All parts of the steel house are naturally made in the factory, and the erection on the dwelling area is a very simple matter, requiring neither many nor expert workers. The houses of steel are obviously more fire-proof than any others. The upkeep also is simpler, for it needs painting only every five or six years. The facility with which it can be transported is also of great advantage, especially in the Colonies. But the best fact for the propaganda of the new steel houses is that, despite the very short time since the construction of steel houses was begun, they have already obtained a certain popularitv. Everyday new societies for the building of steel houses are being organised and evidently it is a paying concern. At the moment, for the most part, the steel houses are being built for the working settlements of large factories But perhaps it is true . . . who knows? . . . that the houses of steel at which we wonder today will tomorrow be our homes. Did not the first ships of steel arouse the greatest astonishment and the most vehement opposition?