NEW CHURCHES FOR OLD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 May 1941, Page 3

NEW CHURCHES FOR OLD

PROGRESS IN ARCHITECTURE. The Dean of St. Paul's is quoted as saying, in reference to the destruction of the City of London churches: I hope that the best of them will be rebuilt, and rebuilt as nearly as possible to Wren’s designs, writes Mr O. M. Venables Argles, Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in “The Times.'' I should like to plead that this act of escapism should not be carried out. By doing it we should not be facing the realities of the situation—namely this: The glories of Wren have been destroyed for ever and can never be recaptured with the same form and spirit that once infused them. Do not let us. therefore, be slaves to the 17th and 18th centuries. Architecture has progressed far since then—new designs and. above all, new materials have opened up undreamed of possibilties. and an impressive civic architecture has been developed which combines beauty with functionalism. Did Wren, deputed as the rebuilder of a new London after the fire of 1066. say: “Let us copy the fine old medieval designs; let us build a replica of the old St. Paul's.” No, he did not. He struck out in his own way, and founded a new civic architecture. original and beautiful. Let us do the same; let us build churches and civic buildings in the modern manner, to show that the 20th century is capable of producing its own original works of beauty, without falling back on neo-romantic or neo-classical escapist architecture.