CROWDED DWELLINGS

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 109, 1 February 1935, Page 2

CROWDED DWELLINGS

“Group Housing” Advocated

BUILT ON PROPER LINES

“The time has arrived when properlydesigned group housing should be encouraged in. selected localities, not only tis a counter-piove to the erection of

flats but also on merit,” said Mr. N. C. 1-Inigb, A.R.1.8.A., when speaking on "The Housing Froblem” ut tlie Conference of the N.Z. branch of the Royal Sanitary Institute yesterday. "Our typical dwelling is a single family one isolated on its own land, and there is no doubt that this is the ideal type of dwelling for family life, , Taking the average house built under the State Advances scheme as iiq exampip, the interest, sinking fund, rates and insurance, amount t» about 30/- a week, without any allowance for maintenance, which is an increasing item as the house gets older. This 30/- for rent on top of trams or train is more than the average working man can aftford out of h(s wages. Even with tlie present low cost of building it is not possible to house the lower paid workers suitably in this type of dwelling at a rental within their means. “The demand for large duellings for single family occupation. continues to decrease, while the demand for small ones increases far more rapidly thmi tho increase in population This de* maud for smaller dwellings is probably oven more pronounced among the well-to-do classes than among the lower , paid classes, and for this (here are other reasons as well as tlie decrease in the size of families, A surplus of large houses with h surplus of small families has brought into being a very undesirable type of dwellings-that of tlie housing of several families in houses constructed for the use of a single family. This class of dwelling ranges in various stages, from houses which have been altered mid adaoted for tlie purpose and are very often quite suitable dwellings for certain classes as well as helping to solve the large house problem, to the large house which i< farmed oiit-Jn rooms, and in which the various tenants share the convenience intended for one family. “It is obvious that some use must be made of the surplus large houses during their useful life, but every endeavour should be made to keep tho number of such houses as small as possible, and to ensure that they arc adapted as.far as is practicable for tlie use for which they were intended. With careful control this type of dwelling should in time disappear, mill tho more general use of permanent building materials would assist considerably in this direction.

"If we rule out typical houses because of high rental values, mid blocks of flats as undesirable for the purpose, we are faced with the task of providing a more suitable type of dwelling at a lower rental value.” concluded -Mr. Haigh. "One solution would be‘group housing,’ which does not imply rows of slum houses such as are to l>e seen in parts of England. Like any othertype of dwelling tlie ‘group house’ can be badly planned, poorly constructed, crowded, neglected, mid abused, but this does not condemn it as a type. ‘Group housing,’ in various forms, can lie treated in a very attractive manner, and in the right conditions they are a most desirable type of dwelling. Apart from prejudice, the obsta <es in the way of ‘group housing’ art our ‘individual ownership’ system, our slavish regard for timber construction, mid the fa'-'t that opr by-laws relating to frontage and area do not encourage it.”