ADVICE TO ARCHITECTS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2632, 1 December 1915, Page 6

ADVICE TO ARCHITECTS

SOME SENSIBLE VIEWS. In its annual report to the New Zealand Institute of Architects, the Southland branch (read at yesterday's annual meeting of the council) stated:—"The outlook for the future is bright. For .the present wo are suffering with the rest of our Empire and Allies in the great world struggle of this mighty war. We may be faced with commercial depression now and after, but eventually our country must prosper. The quality of work has been steadily advancing, and renewed prosperity will doubtless witness an even greater advance. It seems to me that our members are over prone to look for financial advantage only- -as the outcome of the. legislative period our institute has been' going through, and to be* content with that alone if": attainable. I think- our true advancement, and with it also our material advantage, will only be aided by this legislation. If we are. to - make any solid,' permanent advance, it can only be by raising thequality ,of our work. Do what we will by legislation, we will never force people to employ our members unless the public sec .it clearly to their benefit. Our members may be employed, but it may not bb because 'they belong to this institute, but becauso of_ their work, their personality, or their influence. All through the Dominion we find that domestic work of a class which a few years ago was almost all from the hands of practising architects, is more and moro drifting into the hands of the enterprising builder. The same fate will, I fear, follow with much commercial work. The advent of the 'American Book of Bungalow Plans' and tho facilities afforded the builder in copying and adapting them, as well as 'tasty' bits from the work of various architects by their instruction at our technical colleges in the rudiments of architectural drawing, have wrought havoc with much of the practice we once had. People naturally look to save where bliey can, and it cannot be denied that in many instances these houses are bct<ter planned with a better understand: ing of convenience, of comfort, and also often more tasteful in design than many of those by architects, as evidenced by even their.own pay for illustrations in some of our journals. "To stem this tide there is only one sound way. Legislation and words are of little use. We must have better work. To get better work we must have better training and education."