the war the proportion was usually much lower than that, rarely more than 15%, and often even lower.
Architectural merits—the plan
But the greatest merit of the garden apartment is, that it offers the wage-earner an ideal home. Economy and efficiency, essential as they are in industrial housing, will not alone suffice unless the housing is humanly attractive and personal, for these are the qualities which create the ideal home. Some understanding of the architecture of the garden apartment is therefore desirable.
The plan is the basis of architecture, and never was this truth more evident than in the case of the garden apartment. The most striking characteristic of its plan is openness—openness which allows a maximum of daylight in the buildings, circulation of air and garden space. Specifically, the openness of the Bayonne plan is indicated by the fact that the buildings cover only 36% of the area of the site, whereas the older types of tenement usually cover 70% or 80% or even more. In Bayonne nearly two-thirds of the plot is devoted to lawns and gardens. As a result there is ample space for fore-lawns along the streets, and, for its most important feature, a huge centre garden which extends the whole length of the block. The openness has the additional merit of allowing the buildings to be isolated, in contrast to the usual practice of not separating them.
Such openness of plan requires large-scale design, in which the city block, taken as a whole, is the proper unit. At Bayonne the experiment took in only about one-half of a long city block, a plot fronting on three streets, East 11th and East 12th Streets and Avenue "E." This size proved sufficient to demonstrate the efficiency of large-scale planning, not only in respect to ideal architecture, but also as regards economy of production cost, which, as pointed out in previous pages, necessitates large-scale operation.
The houses provide homes for 149 families, generally in four, five and six-room apartments. Each apartment has a fully equipped bathroom, and the six-room apartments have, in addition, a shower-bathroom, as will be explained later.
Five buildings were planned, of which four are on a unit plan, and are typical of the architectural ideal. These typical unit buildings house 26 families each. The fifth building, fronting
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