A Hundred Houses in One

New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 238, 14 January 1944, Page 20

A Hundred

Houses

in One

ington harbour, one huge, white building that has not yet merged itself into the surrounding dull colour, stands out above everything else. It is known locally as "the Dixon Street flats," and to more than 230 people it has become a clean, new, and most welcome home. It is planned as a series of separate houses, one above the other. ce a visitor sailing into WellThe site was the first home of George Hunter, Wellington’s first Mayor-and has an area of nearly an acre, only 21 per cent of which has been built on: the rest contains many of the original old trees. The architects of the Department of Housing Construction studied the problems of multi-unit block schemes before they put into effect this 116-unit plan, and they have succeeded in providing the maximum number of advantages of flat-living with the minimum of its drawbacks. Privacy, for instance: separate entrances open on to a long open air gallery, and no windows or balconies overlook other flats. Each flat goes

right across the building, from east to west, and there are no rabbit-warren corridors. No rooms face the south, except the kitchens of half a dozen flats at one end. The sound insulation has been really successful-it takes a heavy movement of furniture to disturb a neighbour, for the structural floors are of five-inch concrete with rubber pads under the joists that support the wooden floors. Every flat has a balcony where summer meals may be served, light washing may be dried below balustrade level, and flowers may be grown. The standard unit has a living room, a bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and balcony, hall, and. a huge storage cupboard holding the water heater. The bedroom has a big built-in wardrobe. The living-room has a generous built-in radiator, and radios may be plugged in to a common aerial, which is "laid on" with an "aperiodic amplifier" to each flat, so there will be no unsightly wires spoiling the appearance of the building. The tenants are married couples, ' without children, who urgently need accommodation, and preference is given to returned servicemen.