Housing and Interior Design Questions and Answers

Answer: D

The value of a colour can be changed by adding white.

Value is the lightness or darkness of a colour. Adding white raises the value and makes a tint, and adding black lowers it and makes a shade.

Adding the complementary colour or grey dulls a colour, and increasing intensity makes it brighter; these change intensity (chroma), the purity or strength of the hue, which is a different property from value.

Answer: B

This is formal balance.

Formal (symmetrical) balance is achieved when identical objects are placed at equal distances on either side of a central axis, so one half mirrors the other, for example matching lamps on either side of a sofa. It gives a dignified, stable effect.

Informal (asymmetrical, or occult) balance uses objects of different size or weight placed at different distances so that they balance visually. Radial balance arranges elements around a centre point, like a round table setting.

Answer: C

The ideal orientation of a kitchen is east.

An east-facing kitchen gets the morning sun when most cooking is done, giving natural light and helping dry and freshen the room, and it stays cooler in the afternoon when the sun is in the west. Indian house-planning guides therefore recommend the east or south-east for the kitchen.

A south or south-west kitchen receives the hot afternoon sun and becomes uncomfortably warm, and a north-facing kitchen gets little direct sunlight.

Answer: A

Cross ventilation is achieved by placement of openings on opposite walls.

Cross ventilation needs an inlet and an outlet on opposite (or adjacent) walls, so that wind pressure drives fresh air in through one opening and stale air out through the other across the room.

Many windows on one wall do not create a through-flow, ceiling fans only stir air already in the room, and an exhaust hood removes cooking fumes locally; none of them produces cross ventilation.

Answer: B

The widest selection of real wood patterns comes from veneers.

Veneers are thin slices of real wood cut from logs by rotary, flat or quarter slicing. Different cutting methods and species give an enormous range of grain figures, and veneers of rare and expensive woods can be glued to cheaper boards, so designers can choose almost any real wood pattern economically.

Solid planks are limited by the species and sizes available, laminates usually carry a printed wood pattern rather than real wood, and plywood's own face is ordinary unless it is faced with a veneer.

Answer: C

The University's key gives Adding green.

In colour theory the intensity (chroma or saturation) of a hue is its purity or brightness, and it is lowered by mixing in the hue's complement, the colour opposite it on the colour wheel, which absorbs part of the light the hue reflects and so dulls it. Green is the complement of red on the traditional wheel, so adding green is the textbook way to change the intensity of a red. The stem does not name the colour, so the key reads "green" as the complementary-colour method, and that is the reading under which the item has an answer.

Adding white and adding black change the value of a colour, making a tint or a shade, not its intensity. "Increase in pigment concentration" is not the rule that home-science texts give for intensity, and I found no source that does; it is the weakest of the four reasons to choose. The item is loosely worded because green only works against red, but nothing found shows the key to be wrong, so it is kept.

Answer: B

Balance can be obtained by symmetry.

Balance is the principle of design that gives a sense of equal visual weight on either side of a centre. Symmetrical or formal balance places identical or similar objects on both sides of a central line, as with two matching lamps on either side of a sofa. Asymmetrical or informal balance achieves the same equilibrium with different objects.

The other options produce rhythm, a different principle. Repetition, progression (gradation in size or colour) and transitional lines lead the eye from one part of a design to another; they create movement, not balance.

Answer: A

The keyed answer is Material Specification.

When a family builds a house, the obvious decisions, the site, the architect and the budget, get most of the attention. The specification of materials, which lays down the type, quality and grade of cement, steel, bricks, wood, fittings and finishes, is often left vague, although it decides the house's durability, maintenance cost and final expense.

Choosing a suitable location, obtaining an architect's services and estimating the cost are the steps families do attend to, so the home-management texts single out material specification as the factor overlooked.

Answer: D

The least cost-efficient source is the incandescent lamp.

An incandescent bulb makes light by heating a filament, so about 90 per cent or more of its energy is lost as heat. Its efficacy is only about 10 to 17 lumens per watt and its life is short, so it costs the most to run. Its warm, even light was traditionally used to wash walls with light, but it is the least economical to operate.

LEDs are the most efficient, fluorescent lamps several times more efficient than incandescent, and halogen lamps, though also filament lamps, are somewhat more efficient and longer-lived than ordinary incandescent bulbs.

Answer: A

The sink suitable for wheelchair users is the wall hung sink.

A wall hung sink is fixed directly to the wall with no cabinet or pedestal below. This leaves knee and toe clearance underneath, so a wheelchair user can roll up close, and the sink can be mounted at a lower, accessible height. Accessibility guidelines recommend this kind of open space under washbasins.

A pedestal sink has a column below that blocks the wheelchair, an undermount sink is usually set into a counter over a cabinet, and a vessel sink sits on top of the counter, raising the rim too high to reach comfortably from a seat.