Herzl, Theodor, 1860-1904; Zionism; Zionists -- Austria -- Biography
The Company will thus barter houses and estates. It must be plain to
any one who has observed the rise in the value of land through its
cultivation that the Company will be bound to gain on its landed
property. This can best be seen in the case of enclosed pieces of land
in town and country. Areas not built over increase in value through
surrounding cultivation. The men who carried out the extension of
Paris made a successful speculation in land which was ingenious in its
simplicity; instead of erecting new buildings in the immediate
vicinity of the last houses of the town, they bought up adjacent
pieces of land, and began to build on the outskirts of these. This
inverse order of construction raised the value of building sites with
extraordinary rapidity, and, after having completed the outer ring,
they built in the middle of the town on these highly valuable sites,
instead of continually erecting houses at the extremity.
Will the Company do its own building, or employ independent
architects? It can, and will, do both. It has, as will be shown
shortly, an immense reserve of working power, which will not be
sweated by the Company, but, transported into brighter and happier
conditions of life, will nevertheless not be expensive. Our geologists
will have looked to the provision of building materials when they
selected the sites of the towns.
What is to be the principle of construction?
WORKMEN'S DWELLINGS
The workmen's dwellings (which include the dwellings of all
operatives) will be erected at the Company's own risk and expense.
They will resemble neither those melancholy workmen's barracks of
European towns, not those miserable rows of shanties which surround
factories; they will certainly present a uniform appearance, because
the Company must build cheaply where it provides the building
materials to a great extent; but the detached houses in little gardens
will be united into attractive groups in each locality. The natural
conformation of the land will rouse the ingenuity of our young
architects, whose ideas have not yet been cramped by routine; and even
if the people do not grasp the whole import of the plan, they will at
any rate feel at ease in their loose clusters. The Temple will be
visible from long distances, for it is only our ancient faith that has
kept us together. There will be light, attractive, healthy schools for
children, conducted on the most approved modern systems. There will be
continuation-schools for workmen, which will educate them in greater
technical knowledge and enable them to become intimate with the
working of machinery. There will be places of amusement for the proper
conduct of which the Society of Jews will be responsible.
We are, however, speaking merely of the buildings at present, and not
of what may take place inside of them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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