Where Should Homes Be Built?

New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 729, 3 July 1953, Page 4

Where Should Homes Be Built?

SERIES of discussions on housing, described on page 20, will be a radio contribution to a debate which ‘never ceases to be topical. The emphasis changes, but the subject keeps its ‘interest, and will continue to do so long after our immediate prob‘lems are settled. At present the preoccupation is with high costs and finance. The cash payment now needed ‘is so large that few younger people can meet it. Efforts are being made to reduce costs, and much interest is shown in space-saving design, new materials, and streamlined methods of construction. Inquiries and experiments sponsored by the Government, and undertaken also by private groups and individuals, will probably relieve the more pressing difficulties. Meanwhile we are becoming aware of other questions, related to housing, which will need more than casual attention in the next few years. Many of us have grown up with ideas of space which are ceasing to be true. We are still a small population in two large islands; but much of the empty land is unproductive, and as more people live here we begin to see that our resources must be conserved. Can we afford to build houses on firstclass land which should be used for market gardens? Should our cities be allowed to spread deeply into the farmlands? Some people, looking anxiously at these questions, say that the answer is to build upwards instead of outwards. If the problem is_ seen strictly in economic terms, the increased use of flats is a rational solution. But it would be equally realistic to suggest that houses should be built on smaller sections; and at this point the issue becomes social as well as economic. Suburbs in London are densely populated because the houses, usually two or three storeys high, stand in terraces for the full length of a street. In the outer and newer suburbs, however, the cottages are detached, each with its own little plot of ground; and this reflects a healthy reaction from the strains

of life in a modern city. It is more than that in New Zealand. A house without a garden has little appeal for the average citizen. His way of life is centred on the soil in which he can grow his own flowers and vegetables; he will face long journeys to and from his work rather than forsake it. Many people live in remote districts from choice, not from necessity: they love the country, and are quite untroubled by the absence of "night life" so frequently deplored by visitors to our cities. In almost every New Zealander there is a submerged countryman, Our colonial history makes it inevitable that the pull from the land should still be felt, though farming itself is increasingly a scientific occupation. Love of space, and of the soil, may come to be expensive. The more land that is used for homes, the less can be kept free for production; and we are being reminded that loss of farmlands can have serious effects on our economy as the population grows larger. Home gardens may help to maintain the output of vegetables and fruit; and continued improvements in methods of farming may allow us to remain exporters of foodstuffs, even when three million people are living in New Zealand, We cannot be sure of these things. What we can and should be sure of, however, is the kind of life we want for ourselves and our children. If we want space and privacy, and the satisfactions of those who can work their own soil, we must be prepared to pay for them. But payment can become too difficult. The sort of home that most men build today requires a high standard of living; and this depends on what we can grow and send abroad. In the meantime, the. solution seems likely to be a compromise: smaller and cheaper houses, built if possible without loss of amenity. It may still be a long time before the question of siting becomes acute; but it will come eventually, and the answer found then may depend largely on the reception now given to new ideas in design and construction.