International studio (43.1911)

Designs for a Village Hall



DESIGN FOR A VILLAGE HALL

BY “ CHOKRA ” (GORDON SANDERSON)

Saracenic colour; Portuguese men in fishing-
boats with lateen sail atilt, make picturesque
studies along the wharves. Within the thickly-
populated districts Chinese and Japanese in
quaint costumes fill every available crack and
cranny ; while French, German, Italian and
Spanish restaurants give Bohemian sustenance
and character to the artist life and help to make
an ideal studio as well as all-year sketching
ground of California.
SOME REMARKS UPON A SERIES
OF DESIGNS FOR A VILLAGE
HALL.
JUDGING by the response made to our invita-
tion to architectural designers to submit designs
132

for a village hall, the
problem seems to have
been one which has ap-
pealed to a considerable
number of them, princi-
pally, it would appear,,
from the simple nature
of the conditions, and
also on account of the
absence of any limit in
cost — that bugbear of
designers. This condi-
tion was intentionally
omitted in order that
each designer might be
free to deal with the
problem in his own way and with regard to local
circumstances familiar to him, but the fact of
the hall being intended for a village of course
implied that the building was to be one in
which simplicity and picturesqueness should be
the dominant notes. These characteristics, the
former especially, make for an economy in ex-
penditure that was adhered to by nearly all those
who sent in designs. Still, though on the whole
this is true, there are cases in which the esti-
mated cost seems altogether too high for a village
hall and its simple adjuncts. Dannwin, for
example, proposes /"3,730 as the cost of a
building which certainly has a remarkably
good plan, and in which he introduces a
space for properties (see illustrations, pp. 134,
135).