ARCHITECTS AND PUBLIC.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 57, 8 March 1934, Page 6

ARCHITECTS AND PUBLIC.

The architects of New Zealand are to be congratulated on taking steps to educate the public—in the words of the president of the Auckland branch —to recognise the truth that their profession is an essential one. Recognition of this has been growing, as one would expect in a community emerging from the pioneering stage, but the idea that an architect is a luxury is still far too prevalent. Many a man who as a matter of course calls in a doctor when he is ill or a lawyer when he needs legal advice, does not think it necessary to employ an architect when he builds, and the distressing results of this inconsistency are to be seen in every New Zealand town. The institute recognises that it is to the "small" client that it should particularly address itself; the larger the building the more likely it is that an architect ' will be employed. For some years past an j award has been given to the best work of j the year in the larger class, and now the ! institute has decided to grant annual certificates of merit to architects who design the best small houses. This should bring the profession into closer touch with the public, to the benefit of individual convenience and I finance, and communal .aesthetics.