British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume II - Page 809

CHAPTER XVIII.

coming forward. During the week ending 22nd July, 2,200 tons of Mild Steel Reinforcing Bars and 120 tons of Galvanised Iron pipes were off-loaded in Haifa. We have been less fortunate in the orders for Mild Steel sheets, which were placed in the U.S.A., but the latest reports indicate that 175 tons will be ready for shipment early in September. Should there be no undue delay in the provision of shipping space and the transfer of the shipment from Egyptian ports to Haifa it is probable that these Mild Steel sheets will arrive in time to enable door frames for the first buildings to be manufactured in time. The position regarding timber is now a little more promising than it has been for some time, as the following figures show:

Stocks available in Palestine for the Emergency Building Scheme amount to 300 M3, 1000 M3 are expected to be loaded in Portugal before the end of July, Turkey has 1000 M3 ready for shipment and 1200 M3 are expected to arrive from Canada early in September.

No information has yet been received regarding shipments of timber from the United States. Efforts are now being made to secure a quota of timber from Sweden, that country having been added to the available loading areas within the past fortnight.

5. The Scheme, the official title of which is The Emergency Building Scheme, 1945, comprises the provision of materials for 27,000 Nominal Room Units. As already explained on a number of occasions, a Nominal Room Unit is a hypothetical conception comprising 27 square metres of built-over area, comprising one room plus its share of ancillary accommodation such as Hall, Kitchen, Bathroom, etc. The precise definition, for technical reasons slightly more complicated by the foregoing, is sufficient for general purposes. In the case of very small houses of one or two rooms, in order to give the Architect more freedom of action, some latitude is given as to the built-over area. In the case of a house of one room, the area of 27 square metres may be exceeded by not more than 12%; in the case of a two room house the allowable margin is 7 1/2%. The area of a three room house, viz. 81 square metres, is sufficient for all normal designs and no excess margin is allowed. In the case of a multi-storey building - that is to say, what is known as the Urban Type, the built over area is allowed to be increased by the area of the staircases, which are not regarded as being included in the definition of a Nominal Room Unit. The materials allowed for Urban units are slightly in excess of those to be provided for houses of the suburban type in order to make provision for the construction of staircases. The extra allowance of materials permitted for the Urban Type of construction are as follows:-

Steel 50%, timber for shuttering 26% and cement 7.7%. In the case of other materials, no additional provision is made as these are regarded as being independent of type.

6. The Scheme, being intended for the relief of congestion in the four main towns of Palestine, applies in general to the Town Planning Areas of Jerusalem, Jaffa, Tel Aviv and Haifa, but in order to discourage profiteering in land, the ap pl icut.ion of any person desirous of building on a. plot of land within a 30 mil bus fare of the centre of the main town will receive consideration. Each case must, of course, be decided by having re-

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