9 Weight in Building as the New Economical factor.
2As may be seen in the airplane or automobile, elimination of weight goes hand in hand with perfection. Superfluous weight produces friction and spells inefficiency in transportation. All goods including those of housing must be transported. Therefor, the elimination of weight in materials becomes more and more an important factor in civilization. Materials will be used by virtue of their efficiency of weight in proportion to their successful fulfillment of a set function. The new building will be full of light (health giving light), Lithesomeness, and beauty hitherto unconceived of. With great elimination in the cost of labor, due to production methods, much additional money or capital can be put into better materials.
3 In our present modern residence, speaking of the best of the type or the masonry house, one will be astounded to learn that such a country residence weighs almost three times as much per useful cubic foot as the modern skyscraper. On the other hand it is in no way as fireproof or substantial as the skyscraper. All the materials that go to make up the weight in a residence constitute but approximately one third of its cost, the other two thirds being for labor. At that, profits have been taken all along the line on these materials, many more times than they would be in centralized production.
4 When we view a modern apartment house of twenty stories, going up with its, let us say, 80 upright members or H sections of steel, of approximately 1/2 a square foot, cross-sectional area each, making in all 40 square feet of cross-sectional supporting area; and we compare this to our best modern residence of two stories, let us say a very small one of 30 or 40 feet in dimensions, or a total length around the house of one hundred and forty feet, with a masonry wall one foot thick, affording a supporting area for this small residence of one hundred and forty square feet as opposed to the forty for the skyscraper, the masonry wall having approximately the same compressive strength as the steel; then do we realize the frightful inefficiency of the individual home as at present built.