NEW TYPE OF HOUSE

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 15, 13 October 1942, Page 3

NEW TYPE OF HOUSE

Government’s Proposed Experiment

HUTT COUNCIL CRITICAL

The attention of the Municipal Association, the Standards .Institute and the Town Planning Board is to be drawn by the Lower Hutt City Council to the type of pre-fabricated house which the Government has .planned,, five of which the Housing Construction Department intends to erect as an experiment at n aiwetu. The five houses are to be the forerunners of 6000, it was said at a meeting of the council last night. They do not comply with the council s by-laws in important respects. 1 The town planning and by-laws committee of the council reported that, in reply to the department’s request for permission to erect the houses, the committee had stated that it was not prepared to vary the requirements of the by-laws, but as the erection of the houses was to be a pure experiment, it recommended that no objection be raised, it being distinctly understood that consent would not <be given to the erection of any further similar buildings. The mayor, Mr. Andrews, who is chair, man of the committee, said the Government’s proposal was revolutionary, and the houses would comply with neither the Lower Hutt by-laws nor the by-laws of any other local body in New Zealand. The members of the committee, who were practical builders, saw a good many weak spots in the design, particularly in the construction of the partitions, and_ the Government changed the design originally submitted, substituting 3xl} studs in the interior partitions for the 2x2 studs previously in the design. The partitions were to be made in sections covered with I’inex or three-ply. The stud was, to be Bft., compared with the bylaw requirement of 9ft. Better Design.

Realizing that the Government proposed to build about 6000 houses of the type in the locality, the committee had been considerably worried. The change made the design, a little better. When he first discussed the subject with the Minister of Housing at a slum clearance conference the Minister had given him to understand that he did not favour the proposed standard house at all when he (Mr. Andrews) had said he regretted that the department was going to clear slums and build others, but since seeing the Minister again he feared-the idea had been “sold” to him.

-The council would be faced with other similar applications, said. Mt. Andrews. Already he had been approached by a substantial building interest and asked if the council would consider allowing it to build sub : standard houses- of similar materials, though, in a different manner that it claimed would be more substantial and cheaper. A Minister had said the men coming back from the. war would be given houses fit for heroes to live in, but he did not think these houses would be fit for heroes to live in. Or. H. F. Muir said he thought the Government would see the error of its ways after the experimental houses bad been built, and make the frames more substantial. Cr. W.»C. Gregory said it was significant that the design had been altered after objections to it had been raised. Cr. H. S. Budding said the council had to view with alarm the reduction in the standard of the Government house from the attractive house it had formerly built.

Cr. E. S. Hewer also expressed alarm at the proposed design and said the Government should not be allowed to build houses of a kind private builders would not be allowed to build. The\council agreed to the committee’s recommendation.