The Modern Home
THE " IDEAL HOME " EXHIBITION
Tim opening of the Daily Mail " Ideal Home " Exhibition (Olympia, April 3rd--28th) found at least one visitor with higher expectations than usual. For this year, the Housing Section in the National Hall—always the piece de resistance of the s ast show—is no Village of Merrie Englande complete with mock-Tudor residences and an Antique Welle, but a reputed Village of Tomorrow—that is to say of Today, so far as possibilities are concerned. This is in itself a great step forward. The " Ideal Home " Exhibition has always been a frankly commercial undertaking—and a very successful one— which means that it has never allowed itself to get too far ahead of its patrons' tastes. That its promoters have allowed it to " go modern " must mean that in their opinion the general public has at last begun to tire of the pseudo-antique and fanciful, and are beginning to want the type of house best suited to the conditions of life as it is lived today. Having said that, we have said a great deal, and we should not look for too much. It is bound to take time for builders to realize that modernism is not a style that can be clapped on any building as they have been accustomed to clap on Tudor or neo-Georgian architecture to suit their customers' require- ments, but is the inevitable result of a way of thinking : the solving of a number of complex problems in the simplest and most economical manner. Of the nine houses shown, one is very good indeed, one is good, and the remainder range from not so good to atrocious. Much the same can be said about the furnishing. Let all who would wish to learn the difference between modernism at its best and " modernisticism " go first to the " Sunspan " house (No. 4) by Messrs. Wells Coates and Pleydell-Bouverie, and then to any other except the Laing house (Nol 1). In the former they will see how in their excellent plan the architects have contrived to catch the maximum amount of sun and to reduce passages to a mini- mum, while securing admirably efficient service-circulation. In the latter they will see how the builders—and, I regret to say, in several instances, architects—have relied on flat roofs, metal windows and meaningless horizontal lines stuck about on the exterior to mask with mock-modernism interiors that can lay small claim to modern efficient planning. The deco- rators and furnishers in their turn have wrought fearful things with all sorts of glittering modern materials wrongly employed, with furniture meaninglessly modernistic and with fabrics patterned in hideous triangular designs. A return to the " Sunspan " house will show the charm and repose of the modern inter:or when properly done. Much the same thing can be said to a lesser degree of the Laing house, a really praiseworthy design only marred slightly in the interior by such details as the moulded cornices and zig-zag carving round the architraves.
Of the other set pieces, " Adventures in Colour " results from a meeting of a representative Committee of the London Chamber of Commerce and the British Colour Council, at which twelve colours were selected with a view to standardizing a range of various household fittings, such as cookers, refrigerators, kitchen cabinets, electric appliances, and so on, with paints, fabrics and floor-coverings to match. These arc all displayed in a series of completely furnished rooms : a Studio Flat, a One-room Flat and three kitchens—of which last, that designed by " Design for Today " seemed to me, appropriately enough, the best. Of the other rooms, the One-room Flat, designed and furnished by Messrs. Ilowman Bros., deserves special commendation. In this can be seen some of the new Finnish furniture, designed by Alvar Aalto, which should appeal to those who appreciate the lines and springiness of steel chairs but dislike their coldness. I speak with some diffidence, as I was originally responsible in part for introducing it into England—but this type of furniture does seem to me an important step in the right direction. Other pieces can be seen downstairs in the Main Hall, on the stand of the same firm. " Bathrooms with Ideas " are all rather Hollywood in their scope ; but no doubt there are still the wealthy among us who may find there something to their taste. " New Rooms for Old," on the other hand, hold a lesson for all who fail to
realize what transformations the modern decorator and furnisher can achieve, and who shrink in despair from the very idea of trying to modernize their homes. here is a selection of old-fashioned apartments, grim enough in all conscience, and next door to each is itself in modern guise. Few structural alterations have been made, so that in most cases the change-over should not have been unduly expensive.
On the ground floor of the Main Hall, the furniture exhi- bited is for the most part no less disappointing than usual. A visit to the stands of Messrs. Heal, Arundel! Clarke, Bowman Bros. and Maurice Adams will have skimmed off most of the cream, to which should be added, in the small Pottery Section, the exhibit of Shelley china. It is encouraging to notice throughout the exhibition the growing popularity of several new developments in design which have been urged or com- mended on this page in the past. It is no longer unusual to see a gas-fire mounted as a gas-fire should be—in the form of a framed panel rather than of an imitation fireplace ; and the " Portcullis " radiant (or fireclay element), by far the best in looks and probably in efficiency, is now to be seen in a large proportion of the gas-fires exhibited. Among electric fires, too, there is a growing tendency to make the most of their capacity for emitting radiant heat, by the use of cor- rectly-Burned reflectors. The Bell Fireplace Company show an open fireplace which neatly incorporates two small electric fires as an alternative source of heat—a device which is, I believe, to be found in some of the " Devon " grates also. In " Gadget Gallery," as it might fittingly be called, I was pleased to find a small electrically-driven machine, the " Mixmaster," which is capable of performing a rather more varied collection of tasks than anything of the sort I have yet come across. It mixes anything from dough to drinks, peels potatoes (removing the eyes), minces and chops, polishes silver, works a freezer or grinds coffee. I now look for a slight extension of its powers to work a vacuum-cleaner, floor-polisher and sewing-machine. Among the simpler methods of water-softening, " Clensol " blocks deserve mention. They cost Is. each, and can be placed either in the cold supply-tank to soften the water at every tap in the house, or in a special fitting (costing 12s. Gd.) to push on to any tap desired. For a household of three or four persons their re- newal cost will amount to between 6d. and Is. a week. Where the tank is particularly inacessiblc, a larger fitting can be introduced at a convenient place in the main-supply pipe. There is little doubt that an efficient water-softener does save its cost by economizing in fuel, tea and coffee (though it may make desirable a change in blend of the two latter), and will gradually cure boilers and pipes which are badly furred. Cream-machines, almost the first of which was noted on this page some years ago at 31 guineas, are now to be seen in abundance, the cheapest costing no more than 5s. Gd.
There is no doubt that the time is not far ahead when we shall make records of our children's and friends' voices, just as we have taken photographs and, lately, films of them. Two types of fairly inexpensive sound-recording apparatus, suitable for home use, are exhibited—one of them capable of being used in conjunction with synchronized films, and both giving very fair reproduction. I also came across two special paints which should have no difficulty in finding users. One, " Stoppa Slip," when applied to the bottom of a rug or carpet, prevents it slipping about on a polished floor ; the other, " Stixeat," is an aluminium paint for metal surfaces, which will withstand even red heat. Its application, as a cleaner and more cheerful alternative to black-lead, for stoves and cookers will be obvious. For a much-needed rest I can recommend the " Hall of Magic " where the B.T.H. Company give an excellent display of scientific marvels. One hears light, sees sound, watches a candle blow itself out by elec- tricity and an egg (real inside but thoughtfully provided by the organizers with a glass shell) boil itself in wireless waves while held between the demonstrator's finger and thumb.
G. M. BOUMPIIREY.
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