HILLSIDE HOUSES.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 562, 17 July 1909, Page 6

HILLSIDE HOUSES.

SOME HINTS FOR THE EMPIRE CITY. THE ' SUBURB 'BEAUTIFUL. ■ •;:;'■■';, (Br. x.). ■■■•■■"■ "Regulations should be'framed as to the height, stylo, and class of buildings to be erected on the slopes and hilltops."—Sydney Improvement Commission. ■ "Why slopes and hilltops, any moro than flats and valleys? For two excellent reasons, which apply to }yellington as closely as to Sydney, 1 and theso two- places- more than to most other cities. Firstr—buildings on hills are more generally seen than thosq on level places; they do not other so much. Second —It is on the hillsides and summits that .least guidance is tp_ bo had from architectural traditions. This is ; bocause erery' stylo of building has been de-

volopsd on : plains./! Men . have not .usually resorted/to the heights,-'as long'as!flats worp available'. Honce, all the most familiar forms of buildings are unsuitable: for ■ housos'on hillsj and, it-is just here where the-architects education is of .least ■ uso to him, that, his work) is capable .of giving most .pleasure or most-/disgust.' ~-..■■ ■". ;'/■-■■''■:. .•';:.': ■::// '■ -■■■; What happens only too. ofton is .that a house 'Whoso every line suggests an ample and level site it propped up on a hillside or depositedron a .scanty shelf , cut out of the slope..-In either case, it looks wrong. It would be unfair to: blame the architect. ■Hβ would, in most cases, be glad, to do moro 'thoughtful, work if ,the owner : was prepared to pay for it. The people who need t.o real-1 ise the possibilities-of artistic • housekionstruction are not the architects so much as the people .who employ, them—or who do not employ them when they,'ought. . ; ~, ■ ■ -if- : ■•■:-. '■■• ••. / ,'■■ :.■:■,. -.-■■ A An Authoritative Aphorism. +; ' A search iri'the-municipal.library for'some authoritative the ■ principles which ; should govern the; design- of hillside dwellings resulted' to the's discovery ■: of .tho following, aphorism- in; a book on "Modern Architecture," by Mr; H. H. Statham, editor of "Tho Builder": —"In a low situation a lofty house is ■ demanded j in.a lofty eituationa low and .solid-looking, design; and if' the house, stands''on a slope, the.highest por-, tibn of it should rise from the lowor end of .the'slope."\ : ,':\- : \'"- ..'■.' ■>.■''■■ -v-.-; -. ..•■■■':-- : Sonio Local Examples.' ■';-.■: '..■• '•-;*... ■ ;' ■. | These are. excellent, principles,- and one need not go outside Wellington to find them Almost alli'tne Joftiest; build- j ings in this, city are on the, reclamations, and nobody who walks among thom or looks at them from Terrace will wish to see them replaced by even the best-designed one-story: erections. •,Commercial necessity! has, in .this, , instance, served artistic ends, and if ..iho Harbour Board had found, it advantageoμs ; to make'air. its .buildings on ; Jervois and. Customhouse Quays four, or five stories high, Wolliugton would have.had' ; a still more im- : posing, water-front.'.,- ... ! •' ~v A good .example of;.a low building on a lofty site,,is easily recognised in'the Kel-.' burne kiosk. Its great breadtli in, proportion to height makes it: as solid-looking as its wood and glass—will allow. Standing just at ithe top of, tho slopo,: it almost.; illustrates, , with the - conical-roofed' Vurrots'--which, flank its front, another,of Mr.' Statham's principles—that in a house on: a hillside, the 'highest ■ part should rise,'from the lowor. end of the. slopo. This | principle is more accurately, exemplified in the new factory building which stands on Wellington Terrace at, the corner of _Aurora Terraco —a building whose good design may partly reconcile' neighbouring owners to the iiiitrusion of commerce'and industry into what has; , been a. strictly residential, area. The correctness.' of .this.principle "of ; hillside' r archi-; tecture may be." further realised.;'if one considers how much .less satisfactory St. Ger-. ard-s Church,-on a spur of Mount Victoria, would look if the belfry were placed at the. othor'end of the long roof. Tlio towers ; of the, , -Basilica in Hill Street, riso very/pro-. perly! from the lowest part of the. sito,V although this does - not, happen, to be at- tho usual point of the compass for the facade of a cnurch. : , •. ' " /.-• ..';..'' Another Way. ' \ - ;'■'-"■ '• All-tbese examples are public or.business buildings. It is not so easytottndp, dwell-ing-house with its highest, side looking down a slope. On the contrary, in'-, the.' nillsido; I residence at- Goldie's Brae described 'and commended in these columns a few days ago, the heightening of the downward front seems. ti have been deliberatoly shunned, and with very, good ' The . house i 3 low and .-solid, and', its' lines harmonise with • the natural /contour 'of the ground. The truth,: surely, is that the hillside architect has a choice of methods. Following the suggestion-of Mr! Statham, ho may, .so-to. speak, artistically defy his. site, or, like the late 6r. Johnson,, of Goldie's Brae, ho may; with equally good/taste, comply with it. Some interesting; examples of the latter method, may he seen in the rather-long and' low and/very, artistic cottagcs, : which have , ; been ;built- during the last few. years/on-'.tho-steep 'slopes ■at Sumnor, near Christchurch. Three Conflicting Methods. , Thus tho relationship of a building to its site may bo either defiant, compliant, or (as it too often' is) ignorant. In tho first of these styles, the strongest lines are usually, perpendicular, in the second horizontal, while tho vagaries of the third cannot be ly, treated in a nowspaper.article. The compliant, being- less showy, .is the most -suitable for a private house, and on this point Mr.-Statham/himself may bo called as'a'

witness. '"A gentleman's private) house," ho says, "like his manner, and conversation, should : be somewhat reserved, "and modest, roticonfc. towards strangers." Of course, wo are-all:gentlemen here, or, if-any of us aro not, to live, in a gentlemanlike house, may help us along in that direction.- It may-hap-pen, though, that a "modest, reticent" house may become surrounded with'more imposing residences, designed oil the defiant principle, ani it may. than appear by contrast iuuigui-

Scant and almost mean. It follows 'that oven tho moefc rofinod architect, if bo has to build on a hillsido, which is, or may become, moro thickly occupied, ie almost/compelled to orect a tall defiant front, looking down tho slope. And bo tho typical hillsido suburb would consist of lovel roads running along tho slope ono above another. Houses would front each road from its higher side, whilo its' lower sido would'give , access' to the back premises of tho houses on-tho next road.' 'frees should bo .planted along [this side of tho road to screen tho'roofs and yards of; the lower housos. '■■ " /. .''"■.■;.■ An Idoal of Ordered Freedom. ■ ■"'. ' •'■:. But when the planning; was- begun,,, ifc would probably, b> found-that nothing,'so regular was possible.* The inequalities or* the ground, the direction of prevailing (winds and of maximum sunshine, would Si haveto bo considered; and since art in any form must have originality as well.as rules, tho individual tastes'of architect and owner must bo allowed expression. Progress towards the city ■ beautiful; and especially towards the

suburb beautiful,,demands more than regulation?. An enlargement' of.'municipal powers,. and, ;tho appointment of a, consulting architect-to eanotion, modify, or reject,build-ing'-/plans; on behalf 'of the. local governing authority,' are propositions which 1 must some day: be seriously discussed. • ;->;■//■/- : .