The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-12-11
Factory Production and Its Relation to Housing Problem

(Contfnued from Page Six)
 mings, goes to the burner because of
 the lack of demand for short length 1
 material
 Now, one-third of the ordinary 1
 framing lumber usually used in | house can be obtained from material running under eight feet in length. | 1 One-half of the expensive, finishing 1 1 lu 1ber used for flooring and dressing
 up the interior and exterior of the | house also can be made from short 1 length stock. Does it not seem wise
 to get together with the lumberman | with a view to utilizing this discard
 ed. so-called, low grade material? I 1 thought so and attempted to do so, | but there were a few obstacles in my | path.
 "In the first place, a lun1berman | is a manufacturer. Now a manufac- 1 turer thinks in different terms from l an architect, carpenter, or other l professional craftsman. He speaks a ! totally different 1anguage; using such . words as cost, equipm ent, production, merchandising credits, transportation,
 storage, financing publicity, stock l Of other terms that were quite new l to me. So l found it hard to interest
 him in my very simple idea. Finally, l by studying up On some of these un- 1 gether and sit in with some who lis 1 tened long enough and patiently enough to get the drift of my
 thoughts. I found that we had very
 much in common and that we were
 not so very different after all.
 | They looked upon themselves as | quite as useful and necessary mem | bers of society as were professional
 men. They dared to dream dreams with me and to make plans for the | ultimate good of humanity. Only it
 haf to be done in way they under
 stood-a way that was practical and |, business like
 ''In theory it had seemed that the ! producer ought to be able to make i up complete consignments of care | fully standardized lumber sufficient to | construct one house, and that he
 should be able to ship this lumber, | packed in box car, directly to the | individual home builder, at a saving | to him of at least 25 per cent The I lumber required to construct an or i dinary six-room house represents
 about 35 per cent. of it's total cost
 and the carpenter bill amounts to Is per cent. more so in dealing with this | subject we are working upon a. very | important factor in the high cost of | home building.
 "It certainly looks as though the | producer and the consumer ought be brought in closed contact for their
 mutual benefit, but unfortunately, it
 is impossible for the lumber manufac-
 turer to produce economically for di- II rect retail distribution. He must
 manufacture in large quantities or
 his whole system of lumber produce tion will be slowed down to an un-
 profitable pace. This fact. together
 with others equally significant in al-
 lied industries connected with house
 building, forced the conclusion that the only way to secure manufacturing
 economies was to standardize the II product, manufa cture it in auanti- II ties and seek wholesale markets. Efficient factory production is in
 conceivable without standardization. Can American dwellings be standard
 fzed without sacrificing reasonable
 Individuality? That is debataible.
 However, we are dealing with a vital necessity of life, that has grown con-
 stant1y more expensive to supply. Personally, I feel that I could
 stand any quantity of standardized houses so long as each individual hove was attractive in appearance and I knew that it's inhabitants were not starving or freezing themselves to death to meet the monthly payments. It has never occurred to me to criti- size nature for standardizing her pro- ducts, or to rail at field of daisies because they were all white. Why modern men and women, who go out < of their way to dress, eat and think alike, persisting in housing them selves in structures that represent the styles, modes, and whims of every age and cline is too much for my comprehension. It was not always thus Can it be that. we architects 4 are to blame?
 After many months spent in s study and experiment, devised a 3 series of house organisms that com ! bined 8 reasonable amount of con a venience and attractiveness with a a fairly economical use of lumber and Il lumber labor. The floor plans were Il designed in units, a method that has E been in vogue in Japan for centuries. While the Japanese are a nation \ of individual home-dwe1lers, and \ famous for the artistry that pervades .@f 4Iof,, ,a4c ic o111- K ious to observe that their home are \ decidedly lacking in architectural \ pretention. If there is no attempt at E architectural display in the dwellings \ of Japan the traveller is at least X spared those miserable experiences : he so often encounters in his own E country, where to a few houses of good taste he is sure to pass hun a dreds of perforated boxes embellished with grotesque and offending abomin- Il ations.
 From one end of Japan to the other house plans are designed in \ terms of a standard unit of meas \ urement, the floor mat The dimen-
 sions of the mat are three feet wide by six feet long, The architect
 marks on his plan the number of \ mats each room is to contain-this
 number defining the size of the room;
 hence the lumber used must be of MI definite lengths.
 Tt follows that but little waste o1 \ lumber occurs in the construction o1 MI a Japanese house. It had occurred
 to me that an adaptation of this sys- \ tenn of unit planning might result ii \ a similar saving in lumber herein I America if I could get the lumber N producer interested in cooperating. MI "I employed a unit of 16 inches, as
 that spacing is in common enough use
 among our carpenters, though gen \ era1Iy ignored by architectural de \ signers This unit, when faithfully \ followed throughout an entire house organism, permits the use of
 few simple standard lengths of lum !H Der that can be used in many place 5 in scores of differently designed
 houses. The floor, wall and roo \ boards for example may be out II nlultip1es of four feet and be mailed