Transformación de conflictos

Cooking-centred/reception-segregated complexes (C>E=R and C>E/R types) embody 18% of plans published after 1914 in the British sample (table 3.19). They constitute 6.8% of upper residences, 32.9% of medium ones and 13.7% of small dwellings, mostly in the C>E/R version which accounts for 50% of houses in which eating and receiving share the same space. Another variation, the E/C>R assembles 63.3% of small dwellings with amalgamated eating and cooking functions.

Postwar C>E=R types, in general, have shown a tendency for configurating some of the most integrating complexes in the full sample with upper middle class ones tending to be also little differentiated and middling ones (as well as small cases, mainly of the C>E/R sort) split between medium and high

differentiation (figure 3.11 ). E/C>R cases however, showed a tendency for higher levels of segregation and little differentiation (figures 3.10/11 ).

In the selected sub-sample C>E=R and C>E/R types are, accordingly, the most integrated complexes (1.413 and 1.325 av.mean RRA, respectively). The former group displays the same average measure of differentiation as the sub­ sample (0.831 av.BDF) and the latter cluster is more differentiated (0.808 av.BDF), on average (table 4.5b). Their function/transition space ratios (1.15 and 1.1, respectively) are, however, very low. Average figures mean nothing for the two selected E/C>R cases since they configure extremely different complexes in terms of the relationship between integration and differentiation, one being very integrated, differentiated and economical in transition spaces, the other showing an inverted situation.

When the street and, specially the carrier is considered, all clusters become more integrated

Permeability graphs generate the usual backbone structure of transition

spaces but in some cases the living room (for eating or for eating and cooking) controls access to other function cells. When linked to the carrier two cases

present a social circuit besides the usual service ring.

The only shifting in genotype in the subsample affects C>E=R complexes which may become cooking-centred/eating-segregated when the carrier is added. Thus whereas in prewar houses the kitchen-integrated model reverted into a reception-integrated (or double reception-integrated) one in two cases, post-1914 C>R>E types remain kitchen-centred even when one of the

reception rooms link to the carrier, a fact that stresses the upgrading of the setting used for cooking into the limelight of domestic access, as verified.

All four C>E=R cases (houses 357, 419, 449 and 470) were considered as middle middle class and C>R/E (houses 399, 457 and 481) as well as E/C>R ones (houses 331 and 332) as lower middle class.

House 357 (figure 4.18a) is a house in Welwyn Garden City.^^ Its compact design translates into an also compact permeability graph whose transition core splits at a shallow level into a flock of ground floor rooms, all linking to the same transition segment (15) and, again, at the top into upstairs bedrooms. This instance is a very good example of an integrating/low differentiated complex in which whatever goes on in the ground floor area (but for the toilet room 16) is only and always two steps away from the next setting.and even the upstairs rooms are nearly as accessible as they could be.

House 449 (figure 4.18b) is a building at Bourne Hill, Southgate.'® The three chief day rooms link to a same segment (11) but less integration is

achieved due to the fragmented transition circuit on the first floor and to a linear sequence of cells in the service branch. Differentiation in the system is also high with some spaces directly connected to a central circulation node while in for others, access to the circulation core (spaces 9, 10 and 11) is controlled by

intervening spaces.

House 470 (figure 4.18c) was erected on the Brook Street Hill Estate, in Brentwood, Essex.'®' Again a long service branch and function rooms being linked to different transition segments contribute to reduce accessibility and

Idem, Feb. 16, 1923. '°°The Builder. Dec.30, 1927.

increase differentiation.

House 419 (figure 4.19a) was erected, in 1925, on the Mount Arrarat Estate, in Wimbledon.'® The long branch and the splittings of the circulation spine in different points, specially in extreme ones, contribute to a most spaces are fairly detached from all others. Integration is thus medium and differentiation very low.

House 337 (figure 4.19b) is a bungalow ... built with 'interloc’ bricks in Spalding. This is a kind of guidebook on how to achieve maximum differentiation between two adjacent spaces in a small complex which is also very economical in terms of its circulation network, or else, on how to integrate everybody and

segregate just one space without renouncing compactness. The living room is the most integrating space of all whereas the parlour is the most segregated.

