A Castle for Every Man 21 



Egyptians. They covered their roofs with a layer of wool and 

 had slaves douse them with water in the hot sunshine. 



Before designing any home, Keck carefully studies the 

 particular requirements and habits of the occupants. A Mis- 

 souri college professor liked to give large teas. Yet the family 

 itself was small and normally required no large living room. 

 Keck arranged the living, dining, and recreation rooms, all of 

 modest size, in such a way that through the use of sliding 

 walls the three rooms could be converted into one immense 

 living room. 



Keck believes that the rooms of a house should be arranged 

 so that it can grow and adapt itself to the family's changing 

 needs. The infants' nursery grows into the playroom of the 

 grade-school boy and girl; then into the recreation room of 

 the high-school youth; then into the private apartment of 

 the young married couple, who may lack the finances to sup- 

 port a separate home; and finally into the suite for Grandpa 

 and Grandma when the son and his bride have begun to rear 

 a family and need more of the house. 



"This sort of home," Keck says, "would preserve the dis- 

 tinct family units. It takes into consideration the changes that 

 develop in a family through a lifetime. It combines structural 

 permanence with perfect adaptability." 



Trading in Your Old Rooms 



Paul Nelson, an architect who has won fame throughout 

 Europe and America, believes a new and more flexible design 

 is needed for the prefabricated house. He envisions a house 

 made up of two distinct elements an exterior shell forming 

 an enclosed space, and the prefabricated unit rooms which are 

 grouped independently within. 



"There would be rooms adapted to the needs of cooking, 



