SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE Social architecture comprises all buildings for human residence, recreation, entertainment and health. Not long ago, the home provided for all these activities. To-day they are more highly specialized, and are more and more taken care of in specially de signed buildings. The theatre, picture house, stadium, athletic club, etc., provide recreation. The sick and dependent are minis tered to in public and private hospitals, sanatoria, orphanages, etc. This custom is growing to such an extent that many people, particularly in cities, do little more at home than sleep and enter tain their friends.
A tendency to provide co-operatively for domestic drudgery has had fairly steady growth since 1885. The factory has increasingly taken over the work of the home: food is supplied in ready-cooked form ; clothes are washed in quantity; heat and light are automatically provided. Even small dwellings are now being brought into groups. The construction of homes by individual owners has diminished steadily since the World War, not only due to these new methods, or to the burdens laid upon wealth, but to the difficulty of obtaining competent domestic servants also. The large house is dependent on this class of worker which, drawn away by the war, was unwilling to return to domestic duties at its close. (See also SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE;
