BUILDING TRADE

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 93, 17 October 1934, Page 13

BUILDING TRADE

DISPLAY AT OLYMPIA

PROSPECTIVE HOMES

ELIMINATION OP SLUMS

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, September 1-1.

It. is anticipated that there is to be a- boom period in the building trade in the near future. It is predicted by tho Building Industries' National Council that 350,000 houses will be built during the next twelve months. Hence, the Building Exhibition now in progress at Olympia has a special significance. Lord Balfoiir of Burluigh, who opened the exhibition, said that there were two points of the building problem to which he would like to direct attention: (1) The long-rango planning of where the houses were to be put; and (-) somo kind of organisation for the production of building materials necessary in any large programme. To leave those "two aspects of the question to the unorganised action of different local authorities and the people who were to erect the buildings was not looking far enough ahead. If the manufacturers of building materials could be assured of, say, a 90 per cent, capacity output for a Jong period of years, they must be able to reduce costs. THE PUBLIC INVITED. The exhibition is arranged especially for tin* trade, but the general public are invited to attend. Prom their point of view the keynote seems to be the modern flat and tho space-saving ideas in design and equipment. Where the prospective householder is concerned valuable information may be gathered from studying the respective merits of building materials. The . housewife is catered for in every department of her busy occupation in which the experience of architect and builder can possibly be of assistance. From a general point of view, there are some fascinating and very constructive features outside the scope of the commercial exhibits. The Department of Scientific, and Industrial Research has associated itself this year, through its Building Research Station, with the exhibition. In a comprehensive display it reveals how theories are tested and new ideas made practicable for the betterment of housing conditions and workaday environment in the factory and the home. There is the hcliodon, which enables the architect to predetermine the incidenco of sunlight in any room at any hour of the day and time of the year. There is the cupatheoscopc, a vessel which reacts like a clothed human being to conditions in a room and measures the degree of comfort. There are experimental walls and roofs in which space and polished metallic, surfaces are shown to provide insulation against, heat and cold. There is the instrument which enables underground stresses in concrete piles to bo "seen," or photographed. Various concretes are analysed, and builders are now able to avoid dangerous possibilities of which they previously knew little or nothing. BUILDING- MATERIALS. Somo other features of the show are an all-steel home of tho future. Foundations, walls, floors, and even stairs, are made of steel; the "1935"' flat, Sift by 17ft only, yet comprising bedroom, liv-ing-room, kitchen, and bathroom. There is the first exhibit of tho standard artisan bath, rectangular and panelled, as agreed upon by 90 per cent, of British manufacturers as standard for new housing schemes. There is the extensive variety of panelling, some with a romarkable coloured surface apparently as hard as marble. There are the insulating boards which make it possible to build houses today of reinforced concrete and yet obtain an even temperature for the inmates. There is ample evidence that the English oak industry is still thriving. The merchants showing the great sawn logs maintain that the true method of seasoning the-' oak is by the slow but natural process of air-drying. A new building material shown is the asbestos-cement corrugated sheet for roofs. On the asbestos sheets is laid one inch of cement concrete and afterwards ijhi of bitumen. As for paint, there is evidence, of a great deal of research work in this connection. The result is a surface- and colour which approximates to coax;hwork finish. One learns also that during the past few years over fifty million concrete tiles have been employed for roofing. Some of those shown are coloured antique brown, light red, dark red, and mottled red. Then there are the plywoods, beautifully marked? which are now being used extensively for panelling. NEW HOUSES FOB, OLD. An .especially interesting section of the exhibition is the "New Homes for Old." It includes the "dreadful example," Susannah Row, 1829. This was a terrible slum salved (except for the bricks) from Shoreditch two months ago, when the area was being cleared. The frames, doors, windows, drainpipes, and fencing were brought to the exhibition and re-erected (with painted cardboard material as bricks) to create a contrast between the conditions that have been allowed to exist so long and the review of new buildings shown in the other sections of the exhibition. The interior furniture and conditions have been reproduced from typical slums, and it may be said that the horror of the surroundings —in which human beings are born and reared —should go a long way to influence public opinion against the worst evil of this old land. Iv this section there are charts which show an outline survey of tho nature and extent of tho housing shortage, and of the problems involved in rehousing the poorly-paid worker. tinder the Government scheme 1,300,000 persons have to be rehoused, and the HousingCentre (an organisation now made up of several voluntary bodies) has worked out a scheme showing tho right number of houses, in tho right place, at the right rent. The Modern Architectural Besciirch Group aims at a scientific and architectural solution of social and economic problems. The exhibit begins with a graphical representation of Chaos, which is modern London. Bethnal Green is selected for detailed dissection, and it is shown how this village settlement, originally for tho traders of the Hanseatie League, was gradually swamped by wave after wave of unplanned uncontrolled economic growth, leaving over-deepening slum belts behind them.

The town-planning section shows how London might yet be improved by a belt of green country round it with farm land and controlled villages, by arterial roads being made into long parks, by new building schemes leaving space for playgrounds, and even in vast flat dwelling schemes the provision of balconies so that the families and the children may have a chance of spending some time of their home life in the opett air and of growing flower?. It was definitely stated by one of the officials of tho Housing Centre that Urn work of these amalgamated voluntary organisations had caused the Government to net and to carry through their slum clearance legislation, thus showing how Hie public may lead, if they will only organise.