254 



LANDSCAPE DESIGN 



mined units into which the surroundings of the house are to be di- 

 vided. (See Drawing XXIX, opposite.) 



The traffic from the street to the living portion of the house should 

 be sufficiently direct ; and where it can be arranged without too great 

 sacrifice, the pleasure traffic and the service traffic should be separated. 

 In any case, the roads should not unpleasantly break up the areas seen 

 from the living rooms of the house. The service traffic should be 

 reasonably direct to the service quarters, and should be as little con- 

 spicuous as possible from the house and from all portions of the grounds. 

 All this should be considered before the house location and orientation 

 is decided, for a small change in house location may make or mar 

 a good road arrangement. 



In the northern parts of the United States, the winters are long and 

 severe enough to make a southern aspect desirable at that season. 

 And in the greatest heat of the summer, when the sun is to be avoided 

 rather than sought, a great many families are away from their winter 

 homes. The west wind is usually a fair-weather wind, and a view into 

 the sunset is to be desired. Odors from the kitchen should not be car- 

 ried by the wind to the rest of the house. The wind most likely to do 

 this is the fair-weather wind of summer, when the windows are open, — 

 that is, the south and west wind. So the kitchen should preferably 

 not lie on the western side of the house. A southern and western aspect 

 is usually preferable for any main room. The living room, being the 

 most important, will probably be given this exposure. Of course the 

 direction and kind of the prevailing winds is different in different re- 

 gions, and this will much modify, or perhaps even reverse, the relative 

 desirability of different exposures in different cases. The dining room 

 should face the east, at least if also used as a breakfast room. If 

 there is a separate breakfast room, the dining room may get the south- 

 ern and western sun, and the breakfast room, alone, the eastern sun. 

 The kitchen, though it is likely to be relegated to the northeastern 

 corner, should have light and air on two sides. An ideally planned 

 house has no part of it, except some closets, without an outside window. 



The outlook from all the principal rooms of the house should be as 

 well composed, and as free from incongruous elements as may be. The 

 best view into the grounds or to a distant landscape should probably be 



