OUR ONLY "BIGGEST."

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 658, 8 November 1909, Page 8

OUR ONLY "BIGGEST."

■architectural ' ■::■...;.-''.', , LOCAL EXAMPLES.' ' ■;:4''<: : . f ;: ;;^:: r ; '<:By'J-QX) : , : ." ' ."- : ? :; /" : ilhe;-.theory, that New Zealand,; with■'■■■ Wellington /loading,) is ■' destined to develop some-, thing.'now. in architecture, conditioned by tho. use-of- ferroconcrete as the', principal '..and characteristic: building material, was broached in The Dominion lately by a visiting architect.' His'remarks implied'(what , should be obvious enough..to ..deserve, wider recognition than 'is allowedUtj ..that, street .architecture 'nwstVaU' Wys submit, itself for. judgment to the man' ,in;the .'.street.'.' It will, therefore, be a .par'dbhable ,liberty ; for" a-lnyman to -.take up ■'this' thenwl-;. The- burden of the : visitors .:indict.ment,bf. ow architectural backwardness seemed to be' Hiat our .ferro-concrete buildings, coated like;,our,brick': buildings, in grey, stucco, -show us'.;nothinß;.that suggests the very different ma-tt-rial of which'.'they are composed... This is, course, : perfectly,.true,. and it is equally in-' disputable that. : all. : -our be-stuecoed structures are,:imitations of 'stonework. ■ And, further,. :many..:of:our,..wooden buildings'have been'de'eigned'tolook like stone. Our supposed "biggest, wooden .building in the world" is, in .this regard;, a>huge';.-iraud:- . The ■ '.unsuspecting stranger, if; he has the rare and lorily just riossible experience of seeing it without hearing the.usual boast, never questions but'that' it 15 truly stone. ; When he learns what it is, not even-its transcendent bigness ,can save it ;.frpnu sinking .i.oefullv m/his estimation..' He ;has. been deceived, and it will be loii". before ;he. allots .any merit, to. the. dignified irn-' posture.. .He called,.it, perhaps in the: first .flush;of ■■■ his. ignorant,.admiration,. a' stately pile, and, al.-.s,\it isno:pile" at all, but-merely ;a large number of boards ■hiing upon wooden frames.: To be just t 9 those who have .imposed.upon us, bo they men or buildings, is never .easy. -yet-.' tho newly-arrived observer ot our only .biggest" thing may come.in time ,to recognise- 6bmethiug-faithful aniTj even conscientu)us:.in., the. ; very ■ completeness. ,of the imitation. Contemplating; the' grey base, as' of granite,! the walls', deeply'.rusticated 'on 1 the lowest' story and less deeply 'above, the seeming-massive ■ quoins. on . every-: angle, the pediments, and corbels that halo the windows with architectural orthodoxy, ho may exclaim ; Oh, what a-gopdly outside falsehood'hath!'-' But when,ho haslenrnfthe , age of-the building, and realised hew well—for . wo«d—it-.'has lasted; when,, he observes, how squarely, it stands; with. no.listing'or' sagging' anywhere; • when ho- studies tho 'details,- standing, let it be supposed, before/one,■ of the ■ poro&ss and observing that the guttoe. (those little buTtonuke ■ protuberances) '• have been.;' wrought—as-'-suredly not without, cogitation and. not, only-on the',perpendicular-.face",';but!also ona downward horizontal bneYK-hore. few iwould .notice -them and: almost ■ none:; would '-miss them/ if absont,, he will begin Jo see 'that the , thing is-not -mere ginicraekery. ■ ■ /He Ml; surmise that there .-. were -ample '■" reason's—scaroity ■ of etono, infancy; of, tho brick industry, fear of : earthquakes,' uncertainty of the ; future—why the building: should bo of wpitCand he willask: "How could it. have ■'.been , designed so as to have any :s'ort.of -gracb or'dignity if it was not to'look like stono?" :'.V ' .The problem' may well havo:been given up as insblnblej for grace, and- dignity cannot bo achieved without : some reference .'to the past. Taste ■isreonsoryative.. The , most original of' architects only' modify-.'form's that have been used many times -before. - Should he, reject all' the old'forms 'and,.useronly n«iw bias of : his' , own"devising,''■'his 'work would''appear' absurd or' ■pffßnsiy.e. .Thdt'is why.'-pffein confronted by a nevri material, Uβ can- only shape it into tao £o,Tthich he , and his pubnc are accustomed,' ..Wopd'.as a building, inaterjal is,' 'of very- old,' but- milled'timber as the'sole material of-a.work of::architedture ; is modem, and tx>- the. builders; of -pur "biggest" it. was, ,, practically: speaking,' new: There :w'as,' therefore,; f of. : . them' nq'p,K6ice-.but to'use the form's'of Th'e':one aiidini-' possible alternative■,woiild 'have beeir'-a gigantio weather-boarded bai'n. . '' ; In Asia Minor there .'are tbinbs cut'in solid rock and . fronted like 'dwellings .".or temple?. chief ornamental features aro ekabt sculptured copies of tlie projecting "ends of. wooden .pole's or joists such as would ■ have formed tbe roof of.a'wooden.. 