View report page

42
The Ministry of Housing and Local Government recently
published a booklet illustrating 20 different plans with the object
of preserving essential housing standards while reducing capital
costs and rents.
These plans keep the minimum room sizes of the Housing
Manual 1949 and they also give an "aggregate living space" on
the ground floor of at least 320 sq. ft. for a three-bedroom house
for five persons, or 280 sq. ft. for a two-bedroom house for four
persons.
The "aggregate living space" is the combined area of the
ground floor living room, sitting room and kitchen. It does not
include a wash-house or a utility room if contained in a separate
outbuilding.
Subject to these standards the aim is to reduce the overall
size of the house as far as can reasonably be done, and to plan a
house in which the circulation space taken up by hall, passage and
lobbies is reduced to a minimum.
The Council have 19 of the 20 types under construction at
Northolt Park Estate at the moment. Comparison of the various
types can therefore be made, in the near future, with houses built
before, or designed, before January, 1952.
There are three broad groups of these two and three bedroom
houses:
Group 1. Plans on orthodox lines, with reduced circulation space.
Group 2. Plans on orthodox lines, with variations in the method
of access from the front to the back of the house.
Group 3. The "Dining Hall" House, with stairs rising from the
dining space.
Group 4. The "Large Living Room" House with stairs rising from
the living room and whole house heated by radiators.
All the plans are based on varying factors:
(a) Whether separate access from the entrance hall to the
kitchen is provided.
(b) How access is to be given from the front to the back of
the house.
(c) Whether storage is outside or within the house; and
(d) The use of a particular type of heating installation,