On the landing in the second or middle stories of the three-storied
houses there is a bathroom, supplied with hot and cold water from the
kitchen above. The floor of the kitchen and of all the upper stories
is slightly raised in the centre, and is of smooth, grey tile; the
floor of the bath-room is the same. In the living-rooms, where the
floors are of wood, a true oak margin of floor extends two feet around
each room. Over this no carpet is ever laid. It is kept bright and
clean by the old-fashioned bees'-wax and turpentine, and the air is
made fresh and is ozonised by the process.
Considering that a third part of the life of man is, or should be,
spent in sleep, great care is taken with the bed-rooms, so that they
shall be thoroughly lighted, roomy, and ventilated. Twelve hundred
cubic feet of space is allowed for each sleeper, and from the sleeping
apartments all unnecessary articles of furniture and of dress are
rigorously excluded. Old clothes, old shoes, and other offensive
articles of the same order, are never permitted to have residence
there. In most instances the rooms on the first floor are made the
bed-rooms, and the lower the living-rooms. In the larger houses
bed-rooms are carried out in the upper floor for the use of the
domestics.
To facilitate communication between the kitchen and the entrance-hall,
so that articles of food, fuel, and the like may be carried up, a
shaft runs in the partition between two houses, and carries a basket
lift in all houses that are above two stories high. Every heavy thing
to and from the kitchen is thus carried up and down from floor to
floor and from the top to the basement, and much unnecessary labour
is thereby saved. In the two-storied houses the lift is unnecessary. A
flight of outer steps leads to the upper or kitchen floor.
The warming and ventilation of the houses is carried out by a common
and simple plan. The cheerfulness of the fireside is not sacrificed;
there is still the open grate in every room, but at the back of
the firestove there is an air-box or case which, distinct from the
chimney, communicates by an opening with the outer air, and by another
opening with the room. When the fire in the room heats the iron
receptacle, fresh air is brought in from without, and is diffused
into the room at the upper part on a plan similar to that devised by
Captain Galton.
As each house is complete within itself in all its arrangements, those
disfigurements called back premises are not required. There is a wide
space consequently between the back fronts of all houses, which space
is, in every instance, turned into a garden square, kept in neat
order, ornamented with flowers and trees, and furnished with
playgrounds for children, young and old.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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