ARCHITECTURAL EXUBERANCE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 760, 12 February 1954, Page 11

ARCHITECTURAL EXUBERANCE

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE SINCE THE REGENCY, by H. S. Goodhart-Rendel; Constable, price 25/ M R. GOODHART-RENDEL guides the general reader of his book through the exuberant achievements of architecture in Victorian, Edwardian, and more recent times with the same purposeful tenacity with which Baedeker took the tourist through Europe. The difficulty. is the same; we are not familiar with what is described. The author, an architect himself, comments on work that will be unknown to most of his readers outside those who have interested themselves in first-hand study of the subject in England. This fault could be remedied by more illustrations, although what there is has been well selected. But the book is detailed, and seeks no refuge in generalisations which condemn whole epochs\and attempt to look ".

for merit and demerit in fashion. It is refreshing to find such an impartial attitude of discrimination between what is good and bad in its own right in what the author himself calls the architectural] "all that to which many people wish to say an impatient goodbye." There is no doubt that this dogmatic point of view must be modified in practice, especially in New Zealand, where we are continually faced with the need for extending old buildings. There must be many who feel worried about the completion of the House of Parliament or the extension of the Canterbury Museum. There is much argument between supporters of traditional uniformity and the modernists. Can we achieve harmony between the two outlooks and in the buildings themselves? Mr. Goodhart-Rendel observes that "in buildings made for the service of man architecture begins where utilitarianism. leaves off, endowing practical contrivance with aesthetic significance." "Utilitarianism," "functionalism" have been fighting words for many years now, but it is not always realised that they have just as subjective a meaning as, say, "beauty." I was interested to see in the paper recently an architect’s drawing supporting a contention that the new Wellington Inter-iskand Wharf should be equipped in a manner more pleasing to the eye than is proposed in the replicas of cargo sheds being erected. It is surely utilitarian and functional to please the passengers. —

Walter

Brookes