House 332 (figure 4.19c) is another dwelling to form part of a total of 250 cottages on the Coleman Road Housing S t a t e . D e s p i t e having been

supposedly designed for the same class of inhabitants, of being both cooking- integrating/reception segregated complexes and of presenting a living room which also function as a transition space, this and the previous case could not be more diverse in configuration terms. Here the lesson seems to be on how to achieve maximum isolation for nearly every space. Although living room and parlour link to a same segment, the linear sequence of service-related cells linked to the former and the winding chain of circulation spaces which connect the upper floor seem to be the clue for fairly accessible living room and core transition spaces (14, 16 and 7) amidst a constellation of segregated cells.

House 481 (figure 4.20a) is part of a design for a housing scheme in a

mining district submitted to the RIBA as a testimony of study.'^ Its access graph shows that although function spaces link to different segments a balance in accessibility was reached since no long chains of intermediating transition spaces, other than the circulation core (14, 11 and 7) sets rooms apart. The

Idem, Sep. 17. 1926.

'"T h e Building News. Apr. 29, 1921 Idem, May 20, 1921.

configuration is thus quite integrated and very little differentiated.

House 399 (figure 4.20b) is part of a scheme for a close of twelve houses at Byfleet, Surrey, for the Chertsey Rural District Council.’* Here a fairly compact circulation system is counterbalanced by the service branch. The result is a very integrating complex with segregated bedrooms and store cells.

House 457 (figure 4.20.c) is part of the Grove Park Housing Scheme in Lewisham.’^ Its structure generates a fairly strong differentiation but

segregation is again restricted to bedrooms, toilet/bathrooms and storage cells whereas both day rooms — scullery and living room — link directly to the hub of movement (14).

The transition-space-centred model is, as always, very much evident among these houses. Two transition segments heads the RRA scale (table 4.6) in house 399, three in houses 470, 332 and 481, four in houses 357, 419 and 457 and five in house 449. The only function-centred complex is thus house 331.

The relation between transition fragmentation and less integration is generally strong although upset in some cases. For example, house 357 has a lower function/transition ratio than house 449, yet the former complex is more integrating than the latter and houses 481 and 399 have the same proportion of transition spaces but, again, the second of the two presents more general integration.

In some houses the centre of functional integration and the other day room (or rooms, in C>E=R types) are far apart in terms of accessibility signalling a strong opposition between family and visitors (331, 481 and 470). But in most cases (419, 399, 357, 449 and 457) the layout seems to encourage the merging of day activities, a suggested strong trend in cooking-centred complexes. As ‘merging’ types embody three out of the four middle middle class cooking- centred dwellings and two of the three ‘nonmerging’ ones are lower middle class, the tendency for higher integration in larger postwar houses is, again, confirmed.

Building News. Feb.20, 1925. Builder. Apr. 27, 1928.

When the minimal living complex is linked to the street by the front door the integration gap between the kitchen and the social sphere reduces in all C>E=R and C>E/R cases as does that between the living room and the main reception room in E/C>R cases, showing a tendency to reduce the segregation of the main reception room when the presence of visitors is considered.

The inclusion of alternative routes reduces the inhabitants versus visitors distance in most cases (331, 332, 449, 470 and 449) but increases that in houses 357, 399, 419 and 457. As two of these are middle middle class this might be, again, a suggestion that the carrier contributes to diminish the level of accessibility of the kitchen.

The repeatedly acknowledge fact that varying modes of articulating functions and people lie behind the apparent similarities of transition-space-centred complexes even when they share a common functional genotype seems to have been once more emphasised. Also confirmed was the increasing importance of the space used for cooking in later British homes. Eight cooking-centred cases were examined in the prewar sub-sample and seven (or nine, provided E/C>R types are considered as such) in the post-1914 sub­ sample. In two prewar cases the model reverted into a reception-centred one when the exterior was added whereas in the later sub-sample, although two genotypical alterations have also occurred, all cases remained kitchen-centred regardless of the way complexes were approached.

Despite the reduced scope of both sub-samples, the fact that these

observations are strongly backed by findings drawn from the analysis of the full sample appears to demonstrate beyond doubt that kitchens do take over other day activities as the locus of domestic integration in postwar British homes.