HAPPIER LIVING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 132, 7 June 1939, Page 6

HAPPIER LIVING.

WITH ARCHITECTS' HELP.

MASS PRODUCTION DECRIED.

Leaders of the architectural profession in Great Britain, America, and many other countries are exhvting the membsrs, to be more active in impressing npon the public their abi'.itv to improve living conditions for people, indivil isily ar.d collectively. This matter was the subject of terse comment by Mr. John T. Briggs, secretary of the Xew York Society of Architects, at a recent convention.

''Did we now have concerted and coordinated action of all the architects in this State, we could paraphrase the exclamation of the Count of Monte Cristo and say. 'The world of architecture in this State is ours!'" he said. "Ours to function in; ours in which to make our contribution to the well-being of the public; to use properly and ideally to house all forms of human activity within the State. "Our rewards would be increasingly happier peoples who would smile more in their work and play. And we architects would smile more, too, for in this, the contribution of our profession to the public service, we would be exercising our creative genius and our constructive experience. "You members of the profession gather?d here will all agree with me in this. But yoi. will say John Jones, an individual architect, cannot bring about much of a change, and in this you are right. ' But all registered architects in this Mate, co-ordinated and working as one—working towards a common ideal— can accomplish wonders. "We must not neglect the broad public. It is the legislators, mayors, councilmen—who appoint the chairman and members of art committees, town planning committees, who draw up and act on legislation affecting buildings, roads and towns. We must be active in civic affairs. We must know the problems of our towns. We must study these problems in our local society meetings, seek solutions, present these solutions to the town officials and the public at large. We should be the experts rather than the local plumber or baker or merchant, but we must be leaders, not followers." The critic declared that the public could not benefit in the long run from the "architectural mass production" of bureaux established by federal or State Governments or city corporations. "To my mind," he stated, "the public at large is the real sufferer, in this instance, restricted as they are and will be in bureau practice, to the limited architecture and freedom of expression of the bureaucrats. Architectural bureaux lead to regimentation."