"IN SPITE OF ARCHITECTS."

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18157, 21 August 1924, Page 5

"IN SPITE OF ARCHITECTS."

JJA.ME 31 ELBA ,\XD SYDNEY". '•Sydney is stiU.-'' said j)amo Nellie Afelba, "in spito of some of our architec.ts. one or the world's fairest cities" <SlC!li;s uie '•Sun '* >. Xature has given it j<rm-1!«-•»}!%.- everything—a narbour that baffles description, colour iu abundance, an. atmosphere of crystalline clarity. Does it not strike you as, Ob least, regrettable, that we arc daily turning this paradise into something worthy 01 a different name ?

{and bungalows that remind one of worst creations ot the imagination an unpleasant child. There are exception:?, or course. From time to Time one finds a little villa that might h;'.\e come straight from Florence, or a bungalow like some of those charming residences which abound in California. Lut the exceptions are few and iar between. The rule seems to be the outside of the house with futiic decorations, to place a hideous statue ;n the garden, and to fill the windows wuii staiued glass, shutting out tled's sunlight. ''Unfortunately the country is sutlering equally with the town. A motor ride outside Sydney is a cession of shocks from garish advertisements, so placed that half the beauty of the landscape is ruined. I rem one side screams a placard advertising somebody's whisky, from the other a hugo hoarding portraying a bright red motor-car. from yet another a board, thirty feet long, telling of the virtue ot a patent soap. Advertisement is all very well in its right place, but the environs of Sydney, which might be used for pleasure and relaxation, are not [ the right place.

'"ln every new street through which J. pass I sec shop frontages tiled in a medley of hideous colour. As a form of decoration the glazed tile has nothing (o recommend it. It is as ugly as it is expensive. Moreover, the effect of a dozejj. houses, all tiled in different colours, varying from a sickly green to a brilliant, blue, is nothing short of nightmarish. If, for some reason best known to themselves, the residents choose to use tiles, is there no means by which'l hoy can be prevented from choosing different colours?

Arts Committee JRcquirjed. •"''ln Honolulu things arc very different. There, should any advertiser spoil the beauty of the countryside, he is ostracised by a committee of prominent residents, who number among them the most important citizens of the whole island, and who refuse to deal with him unless the offending poster is removed. "I know nothing of the ways ot' local government, but it seems only com-mon-sense that some committee ot : fine arts should be appointed, with power to forbid either the spoiling o): our streets or our fields by disfiguring decorations. Wc have enough, Heaven

"Equally distressing are the irregular picket fences with which so many gardens are being disfigured. Nobody can complain of a plain wooden fence. It is cheap. It is useful. It is often charming. But when the wood is distorted into meaningless shapes, when it is carved and twisted by ignorant carpenters, the result is mere confusion. "Nor is this chaos confined to the streets. All round the harbour one may see, in constant course of erection, villas

! knows, o'l such regulations. V."e Itave to ividk i.'H .-crtaii! sides of the fare- ; racnt, we' hav«« to or.fc (and liuisb eat mgt at certain hours—matters which : seem to nsi; »£ iremparat ively sm:ill importance. Tiut in th : s great matter oi our city jtscli, individual taste is | allowed to run rio'. with the most appalling results. "The oinic-1* object of such a commission wouM be to ensure that Sydney is developed as a whole, and not as a conglomeration of separate units. If you study the world's most beautiful cities you wiil realise that only by the most- stringent regulations can such a unity be attained. