THE MODERN HOUSE

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 11, 8 October 1919, Page 4

THE MODERN HOUSE

Mr. R. Barry Parker, the planner of tho first garden city at Letchworth, has (writes a. "Daily. Chronicle" representative) just returned from Brazil,. where for the last two years he lias been engaged in'" planning...towns and park schemes for San Paulo and other places in the country. He is impressed with the way the Brazilians use the log;;ia over there, and thinks it might well.be adopted in many houses, Bu; what is required, ho says, is a loggia which can' at will be turned into a closed room. Mr. Parker has built his bedroom like (his in his own house. Throe sides nro composed of windows to .slido up and down in he wall. ' A bis railway station signal box suggests the idea. If it is a lovely snniiv day, and a quiet starlight night, all three sides are open to the air for. twenty-four hours,. and the bedroom for all practical purposes is an open loggia. . Should tho wind blow hard from the. cast, up go the windows, of that side, and you have glazed protection. This is what Mr. Parker calls a combined room and loggia. Mr. Parker is an advocate of what, he calls "corner furniture." He says that the English method is to put the principal pieces of furniture near the middle of tho walls. 'J.'he sideboard, for instance, sticks out into tho room, and merely accentuates the corners each side, whore there is nothing but chairs, on which nobody site. People do not, as a mutter of fact, occupy tho corners of rooms in a conventionally furnished house. They either sit up to the table in tho middle or lviund about tho fire. There would bo much, more available space for the . occupants -.to' move in.if corner sideboards, corner bookcases, ce.ner writing-tables, and corner settees were used instead of those commonly in evidence. .

Then there is tho bed. What are tho four posts for? They'nre simply a survival of the ancient four poster of the sixteenth century, and had definite duties to perform. They had to support tho canopy or "tester," which nobody asks for now," for it collects dust, increases tho necossity, for curtains, and mnkes work.

Mr. Parker's idea—which ha has actually carried out in, his own home—is. to have two. narrow, hanghg -.wardrobes nisainst'tho wall, about 'Ift. flin. apart. Thcso are connected by a' convenient shelf about. -Ift. from .the floor, tinder this shelf slots nro provided in tho woodwork to take the ends of tho iron rails holding the modern spring mattress. The foot of tho bed. is a. low cupboard with broad top, also provided with slots. The spring mattress is thus slung between a wardrobe, whtßh is tho head of the bed., and a cupboard, which is the foot. Tho useless posts are thus done awav with, and tho top of tho i bed foot cupboard forms n most convenient seat. Tt is much easier to make a bed of this kind, for no posts are there to get in tho way, ami you have three pieces of furniture in one.

A private subscription dauco in aid of the Hinemoa and Tntanekai stalls at St. Joseph's Parish Bazaar will be field ifl tho Alexandra Hall on Saturday next. Cowley's Orchestra will provide the music,' and ft very enjoyable entertainment is promised. A profitable- -evening was spent by members of tho Wellington Nursing Division, St. John Ambulance,- in St. John's Schoolroom on Monday. Owing to postponement of tho annual re-exami--' nation, members practised "first-aid," bandaging, and drill in preparation for tho forthcoming inspection. Thoro to a vow Mod attendance. Mrs. Moorhouse presided. •