CONCRETE HOUSES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16614, 9 December 1919, Page 3

CONCRETE HOUSES.

Out on tho confines of Braintree, in Essex, a little, concrete town is rising. It has many novelties, and the wayfarer, coming suddenly upon it, is most struck by the fact that every roof is. flat. In the East this is common enough, remarks the London Daily Telegraph, but in our English landscape it is a bit disconcerting. A saving of £2B on every cottage house is said to follow the adoption of ,the flat roof. In a house here and there tho invisible roof does not muck matter, but were Elfe stylo to be generally adopted in the now housing schemes, the economy would be heavily purchased. Still in Essex there are many picturesque thatched roofs,

still many gables, and they display effectively against tho trees and the sky tho beauties of tho traditional English high-pitched roof, which it would be sad to see disappear. Housing schemes, however great the urgency, arc not merely for to-day. They aro to last, and as tho concrete house is claimed to bo practical!.,' 1 ’ everlasting, tho greater is the necessity that artistic care should bo lavished upon it. We have no right to disfigure the countryside. Not that tho flat roof design is in itself ugly, hut the effect is to make the houses look squat and low. Indeed, it was pleasant to see what good results can be obtained by so apparent-

' ly uncompromising a material as concrete in tire .hands of' a skilled architect. Till close approach the outward appearance is just like stone. A number of representatives of housing communities from all parts of the country and cf garden city and townplanning associations went to Braintree, Nearly 70 houses are being erected to accommodate the employees of a local manufacturing firm, the Braintree Cooperative Homes, Limited, a public utility society under the new Act of Parliament having been formed for that purpose. The work is being done by a company which dips out of the site all the materials for building save cement, steel, and glass. No wood is used. Utility is the chief tiling studied, the houses being fireproof, “foolproof,” and indestructible. They have steel doors, steel window-frames and casements, steel mantelpieces, shelves, and cupboards, even steel staircases, and concrete floors. With walls distempered, composition over the floors, and the steelwork robbed of its obtrusiveness

by coats of paint in suitable colours, the j houses are quite attractive, and there ; is a homeliness about the interiors of , the few already occupied which the use ; of such materials would hardly suggest. • A pitched slate roof can be had if de- ; sired. ; Concrete, we are told from many i quarters, is the thing of the future. ! Its adaptability is marvellous. If such i good results can bo obtained from it ! when in its infancy, there is hope in ! its future development. _ Still, there ; are many people old-fashioned enough ! to wish that they may not live to see a ' concrete-build England. ;