TOWN-PLANNING

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 96, 17 January 1919, Page 9

TOWN-PLANNING

THE ARCHITECT'S WORK

AN INTERESTING PAPER

At the annual meeting .of the N.Z. Institute of Architects, held yestorday,' Mr. S. Hurst Seager read a paper on "Town Planning and Architects' -Responsibilities in Relation Thereto." "Town plnnning," obsorvod Mr. Seager,. "may bo regarded as an art which embraces everything which can in any way create conditions which shall inako for tho better health, greater efficiency, and greater comfort and happiness of, 'all dwellers in town and country. From the earliest days architects wero ongaged not only to design individual buildings, but to*undertake tho laying-out of. cities. In those days the. State,was all-poworful, and works were pre-plan-ned and carriod out wholly at tho expense of the State., The nucleus of all' our Dominion cities, liko the nucleus of the great mimbor of European cities which were based on a Koman founda-' tion, were pre-planned, not, perhaps, with the skiH'whicH modern town planning demanded, but there was, at any rate, some ; thought: expended, and a fairly' Well-ordered' _ arrangementachieved. It was only since the cities' had passed out of. control of -the ori-, ginal founders "that they bad been allowed to grow uppn the most irregular, thoughtless,- and haphazard way. The architects had not been consulted in the formation and' growtli of, towns. They had.'rot prepared themselves to give* advice. It had been left to surveyors :to map out on- their d'rawimi. boards division of estates without any thought whatever' as to the natural contours, the ..disposition, of the that .the'natural.features- might ho "included as points of; interest, no thought wliatevet: of the traffic, which .the roads would have to carry, rid. thought-for the disposition of factory or residential buildings.- Yet all these things must, be very..cnrefully.Vconsidered ii> any scheme which- Tva',B to havp_ the least shadow., of:>success,-''-'■: All.this.'wn? a" architect's 'hvork- 'in. the past,, and it must, be,=;.tbe,.:arcliitf i pt's-, worlr in the future, but it nuist be of architects *os-. necially. trained to include in their practice town-planning Mr.. Seager pointed .out that. at the Sydney University town planning was receiving., attention; and it was co-ordin-ated with tlie studies of architecture, surveying, engineering, and municipal law, so that the value of each subject, as .well as others, might be realised increating towii-nlanning schemes. "With tho rise of industrialism and individual ownership, with liberty to erect what kind of buildings they like, the unity of cities has ' disappeared, and although there are individual buildings o'f great merit, they do not form part of any well-connected scheme. Aiv chitects cannot,, of course,- be held; responsible for this individualism underlying modern development, but we have not, I: think, done •' what wo could in co-ordinating civic buildings in modern streets. If we thought of the effect of the street as a whole we could often find opportunities for producing a far finer effect than that produced by the lavish display on our individual, buildings;' 'Our street's to-day hayo no cohesion, they are formed by a ..mediocre and' heterogenous collection of unrelated units disfigured by an'infinite variety of blatant placards and signs. I do,not for one moment mean-to imply that ■in this .competitive age advertising .is unnecessary; it is: only the abuso of advertising and /tlio wanton and the perfectly useless,disfiguring of urban and rural scenes against which my protest is made: If the citizens as a whole only realised the, 'very groat', contrast between what our.towns ai;e and what, under artistic ' guidance,, they might become, there would'arise.such a volumo of protest that nil disfiguroment would be immediate!v swept away We/ as architects, and those who have- travelled through' what is loft, of the ancient cities in Europe, 'liriovy a town may bo a perfect delight to the eye, and this without sacrifice of--any useful feature. Wo as architects sluiuld brace (lurselvcs up-to< fight this useless and disfiguring mania, both as citizens and as artists to whom the public may look for guidance.Y -.''..■ . _, "An architect can satisfy the rightful demand for'points of interest and beauty in our cities. Rightful demand becauso beauty and amenity are allied to health, cheerfulness, good manners, and good morals. To sin against beauty is just as much evidence of a low-grade civilisation as to sin against health, cleanliness, and social justice, hut town ■ planners in Continental cities havo perhaps been thinking too much of the beauty of ~tlieW cities and not enough of the housing .conditions .which exist, so that while magnificent esplanades and avenues have boon constructed, the homes of the workers' in tho cities have been neglected. Many of. the; homes of our. workers in-'-out •• own cities are in certain areas, and in ninny cases but little in advsnee'nf the slnnidom that rxistsin the Old World: We, as archi-tects,-havo a great responsibility'in . helping forward tho movement for communal housing, and it is our du+v +" fit ourselves for the tc<;k which should be allotted to us of designing garden suburbs and garden cities in accordance with town-planning principles." .