XL. Co-operative Houses

Any one who has penetrated to the less fashionable outskirts of a modern town must have observed those long rows of mean dwellings which encroach on the surrounding country, and must have felt what a melancholy thing it must be to live there. One cannot but think that there should be some better way of living than that which finds expression in these sordid streets. The house of a civilised people should convey something more than the callous commercialism of the speculative builder, and should be arranged on some better principle than that which merely aims at crowding as many as possible into a given space. In this matter the savage who decks his primitive dwelling with brightly painted carving is more advanced than we, and of all the habitations of man, surely none have quite reached such an expression of sordid meanness as the modern street of modern villa residences.

Let us a consider for a moment one of these rows of little houses, all exactly alike, and each with its gas-meter under the stairs, its scraper on the front doorstep, its linoleum in the narrow hall, the patent cooking-range and its incapable cook in the kitchen.

Here it would seem that a great saving of labour and expense might be effected by centralising the functions of cooking and heating in these houses, and by providing one large fire and one capable cook to take the place of a dozen incapable cooks and a dozen miniature cooking-ranges.

The difficulty of such a reform would appear to be that in the combination of the family units, which it would involve, what is gained in convenience and economy may be lost in privacy and comfort; for while, as the copy-book maxim says, “union is strength,” the strength of the community is generally obtainable only at some sacrifice of its individuals, and while the bundle of arrows is not so readily broken as the single shaft, their feathers may be sorely ruffled by their close contact with each other.

And so the centripetal force, which urges the desirability of combination, is opposed by a centrifugal one which, in the interests of individual development, tends to keep our houses isolated and self-contained. And thus the problem seems to resolve itself into a compromise between these opposing tendencies to secure the benefits of union and co-operation, and yet not to lose the advantages of privacy.

It is proposed, in the scheme for an arrangement of small houses here illustrated, to replace the servants of the individual house by a central staff of trained domestics under skilled supervision, and to provide the necessary accommodation for their work and habitation in the shape of one well-appointed kitchen, with the necessary offices, sitting-room and bedrooms, thus removing from the house all that portion of the premises devoted to the servants.

Again, the small dining-rooms of the houses are replaced by one large central apartment, where the occupants of a group of houses could enjoy well-cooked food in spacious surroundings, while still, where required, food could be conveyed to the separate houses where special conditions made it desirable.

Having thus centralised the functions of feeding and service, the next consideration would be the centralisation of heating, which would be effected by hot air or hot water supplemented in the separate houses by the open fire.

In seeking for the type of plan which would be most suitable tor such a group of houses, the college court with its central hall and cloisters at once suggests itself. A covered approach to the central hall from the various houses is thus provided, and the whole arrangement is one which is admirably adapted to artistic treatment.

In the plan illustrated, such an arrangement on a small scale is shown, comprising twelve separate houses, which vary slightly in their accommodation, but contain on an average two sitting-rooms on the ground floor, with four bedrooms and bathroom, &c., above, and in the roof one or two attics.

These houses are placed round three sides of the square, which a further addition to their number would enclose, leaving merely a covered carriage entrance. In the centre of the south side is the central hall, beneath which is the kitchen and offices, and over which are the bedrooms for the servants and accommodation for the mistress. Adjoining the hall are lavatories and cloak-rooms, and over this lower portion, in a mezzanine floor, is a reading-room.

The building is surrounded by ample garden-space, where, instead of curly paths and shapeless shrubberies of the villa, there are square lawns enclosed by yew hedges, an orchard with brick paths set in the grass, pergolas and arbours, and all the other features of the old English gardens. It may be questioned whether such a setting is altogether admissible in a scheme which professes an economical basis, but it is not suggested that this group of houses should be tied to a railway station, where land is dear and space limited. One of the promised results of modern advance in locomotion has been the practical possibility of living in the country, and one of the features of the scheme proposed is a motor ‘bus, which would convey the occupants at stated times to their business or pleasure.

It is a question as to what degree the features of the individual house should be retained or merged into the general use, and it might possibly be advisable to set apart a portion of the garden to be divided up into small private gardens for the individual houses; or again, in the central dining-hall, on a larger scale a series of recesses might be arranged, allotted to individual families. For the benefit of those who wish to retain the possibility of the simpler forms of cooking in their own house, such as the preparation of a simple breakfast or tea, at least one of the fireplaces in the sitting-rooms would be of a type suitable for such purposes, and the presence in the room of necessary appliances for such operations would help to give it that quality of homeliness which is so difficult to obtain in a room where the china is merely for show. Many minor improvements would probably suggest themselves in a more complete and exhaustive study of the scheme, which is here advanced in a tentative way, but the central and inevitable fact is the economy of labour which must result from the co-operative system of dwelling.