DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 15836, 5 June 1919, Page 8

DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE.

Tbe vexed subject of domestic architecture has been ably dealt with in the Contemporary Review by Miss Clementina Black, and many of her strictures apply equally to New Zealand. For our houses are full of dust traps and inconveniences. To take the “idiocies” in Miss Black's order, we have still, except in new and expensive houses, the doors, which are placed in the wrong positions, and are constructed so as to require constant dusting. The grooving of door frames and panels is also a matter of useless labour. There is seldom seen a house in which there is not one room, at least, with the door in suck a position that the family cannot enjoy the comforts of the fire in winter, or of the open window in nsmrner. Windows are another constant source of work and worry here, as well as in England. Often badly placed both for lighting, and ventilation, they are always difficult to keep clean on account of their fittings. No one has been able to understand why it is considered necessary to provide them with sills, which project beyond the level of the wall. Tenetian blinds, again, are just as difficult to remove for cleaning in New Zealand houses as in English, and outside shutters are much more satisfactory from every point of view. The subject of floors is one which troubles us all. There is no ideal floor covering for a house in which the work has to lie done hy one woman. A bstained floor with loose mgs is about the best arrangement for rooms in which there is not a great amount of traffic; not a highly polished floor, but one which can be kept in order as many stained and oiled verandoh floors are, by the regular use of a duetless mop, with a very occasional polishing. But few floors are set close enough for this plan to be followed. And so must poplc have to fall back upon the cold and ugly linoleum, Cork carpet, which Miss Black approves of has the disadvantage of showing footmarks badly.