Wellington Architectural Students' Association.

Progress, Volume XVII, Issue 4, 1 December 1921, Page 86

Wellington Architectural Students' Association.

Continued from November issue)

I have spoken previously about the policy of this Association so far as education is concerned; now let me say a few words with regard to esprit de corps. Just as surely as we must have high ideals with regard to our work so must we have high ideals with regard to our attitude towards one another — let the spirit of this Association be one of brother helping brother—develop a keen, healthy rivalry; fight, and fight clean in competition, but be the first to extend the " mitt" to a better man when beaten thoroughly and well, and let the grip be sincere. I am quite confident, although you have elected me patron, that you are going to learn more by working together and helping one another. You are going to learn more, I say, that way, than I can ever teach you. Try and learn to develop initiative. This is sound advice. Often it will be the case that I shall tell you something, and the next morning you will repeat that to your chief. "Oh! No!" perhaps he will say, " Fearn has told you quite wrong." Now what I want you to do is not to believe one thing one minute because I have told you, and another thing the next because someone else has told vou differently, but weigh up the pros and cons of the matter yourself, look up any facts you can gain access to, think it out, and in that way you will develop initiative—a very valuable asset in our profession. Now with regard to books. I would like to see a good library whollv and solely owned bv the A. A. : that is not possible at the moment, but it will come. An idea which occurred to me and which might be worth consideration is this : Start a book club, even if it is in a very small way—a few pence a week from each member soon mounts up and a book could be purchased periodically and go the rounds, after which it could go by ballot to a member, or the books muld.be donated to the A.A. library. I would also like to see the members subscribe to, say, Progress, The Architects' Journal, The Architec-

tural Review (American). It would be better if this could be done individually, but if not then, certainly collectively, for remember what I said before —we have no history or tradition here, so we must go outside—see what they are doing in the older countries. Let us have a broad outlook; let us have nothing parochial; and let it be the aim and object of everyone to eventually get to the Beaux Arts, Paris, even if only for six months, for that is the fountain head of the world where architectural knowledge is concerned.

Now let me say a few words in general about the conduct of an architect's practice. An authority I once read some years ago laid it down that "An architect's duty is to act as the fair agent between the client and the builder." Now that sums up the whole situation very accurately and well — the fair agent between the client and the builder." Remember always that it is your duty just as much to see that the builder gets a fair deal as your chent. In writing a specification, see that you write it fullv and, if you leave anything out, do not try and force the contractor to do that work for nothing, but see that he gets extra pay for extra work, and at the same time see that- he does not get paid for something that is in your contract but that he does not do—that would be unfair to your client. Remember always I 1 it it is the fair agents we must be, leaning neither to one side or the other. I have known ?rrbi f pcts to withhold a contractor's certificate when d-e because a client wished it- say emphatically that this attitude is unfair and should never be indulged : in and savours of currying favour with a client at the expense of the contractor, and shows a mean spirit, for the architect must always hold the whin hand, as the contractor is bound. Remember this and give him fair treatment, and you will find that indirectly you are serving your client for you will get better service from the builder. Of course, this does not apply to the man who you are confident is not acting straight by you or your client—give him no rope!!!—or at least only .the rope's end. Now with regard to the Institute : we are a bodv affiliated to the New Zealand Institute of Archi-

tects, and to that body we must look, and look up, not down.

Let us all work together for the good of our Institute so that it may work for our own good—be loyal to the Institute and you are being loyal to yourselves.

At this stag-e let me say a few words about the Institute and the work that is being done to-day. I am firmly convinced that it is now just beginning to fruit and to show itself as a live body, and it will continue to live and be of more and more a benefit to us as to those who come after; as time progresses and this country expands.

Now, I want to express my gratitude to those senior members of the profession who for years past have been doing all the hard, dreary, spade

work of putting the Institute on a sound footing and giving it life. I think there is no credit due to the present executive for that virility which is only just now coming to light. In my opinion it is solely due to the efforts in the past of our senior members. If the Institute was started to-day with the same executive it has at present it would be years before the work done to-day would show much in the way of results. Let us all, then, put our shoulders to the wheel and push with a will, so that those who come after us may reap the benefit as we are doing to-day. Speaking of the Institute leads me on to competitions, that blessing and at the same time curse of our profession. Blessing because many a deserving young man has won fame and a high place in the profession in a, very short space of time—a place which, without the competition system, it would have taken him many years to reach, had he ever done so. A curse because no other profession is burdened with such a vast amount of unremunerative labour and wasted effort. Not entirely wasted though, for, speaking from my own experience, I think I can say that I have learnt as much from the preparation of competitive designs as from any other source. But what I want to emphasise is the necessity for loyalty.to our Institute in this matter of competitions. In no other way can we obtain fair conditions for our architectural competitions than by banding ourselves together and refusing to compete unless the conditions are in every way fair and just.

I will now quote some useful words of advice made by the President of the R.1.8.A. to students : "It is disheartening to reflect on the labour wasted in nearly all competitions by the preparation of designs which do not comply with the conditions." This arises in looseness in reading and analysis, a defect so serious in the mind of an architect as to be almost a disqualification for the calling. Conditions should be read, not once, nor twice but continually .as your design proceeds ; every point being tested by reference to the text, in which answers to questions should be inserted at the proper places. In most cases competitors are required to estimate the cost of their design by stating its contents in cubic feet and the .' rate per foot cube at which they value it. It is well to bear in mind that these figures will be checked by the assessor, and that under-statements in either respect may influence him adversely. It is quite useless to "cook" an estimate by pricing a portion of the building at what would be a fair fiat rate over the whole and taking the remainder at a lower figure, nor does it impress an assessor favourably to find, as in one case I recall, that a competitor has treated a large central hall as being a void contained between the surrounding blocks and merely add a small sum to represent its roofing and floor. Such a method of calculation, it is true, reduces the apparent cube, but it also lessens materially the author's prospect of success. It has been my own practice in drawing the conditions of recent

competitions to settle the rate allowed per cubic foot. It seems to me a better guide to what is wanted, than a limited total sum, which cannot be accurately determined until the building is designed, and it removes the temptation to competitors to price at impossible rates. Estimates and descriptive reports are, too often, hastily concocted at the last minute. They should, on the contrary, be prepared very carefully, -pari -passu with the drawings, the cube being calculated at every stage, in order to control extravagance in plan and section. The description and estimate offer occasion to indicate by author's clear-headedness and methodical character just as much as the drawings show his artistic qualities. At one time (the fashion is now infrequent), a competitor's chances were thought to be improved' by showing alternative treatments of portions of his design by means of hinged riders, the idea being, apparently, that if the foolish assessor avoided Charybdis he should at least come to grief on Scylla. I have indeed known three different riders successively superposed upon a plan, which, as you may suppose, offered no more than a choice of evils. I cannot too strongly discourage such a practice. It should not be the aim of a competitor to put the assessor in doubt, but to convince him that the design before him is the best. How can its author hope to convey such a conviction when he himself is manifestly in doubt?" (To be continued.)