STRAIGHT LINES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 924, 18 March 1930, Page 8

STRAIGHT LINES

TREND OF ARCHITECTURE TODAY YOUNG EXPERT ARRIVES “The whole trend of modern architecture is for straight lines and the elimination of extraneous details.” This remark was made by the architect whose design was accepted for the Christchurch Art Gallery, Mr. E. TV. Armstrong., He reached Auckland this morning by the LTimaroa from Sydney, coming direct from Rangoon, Burmah. where he has spent several years. Mr. Armstrong, who is only 33 years of age, has had a remarkable career. He was born at Feilding, but went to Gisborne as a child. For two years he studied in a Gisborne architect’s office, and then went to the war. At the end of the war he von a New Zealand Expeditionary Force Scholarship .and qualified for his R.1.8.A. in 1921. A year later Mr. Armstrong won the Henry Jarvis Rome Scholarship, which took him to Rome, where he studied for a time. He was the first New Zealander to win this coveted prize. ENTERED FOR FUN “I was terribly surprised when I received a cablegram telling me that my design had won the competition for the Christchurch Art Gallery,” he said this morning on the Ulimaroa. “Some friends of mine wrote to me while I was in London, and I thought it would be fun to enter for the competition. I did the design while I was there. Now I shall go to Christchurch to do the actual working drawings.” For the past three and a-half years Mr. Armstrong has been in Rangoon, where he has designed some big buildings. With his partner, he designed the Port Trust Buildings, which cost £115,000, and the Rangoon Courts, which cost £350,000. Afterward he dissolved partnership and worked by himself. His last big job was the new university building there, which cost £IIO,OOO. The university was an experiment in tropical architecture, he said. It was built to suit the climate, and was a logical expression of shading all the rooms. Very little real tropical architecture exists in the East, where they still cling to old designs. On his return from Rome, Mr. Armstrong joined the firm of air John Burnet as chief designer. One of his principal duties was designing the Sydney Harbour bridge, which he states was most interesting work. Mr.fcArmstrong has spent some time in the United States and in touring the Continent of Europe. lie says he admires the Americans for the size of their buildings, but they are not adventurous in design. They are too conventional in both design and decorative methods. The finest architecture today i s seen in Germany and Holland and to some degree in Russia. England is nowfollowing and some of the leading architects are becoming more modern. NO DECORATION The whole trend of modefn architecture is straight lines, and the elimination of extraneous decoration, said Mr Armstrong. One could almost call it Cubist, he remarked. All modern buildings in Germany and Holland are built to express their function. With a minimum of detail architects now pay more attention to proportion, which must be very exacting. Economy has really made the German and Dutch architecture interesting, he continued. In the constant struggle to economise the architects have concentrated on simplicity and it has purged the whole outlook of architecture. Some of the new picture theatres in Germany were amazingly simple and extraordinarily effective. There was no decoration inside or out—everything was in straight lines. Describing one big cinema in Germany he said that the only decorative work was in the ceiling which was in grooves sloping toward the curtain. Lights were hidden in the grooves. The effect of this was to focus the whole of the spectator’s attention on the end of the theatre which contained the screen. Russian, architects were doing some amazing work with the cheapest materials. In conjunction with Mr. H. Massey, Mr. Armstrong competed for the Auckland War Memorial Museum. One of the last commissions he had in England was the additions to the Olympic Exhibition which were very modern and very simple. Windows 200 feet long ran the length of the walls on each of four floors. They were prismatic so that the light was thrown into the middle of the rooms above tbe exhibition stands round the walls.

Mr. Armstrong will visit Gisborne before going to Christchurch.