A good number of the houses too might be open to the road or green. The unfenced common coming right up to one’s doorstep, always gives a charming sense of openness whether viewed from within or from without; a sense in no way diminished by the contrast that occasional fenced gardens or forecourts offer where the houses are set back somewhat. All sorts of individual tastes and needs would afford opportunity for obtaining variety: the one thing to be avoided at all costs would be the producing of anything like a street of detached villas.
The common insatiable desire for detachment is very remarkable; it appears to arise mainly from a resigned acceptance of the jerry builder’s party wall as the inevitable one. Everyone suspects a party wall, looks to hear through it his neighbour’s child in the dead of night, or his piano on a Sunday afternoon. Guarantee a sound-proof party wall, and few will be able to give any valid reason why there should be from ten to fifty feet of useless ground between every two houses. In a properly built house, one is really much less conscious of one’s neighbour, and much less over-looked by him, if his house is attached, than if it is a few yards away. Where it is desired, however, many minor devices, such as a highly walled garden or a covered-in yard, may be used with effect to increase the number of separate houses without destroying the grouping.
Artistically, the success of the plan would depend largely on the clustering of the buildings, the avoidance of mere rows on the one hand and of detached villas on the other. But, in addition, some controlling influence must maintain a certain degree of harmony. The use of local materials as far as possible should be encouraged, and the introduction of discordant colours or styles of building be prevented. The extremest degree of simplicity should be allowed, but anything pretentious, showy, or false, be rigidly excluded. Probably this general control could be best secured by giving to some architect in full sympathy with the scheme powers similar to those usually possessed by the agent of a large ground landlord, though exercised in the latter case more often to maintain the value of the property than its beauty.
The question of design in the individual building is one that cannot be touched on here, though obviously a matter of vital importance to the degree of beauty attainable; rather I seek to emphasize the great advance which is possible to us by a right use of such taste and designing ability as may be readily commanded to-day. So soon as the desire for some collective beauty in our buildings has been stimulated, the chief difficulty will have been overcome. If by some little co-operation we can arouse interest and pride in the matter, time will develop that collective appreciation of what is fitting, to which we must look for final success.
Association for mutual help in various ways is undoubtedly the growing influence which is destined to bring to communities that crystalline structure which was so marked a feature of feudal society, and the lack of which is so characteristic of our own. When our new settlements begin to feel this influence they will again take on some of the unity which comes from organic growth. And as this influence increases in force, and interest and thought become more and more centred in the communal institutions and buildings, so will these begin to grow in beauty; for the people will wish to adorn them. The beauty of the village and its public buildings will then become a first consideration, and the pride of the inhabitants will be displayed in these, not in the aggressive elaboration of their own houses.
There is the more hope of this because the practical advantages to be derived from such co-operation as suggested, are so great and obvious as to form just such a reliable basis of utility as is required for the healthy growth of art. Without going fully into this side of the question, a few of the more obvious directions in which co-operation could help people of limited means, after they had associated for the purpose of purchasing and developing their settlement, may be referred to. The improvement and use of the land not required for building purposes, by draining, planting of fruit trees, or the erection of a suitable dairy, would be one of the first and most important of these; this would secure a good supply of pure milk and fresh farm produce, and at the same time allow the open ground to be enjoyed to the full for recreative purposes. A laundry would be another enterprise specially easy to organize on co-operative lines, and even in a village too small to support a fully staffed laundry, it would make all the difference if everyone could have the advantage of a well appointed wash-house instead of having to use the ordinary inconvenient cramped scullery with no proper appliances. In a community where several business men daily journeyed to the town, a co-operative conveyance to and from the station could be arranged in connection with the farm, as could also the general carriage and cartage requirements. In providing education for the young and recreation for all, association would be invaluable; while it could easily be used as a means of buying, on advantageous terms, in large quantities, commodities which cannot economically be obtained in the country in small quantities, and of securing many valuable services for all which would be out of the reach of individuals.
It is of course not necessary that the first steps towards the development of such a building scheme should be taken by the prospective tenants. A landowner might well work on this line; he would find in it a means of adding greatly to the value of estates which might not be available for an ordinary building scheme. If he would lay out a plot of land and offer to all comers a site of such size as they wanted with sufficient open land between them and any future buildings that might block their view secured by perpetual guarantee, he would get plenty of applications even in positions that are not the most favourable. He could also, by building some houses of various sizes and carefully grouping them, give an example of the sort of building he would encourage, which would soon be followed. By retaining some control of plans for buildings to be carried out by others on his land, he would be able to secure a general harmony and a consistent development. He could too enlist the interest of his tenants or purchasers in the growth of the colony, and foster among them co-operative effort in that direction.
On the same lines, also, the state or municipal landlord might relieve the over-crowding in towns by developing hamlets and villages in the out-lying districts wherever they had, or could get, suitable land. And even in the towns and immediately surrounding suburbs, much might be done to remove the dreary ugliness of the streets by the use of co-operation in building, and by the fostering of it in the occupants of the houses. The arrangement would need to be different for a town or suburb, where land would be costly, from that suggested for a village. For just as the price of land in the centre of cities regulates to a large extent the height to which it is profitable to carry up the buildings, so on the outskirts it must determine the area of land that can be allowed to each house. By co-operation it may be secured, however, that all the land which can be afforded shall be available to give air and outlook to all alike, while its actual occupation can be reserved for those who really want a garden.