CONCRETE HOUSES.

Hokitika Guardian, 1 July 1924, Page 1

CONCRETE HOUSES.

Speaking at the Inlermilional Cement Congress nt Olympia. Kensington, W.. Col. 11. Vitnglnut kcnl, consulting engineer, who was assistant director of fortilicaiions at the War Olliee during the war. said it was passible and indeed easy lo make concrete houses every hit as dry and warm as the best brick houses. There was no need to have the cold grev colour of natural concrete which so many people disliked, for the outer half-inch or so of the slab could be made of coloured concrete, either a pure while or tinted. ’lbis opened out :i new field for colour schemes which ill the hands of competent architects had great possibilities in the future. The architects also could vary their elevations. and there need no longer he the cry that all concrete houses were hideous.

The Wembley Exhibition ought to show the public what could be done with concrete from an architectural point of view. There were not enough bricks or bricklayers to meet the demand for houses, hut with concrete, where unskilled labour could he used for the largest portion of the houses and where the materials could nearly always he found at or close to the site, and where the speed of erection was far greater than with bricks, there was a possibility of ■catching tip with th« demand in a lew years.