OCR Text |
Show H THE WOMAN ARCHITECT. IT IS a curious thing, when all is considered, that so few women h take up the high following of B architecture. It is an occupation H which callB for no such amount of B labor as a normal woman could not H perform, and one in which the expert- H ence and the peculiar taste of women H would be valuable. All housekeeping H women know the disadvantages of liv- HL ing in houses designed, constructed, H and provided with accessories accord- B ing to the ideas of men. They know H also the ill concealed irritation of the H architect whose preconceived ideas are B , opposed to those of his practical H femine client. H ' Take, for example, the mere ques- H tion of gas jets or electric lights de- H pending from the ceiling. In seventy- H Ave cases out of a hundred the height BH has been decided upon by men and H are too high for the woman of aver- H age height to reach. Or take the H matter of kitchen sinks. Men have H i decided upon a certain height for P51 them, and only hysteric importunities BMB can induce them to raise them so that HBm they will not give the women working at them a pain in the side. Women are worn out taking unnecessary steps about the house because rooms do not bear the right relation to each other. The closets are not numerous nor commodious enough to enable the housekeeper to preserve order. The pantry shelves are too high, there is too muoh distance between them; and there is not the right provision made for food. Windows are unnecessarily high, floors are not prepared in such a manner man-ner as to retain their good appearance; proper room is not povided for beds; the small drawing rooms of bungalows bunga-lows and apartment houses are so broken up with needlessly wide doors, with consoles and windows, that there la no place for living In them or, at least, of giving them the appearance of anything more than an antechamber. Wall space is necessary to comfort. It is the settle, the book shelves, the piano, the pictures on the wall, the open Are, and the reading table with Its good lamp that make a comfortable comfort-able living1 room. Yawning door spaoe, gaping windows, rattling consolas, and a pest of draperies never will do it. Women who understand home-making know that. What they wish for Is not an architect's effect but a chance to make each member of he family comfortable. com-fortable. And they know how to do it, but they are forced to take up with man-made roms, which have a certain effect, but which are lacking in real home adaptability. Now, a woman architect would understand un-derstand what women wanted. She would realize that home is a woman's world. That her ingenuity, her talent, tal-ent, her physical strength are put to the test there, and she would or, at least, it may be assumed that she would be patient with feminino ideas and would learn to adapt herself to them, and, in turn, to adapt them to the demands of consistent and artislc architecure. It is quite conceivable that women architects of ability would find themselves much in the favor of their house building sisters. |