SENSIBLE HOUSING
SIR,—In her review of the Housing Manual 1944, Miss Clephane mentions one of the fixed ideas with which housing planners seem to
be obsessed. Another idea which has taken root firmly in these peoples' minds is that houses in an area scheduled to a particular density must each stand on the same size piece of ground. People of similar incomes do not invariably have the same amount of time to tend their gardens even if they have the same degree of inclination to do so.
There do not appear to be insuperable difficulties in the way of pro- viding houses with large or small gardens or, for old people, and those who have not the time or the inclination, houses in private parks. These have been provided with some success to blocks of flats, and the same idea can be equally well extended to houses.
Another point which deserves much more attention than it appears to be getting is the size of the houses. House designers seem to be of the inflexible opinion that families should be limited to two children, one large, one small. If a man of limited income should be inclined to raise a larger family he condemns his family to be packed into bedrooms like sardines or to live in an old and obsolete house. The additional cost of larger houses would have to be spread over the remaining houses in -the district. There is not much point in encouraging people to have large families if proper housing is not to be provided for them.
More flexibility of design as regards size of houses and gardens would, I think, go quite a long way towards avoiding monotony in large estates without the necessity of introducing architecture in the eclectic style. It would also provide people with what they want.—Yours
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