Title:
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An ergonomic evaluation of domestic storage facilities
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The adequacy of a nations' housing is not only a central
feature of its living standards but can also serve as a
reflection of socio-political involvement and development. Its
structural dimensions will have a direct bearing on life style
which, in turn will regulate the demand for consumer goods of
many kinds.
The sociological desirability of adequate housing has
now progressed beyond the confines of the sanitary school of
thought associated with Edwin Chadwick, (Dilke 1885) but
how far is still a matter of conjecture. Much of the Newsom
Report (1963) on the education of children aged 13 - 16 of
'average or less than average ability', and a great part of the
Plowden Report (1967) on primary education was addressed to
the Minister of Housing and Local Government rather than to
the Secretary of State for Education and Science.
Houses, although "consumers' goods" because they are
used directly by the people who live in them, possess certain
characteristics that sufficiently distinguish them to place
them in a "consumers' goods" category of their own. And it
is some of these features that have been responsible for
lack of progress, both in the provision of quantity and
quality in the housing field. As Bowley (1945) states,
''Houses have certain very tiresome and peculiar economic
characteristics. From the point of view of economists they
are neither 'fish, fowl nor good red herring'." The distinguishing features are, of course, their high capital cost and extreme
durability. And, of the two, the high capital cost has been
the predominant factor in the provision of housing for the
vast population of average and below average income.
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