South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1918-01-12

or buying or renting a house must
consider first OF all and yhose in
clude the light and ventilation OF the
dwelling. convenience Of arrange
ment Of Che rooms with regard 20
the saving OF steps-their lighting
and ventilation also-pr! 'Scy both
within and without, and outlook.
according 10 Miss Marcia Mead. an
architect of New York. who dis
cussed this subject with a repre-
sentative.
An L or T-shaped plan. long and
narrow, gives better light and ven
tilation for a home than does the
box plan, and il is an exploded
theory that the latter is so much
cheaper than the former; there real
~ is not so much difference in the
cost The long, narrow house may
be a trifle harder TO heat, perhaps,
but that is quite over balanced, il
seems to me, by the better arrange
ment of light and by the better
ventilation which it provides. Such
apartments as living rooms, dining
rooms and bed rooms should have
two exposures wherever possible:
then sewing rooms, linen closets and
bath rooms may be built within,
that is, where they have but one
window each, which will be suffi-
cient
The majority of people think
that they must have a porch; in
fact. il does not seem TO occur to
them not 10 plan for one Really,
however. a porch is not nearly so
necessary as it is supposed TO be. If
the house is so placed that the liv-
ing room faces east, so that il will
be shady in the afternoon, a terrace
would be much better, for il would
not shut off the light from the house;
under no consideration, should a
porch be allowed 10 shut off direct
light from a room. A terrace does
not interfere with that and is really
pleasanter in many ways, and one
may always build a porticO over the
door with a seat at each side.
What l advocate for single
houses, as a rule, is that they have
gardens at the back and put the
kitchen on the front of house while
advantages. and il may be handled
well architecturally, l think. First
Of all, the housekeeper has a view
of the street before her when she
wants such a view. in the morning
when the tradesmen come in and
out after orders. Then, i'm the aft
ernoon, when she is at leisure, she
will probably take much more pleas
/ ure on a porch or terrace at the
| back of the house, overlooking her
garden, than out in the public eye.
on the street side OF the house. Even
! though she has a vegetable garden,
that may be arranged artistically, so
| that she will enjoy sitting where she
\ can look out upon il. And, if her
/ living and dining rooms are so ar
ranged as too look out upon that
garden at rear, they will have a
| pleasanter outlook by far. in most
cases, at least. than if they were on
the street side Of the house. In the
case of single houses. too. a porch
on the sunny side is quite permits
sible.
The case or houses in a block is
quite different from that of the
single dwelling. Where one might
well place a porch on single house.
it might be far more advisable TO
put a terrace before the houses of
block. Sleeping porches should
| be arranged carefully, too. The
best way is 10 have them arranged
under the roof Of the house. 10 be.
in reality. rooms with open sides.
Too often it happens that single
houses are built so closely together
/ that the side windows are quite use
less for light and ventilation. One
/ should see that there We're at least
/ % feet between her house and her
/ neichbor's, and as much more space
/ as possible. Side windows. where
houses must be built close together,
/ might well be cut in the walls, as
! they are more useful for ventilation
than for light, and thus the space
/ below them is conserved for other
/ uses.
lone gratifying thing about pres
ent day building is the fact that
people are more and more realizing
I the necessity of planning neighbor-
/ hoods one cannot build 20 him
self alone. any more than he can
\ live 10 himself alone. woman
must consider her surroundings on
all sides and the relations which her
home is to bear 10 others. Towns
\ and cities are now taking up this
Ineighborhood planning movement;
perhaps country planning will re-
suit, which would be an excellent
/ thing
The woman with a feeling for
beauty will demand good proper
] ton in her house and good fenes-
! tration-that is. arrangement Of
opening-and proportion OF wall
! spaces as we'll IL does not matter
about trimmings. if that is success
\ fully managed: the correct proper
/ ton Of wall spaces is a point Of
beauty which is essential 10 good
architecture and may be effected in
1 the simplest. most inexpensive house.
as we'll as in the most elaborate and
/ costly
Another essential about which
feel strongly is a private entrance
for each family. in a house built 10
contain several homes. This is need
-. o-1,. 90 coofra r,riy-a - for