149° 



The Cornell Reading-Courses 



In general, an intricate or confused plan is always a poor one ; the more 

 carefully an arrangement is studied, the simpler it should become. Briefly 

 stated, the final test of a good plan is its extreme simplicity. Starting 

 at the main entrance, one should be able to proceed mentally through 

 the plan with ease and comprehension. For the most part the walls 

 vshould be in continuous, straight lines and should show an absence of 

 jogs, angles, and diagonal comers. Windows may be grouped or single, 

 but should be disposed in an orderly manner with relation both to 

 interior and to exterior appearance. 



The plans shown in Figs. 62, 64, and 65 are a reasonable protest against 

 the old wasteful types of farm dwellings. Our study of these plans will 

 serve to show in what respects the modern rural house should differ from 



former arrangements. 

 A living-room now 

 combines the unused 

 parlor and the over- 

 used sitting-room into 

 a large room for gen- 

 eral family life; an 

 office where the far- 

 mer's business is 

 transacted is pro- 

 vided in a place con- 

 venient to roadway 

 and barn, but outside 

 the path of housework travel ; the kitchen arrangement is compact and well 

 organized; the downstairs bedrooms (where these still occur) open, not from 

 other rooms, but from a private hall, thus insuring quiet and privacy 

 (Figs. 6 ib and 64) ; a bathroom is provided on'either the first or the second 

 floor, according to water pressure; if possible all the bedrooms are 

 provided with windows on two sides; the large hall with open stairs 

 has given way to a more condensed arrangement ; a generous porch or 

 uncovered terrace is placed where it either commands the best vict- 

 or is most useful during the day; the family hearth has literally returned 

 in the living-room fireplace; and the whole plan is so arranged that the 

 rooms lived in most are the sunniest. 



A dwelling combining the above features is illustrated in Figs. 68 and 69. 

 Wisely studied and frankly arranged, without a foot of waste room, this 

 structure represents a type of farmhouse that is economical to build, 

 to heat, and to work. The stairs for the whole house are contained in 

 one vertical shaft; the hall is reduced to a small area; an office is placed 

 near the roadway and away from the housewife's work, which is accom- 



Fig. 68. — A farmhouse of low, pleasing mass, appropriate 

 to flat or rolling country 