1 hqrise.j^The l 'explanation' is' that : _ the' people : who cutV the ' rock "tombs' had been' .acVsustomed to ■ wooden' .houses; : Here , in'' '.Wellington 'we' have 'simply reversed tHe nxo-'i cess; thatMs'all:.'-' ■-■. .; :/ ■; ■■ ;•; ■:.>;; r-J '■•' It is-'the. opinion of- many •.'authorities., that!; ■Greek- architccture--tue, noblest that the'world .hits ever' seen—originated in stoh.e.dppies of, wooden buildings. - The resemblance-has been traoed in almost every, detail, but'so "modified and refined upon by ■ the' taste o"f a: long and : nameless snecesjion of builders that; ;it ceases to bo obvious , . The Parthenon at last'emerges, not, a oopy. but a- conventionalisation. : - It only remotely suggests, the'old rude contrivances. of posts and beams, joists and'pegs.' ,-. '. :'■:'.,:■■ ■:. Greek; architectare was: the paront of Roman, and Roman and onr' "biggest wooden building" is Renaissance. Some of its' details may' be tracei back through the' stone of periods to the timber of-an earlier day. Thus, the wooden, pillars of the porticoes are oopiee. of: the-Tuscan pillars, which the Romans derived from-the Greek: Doric columns,, whjoh,Vi"n'.'turn, .were imitated from tree.trunks: used as posts. , 'The guttae, which: havo come down from the Greek, through the Roman and the Renaissance, are supposed .to have 'been originally wooden pegs.'Thus .the ancientsimitated, wood in : . stone, and moderns- imitate their stone in'wood;';? .:..'.. ' ■'.-,■.; ■'■-, And "just, 'as' , Greek' architecture, initsevqlTi--tipni , became.less v and less;like , -timber, ,, 'so our woi.»den achievements., havei become ■. less' and le.>s like : stone. Rusticated weather-Boardin'sr was originally made as' an' imitation 'of, ;heavym'dspnry;' 'As such'-it is- used, : .with other fea-tures''-in harmony,'on-most of the older; buildings in this city. But nowadays.it is' more frequentty,- employed. without '■ any •'■ attempt to. keep up such an. illusion. It is painted in most unstonelike,''colonrs,- and the > doors, windows and angles aro' framed .with unpretending boards'. Purely ornamental features of a ..character, that cannot be thought,of in connection with masses...of rusticated ,. masonry, are now combined witk; it.; |,In short,,this,particular, imitation of stonework lias comefp : b'e'regarded as meroly, one ofrthe regular ways of treating boards, and' the fact .that. it'was -a't' first : an. imitation, is-forgotten. ; -. . • , ■-' ~ One ('may walk . along' any timber-built street and pick out at a glance .the; bits .of- work that are imitations of stone, and those that -are frankly wood..' Both: may often be found side by-side] on-the'front of one house.' Tho angles, probably, aro "stopped" with' one-inch boards, while a bay window is finished precisely as'a model; of stonework. In some cases a really good residence' 6f ; a type-not unlike the Government :Buildings :has additions-in which-the .pretence., of ,stph,e. has' been-utterly, abandoned. Tlio tendency all along has -been to eliminate, or.modify tie.seeming-stony features until-the -whole building, is frankly-;a thing of boards ~ and, .posts. Rusticated weatherboarding 'has survived, simply because it is good weatheiboarding, and' in spite of its resemblance: to masonry. A, glance at the District Railway Offices, at-the south end of Station-rfranEy. and even .emphatically yet with, rusticated • boards-mil make this clear.,.:''' .-. ■~' . '-. .:■ ■Thus, ;t/y a,, natural process, without much conscious direction,-, a' sort of wooden 'architecture has'been evolved. It :is not a great or niajeshc thing, because the structures necessarily lack sohdity and permanence. A poor thing PBriiaps, but our.own. -No new Buskin wilt follow 'The Stonesiof VSnice" with,'rThe 13oards_ of Wellington." The worst fault of our typical modern wooden houses is a tendency toi display—and display in a cheap. and comparatirely, flimsy material .is weak- and meffectivo. ■ Better taste is, now supplying us with simpler forms, and it is coming to be recognised .that. wood. whUe unsiritable as the materjal for- public buildings, may ; bo ,made mto simple and artistic.: dwellings. Domestic nrcliitectuTo, people .are: beginning , to . see should.behomely and not. showy. ;.:.-.;■ . ' .-; Now, just.-as Greek architecture began by imitating wooden houses, and-became, step by step,_ moro smeero : ond,. more magnificent until it rose to one thing", finished in this hasty world",-, and just as. our own far inferjor, vroMen arqhitecture began by conyimr the forms used m tho nobler material, aid has evolved: towards 'honesty and boautr; so ferro-cpnerete archit.O!Jture, beginning in preten.ee, .may. develop, mto that iifl be all its, own. And if this is...understood bv the people who pay, for buildings,: as well as the publip who are. to admire them, and the architects who; .design, them,' knowledge mar give a usefnl fillip to evolution . 7