632
in front. With a design such as this the rooms on the lower storeys are dark, and oppressively hot and close owing to obstruction of light and stagnation of the air/
12. On a further examination of Plate VII it will be seen that notwithstanding the provision of a back-yard to each house, the design practically leads to the formation of back to back buildings and when analysed resolves itself into 3 blocks of buildings, two of which are the dwelling houses and the third the kitchens forming the middle block, which is separated from the others by narrow spaces called back-yards. The benefits intended to be derived from the back-yard are counteracted by the high build- ing in the centre. With this obstruction removed a far greater amount of light and air would have been admitted into the different rooms, for the block of kitchens which form the obstruction occupy a space of 21 feet 6 inches in depth which, added to the two back-yards, would have made a combined open space in the rear of 42 feet in width which is a greater amount of space than is required by an angle of 56° and a good deal more space than that required by an angle of 63°. The houses on both sides are rendered insanitary by the three extra storeys of kitchen building,
If a kitchen or outhouses had been only required on the ground floor, which is usually the case with European houses in this Colony, and which at the most, are only 12 or 15 feet in height, the design of the kitchen building behind the back- yard and against that of the house in the rear would not have been objectionable except for the absence of a scavenging lane between then, because, out-buildings of the height mentioned would not have obstructed the light and air of the lower storeys of the dwelling houses when the main buildings above that height were separated from one another by a space of over 40 feet. The usual arrangement in Europe to facilitate scavenging, is to have behind the out-buildings an additional small back-lane and such a lane is especially necessary in tropical towns.
This back-lane has been in some instances adopted in Hongkong but, as the kitchens on each storey form a building sometimes of a height of nearly 60 feet, the back-lane does not serve to increase the area of open spare available for light and ventilation between the backs of the houses, as is the case when it is between out-buildings of only 12 or 15 feet in height, but it only adds a fresh place for the deposit of filth. The back-lane, behind high kitchens even when the latter have windows facing the lane, which is often not the case, can at the best only affect the kitchens and not the dwelling rooms of the house while for scavenging pur- poses a lane of this kind is ineffectual because for it to be used as such everything would have to be thrown from the windows which is not a desirable practice to encourage. Seeing that in tenement houses, which practically means over 90 per cent. of Chinese houses, there must be a kitchen on each storey for the use of the occupants it is necessary to adopt some other position for the kitchen than that in the rear of the back-yard and this position must be such as not to obstruct the light of the dwelling room, while securing in the rear of the houses, by means of combined back-yards and a scavenging lane, a sufficient distance between opposite buildings to prevent the crowding together of buildings, and to secure an adequate amount of space for light and ventilation of the dwelling rooms
seaf
But
Back-lanes situated behind kitchen buildings in the rear of back-yards do not light and ventilate the dwelling house. There are houses now being constructed in the Colony which are not only provided with back-yards but also with 15 feet back-lanes, yet because of the position of the kitchen, the back-lane is rendered useless for the purpose of bringing light and a free circulation of air to the dwelling house, as the supply of light and air obtainable from the back-lane is obstructed by the high building containing the kitchens and never reaches the dwelling rooms of the house for which it was intended. The fact is both back-yard and back-lane are rendered ineffective because of defects in the arrangement and design of the house This is exemplified in accompanying sketch A where the kitchen building is between the back-yard and back-lane.