STANDARDISED DWELLINGS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 102, 24 January 1919, Page 3

STANDARDISED DWELLINGS

AN AMERICAN SCHEME. Mr. F. W. llowloy, Superintendent of Workers' Dwellings, in an interview given yesterday to a Dominion representative, referred to a echenie of standardised concrete dwellings which was reported some years ago from the "United States. It was stated that Mr. Edison, the inventor, had devised a steel frame casing of a standardised house which could be set up rapidly for the whole of the liouse and the luterrening spaces filled up with concrete forced in by means of machinery, the erection tafcing in all only eight days. This casing included not only the whole of the walls (exterior and ■interior), but also the floors, ceiling, and roof,, and even the bath tubs and all piping. "This system," said Mr. Rowley, "is not considered by the Dopartment's experts to be a feasible method, because the finer portions, of the material —sand, cement, and water —would, it is thought, be driven forward, leaving the shingle and other coarse material behind. It is hoped, however, by the Department to devise some system by which workers' dwellings can be cheaply constructed jn whpjesalo fashion instead of one by one, and the Department's architect is at the present moment engaged in investigating an American plan, recently devised, for the ereotion of large numbers of dwellings in concrete.. No system of etan-/ dardising can be deemed satisfactory, however, if it will present a monotonous appearance. This can be largely avoided by varying the fronts and roofs and by erecting only two or three together. To this end the policy of the Department during recent years has been to secure small lots of a few Motions here and there rather than huge settlements. This the Department, moreover, to erect its dwiliuigs in the various parts of the Urge cities, and in this way the better to meet the wishes of its applicants."