The Modern Home
The Ideal Home Exhibition
Tim dominant feature of the " Ideal Home " Exhibition at Olympia (which is open until April 29th) is the astonishing general improvement in the design of the cheaper furniture. Previous exhibitions have always revealed a few good pieces, but these have generally been the productions of the smaller and more expensive firms : the crude attempts at modernism by the " shops for the people " have resulted in unspeakable caricatures of the real thing. It may be that the urge to cut every possible penny of production costs has forced the makers to eliminate those spatterings of jazz-cum-cubist ornamenta- tion which seemed to them a true manifestation of modernism, and that the resulting bareness has driven them to concen- trate on. the lines of the pieces themselves, or it may be that the examples of sane and beautiful design set by the minority in other years have not failed in their effect ; but whatever the cause, there can be no doubt of the results. This does not mean that Olympia is full of good pieces of modern furniture -they have still to be hunted out here and there ; but it does mean that those who wish to furnish in the modern way can no longer complain that it can only be done at great expense. Such firms as Bowmans of Camden Town are exhibiting fur- niture of really good modern design at almost ludicrously low prices, and there are few manufacturers of cheap easy chairs and settees who do not exhibit at least one suite of good appearance. On the other hand, the " Village of Ideal Homes," with its series of completely furnished houses, seems worse than ever. Only one, the " J.P." house, shows any merit in the choice of furniture and decoration ; the others for the most part flaunt the worst excesses of a nightmare modernistic taste. The fact that here and throughout the exhibition it is the large and relatively expensive furniture shops or depart- ments which show least comprehension of modern design would seem to indicate that we have mainly the price factor to thank for the great improvement shown elsewhere. By far the best example of furnishing in the exhibition is the " Sky- scraper Flat," by Arundel' Clarke. Here is a perfect lesson in modernism at its best. There are no eccentricities, no frills, no striving for effect-everything is there because it is needed, and it is so used as to show itself to the best advantage. There is nothing to offend the nicest taste. I should like everyone who finds the modern tendency unpleasant or alarming to be able to visit this flat.
Among new inventions to be welcomed is a really good- looking gas fire. The radiants or heating tubes in practically all other types seem more suited with their fantastically curved apertures (were they originally intended to resemble flame-shapes, I wonder ?) to grace the bottom of a bowl of goldfish. The " Portcullis " radiant presents a neat and efficient looking square-meshed grille and-in confirmation of the theory that the straightforward way is generally best-the makers claim that it possesses a very much higher degree of heat efficiency than any other type. Certainly the fire .I examined gave out an extraordinary amount of heat. The " Portcullis " fire is shown by Bratt, Collbran and Company. It is also to be seen in the J.P. house, mounted as gas fires properly should be-as a panel in the wall, and 'not as a far-fetched imitation of a coal fire.
The " Aga " cooker, which was described on this page when it made its first appearance in this country, is now well known for its merits, chief among which are its cleanliness and its extreme economy of fuel. A feature which appeared more suited to conditions in Sweden than here was the small hot-water tank which was not adaptable for a complete domestic supply. This drawback is now removed by the introduction of the new "Aga" Tank. A closed circuit of small bore pipes filled with distilled water (which is never renewed) connects the cooker with a heavily insulated 20-gallon tank and serves to raise the temperature of the contents to 2000 F. in about ten hours. This means that two baths can be drawn off night and morning and a reason- able amount of hot water for other purposes during the day. The storage tank can be directly connected to the mains supply, thus saving the expense of a cold-supply tank and connexions. The fuel consumption with this additional fitting is increased by thirty shillings a year only-from L4 to Si 10s.-and one can be sure that this figure will not be exceeded. The " Aga " is not cheap ; but its astonishing economy of upkeep urges its adoption in a large numbe, of cases ; this later addition will turn the scale in favou, of its adoption for many small houses where the cost of an independent hot water supply cannot be warranted. G. M. BoustrenEY. (To be continued.) [Enquiries arising out of articles on " The Modern Home" should be addressed to the Editor of THE SPECTATOR, 99 Comer Street, IV .C. 1, and marked " Modern Home" in the top left. hand corner.]
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