Kirkcaldie & Stains' Flat Roof Motor Carage.

Progress, Volume IV, Issue 8, 1 June 1909, Page 280

Kirkcaldie & Stains' Flat Roof Motor Carage.

The wisdom of the East devised the flat roof. They appreciate its spacious coolness by night and its expansiveness by day. Only in the North, where snow is heavy, is the steep roof wanted. Everywhere else the rejection of the Hat roof is stupid. The illustrations. Page 281, show a very good and useful idea to which a flat roof can be adapted. Several of the most prominent Australian dailies have from time to time given lengthy articles upon the value of flat roofs, and the result has been that considerably more than 100 have been laid within the last 2 years on Sydney's mag-

Liificent skyscrapers and splendid residential properties. Admitted that Australian towns are more suited for flat roofs owing to the great heat, yet as our illustrations show one of its many uses, think of how many more of a practical and useful nature a flat roof can be put to in New Zealand. For instance, in Wellington's limited back yard space what a vSplend'd place, and clean, it is for drying clothes. Then again, why not have your tennis court on the roof, your afternoon tea, and the magnificent view of harbour and town to

which Wellington so splendidly lends itself, and so send your visitors awa}' feelnig sure that there is nothing nicer or more refreshing than afternoon tea in the open air under the shade of the palms. Perhaps the best advantage, at least from a public safety point of view, in a flat roof is the tremendous help it gives to the Fire Brigade. How much easier you can put your neighbour's fire out from your fiat roof, and to what an extent it minimises the danger from sparks which, when falling upon an iron roof, gradually

congregate in the gutter, and both with help of but very light wind and the draught up the ( orrugations quickly fan into a flame and set the house on fire. If more of the business and res ; dt-nti il properties in Wellington and other large towns in New Zealand had flat roofs, we venture to say that less property would be destroyed by fire. Messrs Kirkcaldie & Stains' fine new Ferro concrete building has a flat roof and its primary object is storage for motor-cars, where they can he cleaned and looked af cer without taking up valuable space elsewhere. Apart from this is the usefulness as a luncheon place for their employees. Messrs. Phizackerlv & Co., a very large firm of motor people in Sydney. tench their Clients how to drive and otherwise look after the cars they are going to buy on their flat roof. Kirkcaldie & Sta ; ns' Ferro-concrete building, like Phizaekerly & Co. in Sydney, in roofed with Reinforced Malthoid. A very useful idea has taken roo f in Sydney amongst the Government and civil architects; when erecting residences in the town, where naturally yard space is very limited, and stealing of clothes from the line very much in evidence, the wash house is built at the top of the building, close to the flat roof across which the clothes are hung. To-day people will I'eadilv pay more rent for the advantage of a flat roof, so that the owner really gets his birlding roofed for nothing. How little opportunity shop assistants have of getting fresh air ! Have a flat roof and let them lunch there, and "the extra energy you will get from your employees," as one of Sydney's leading drapers once said, "will more than pay you foi* your roof.