Evening star., 1942-04-04
BY PAUL NELSON.

I have long maintained that q
house should not only be a place
to live in, but should also be a seat
Of culture for the Individuals
place where he can temporarily iso-
late himself from the outside world.
This means that architecture
should develop on the inside of the
house-for enrichment Of the lives
within.
1t has always been the outside of
our houses-the exterior architec-
ture-which has been the most
highly developed. Yet this exterior,
which Is for the public to see, has
little to do with our lives within
the house, where we actually de-
velop our individuality and where
we live distinct from our neighbors.
In the ideal house of the future
the house we will live In after the
war-I would like to see most atten-
ton paid to planning the interior
space. For the exterior shell Of the
house Is only a frontier between
us and the surrounding community.
But within the house we sleep, wash,
dress, prepare our food and eat,
and have many leisure occupations.
Cost Is Prime Factor.
I believe the first and most over
whelming need of all in the planning
OF homes after the war Is a way of
building that can produce enough of
them at low enough cost to enable
millions Of Americans to enjoy them.
Only some form of prefabrication
suitable for mass production can
bring this about. But this does not
necessarily mean prefabrication of
the exterior structure of your house,
once you decide the interior of the
house deserves most important con-
sideration.
You and your architect could de-
eide on the exterior of your house.
You could build Cape Cod house
or Georgian or Spanish type of
house, and local carpenters, masons
and electricians would build it for
you. But they would only build the
exterior.
1t is the interior that would be
prefabricated Ideally, each of the
functions man performs in a house
requires a room differently equipped
and shaped a specialized room
which can be removed and replaced
as the needs of the family change.
Such rooms would be perfectly
adapted for the requirements of |
mass production, being easily re-
placeable and lending themselves
to the unrestricted development of
new and better models.
This idea of locally built ex-
terror and a prefabricated interior
means an entirely new departure
a house made up of two distinct
elements.
Exterior Shell Flexible.
The exterior shell would provide
an Enclosure of space sufflcient to
contain the necessary rooms in such
a way that they could be removed
and replaced without dificulty.
The interior would contain pre-
fabricated unit rooms adapted to
the needs o. eating, cooking, sleep
ing. washing and leisure. There
could be rooms for hobbies, such as
Photographic dark rooms, home
laboratories and special acoustical
rooms for radio and television con-
certs. And the reason we could have
such seeming luxuries is that mass
production could provide them, like
our marvellous modern automobiles,
at cost almost unbelievably low.
The same evolution would surely
occur with mass produced rooms
that occurred with the automobile.
There would be the possibility of
buying and selling second hand or
even third-hand rooms. This would
bring these superior living units
within the reach of even the lowest |
income groups.
In the house Of the future, as I
envison 1t, your unit rooms would |
arrive by truck once the exterior of |
your house was finished by local
workers. You would have selected
your units at your dealers after por-
ing over catalogues with your
family and arguing about interior
arrangement, furnishings, decora-
tions and color schemes.
Similar rooms, called "reomettes,"
are now made for Pullman cars, so 1t
is only short step from this to the
mass production Of rooms for your
own home.
Additions Possible.
A truck would back up to your
house and complete sleeping room,