DOMINION CRUSADE SUGGESTED.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20492, 10 March 1932, Page 4

DOMINION CRUSADE SUGGESTED.

ARCHITECTS' VIEWS ON BUILDINGS. Recently the Minister for Health in Britain received-a report from a joint architects' committee referring to the preservation of rural England. This fact was commented upon by Mr H, Mandeno, president of the New Zealand Institute of Architects, in an address at the annual meeting. As the president remarked, the report pointed out that on the one hand there is a great store of architectural skill and judgment in Britain ready and anxious to work for the beautifying of England. On the other hand, there is a rapid increase in building which spoils the beauty of England by bad design, improper materials, bad sit. ing, or other offences—building which is often more expensive in itself than good building would be, and which lowers the economic value of its neighbourhood. Public Opinion. "It would be a fine thing," said Mr Mandeno, "if a crusade against unsightly and bad building could be fostered here. We are privileged to live in a very beautiful country, but man does his best to disfigure it with unsightly hoardings and ugly buildings. "Buildings we must have, but if we gonld only influence publis pginitm to

demand what is beautiful in building and to realise that simple and pleasing building may often bo substituted, at a less cost, many of the monstrosities one has to look at would disappear. "It is our duty to do all in our power to give of our best, and do what wo can to show what is beautiful and elevating in architecture; and here, I think, we can look with confidence to the young men who are being trained in our New Zealand School of Architecture. With the great advantages that they have they should be well fitted gradually to mould public opinion along sound and right lines, and they should bo prpud to accept this responsibility."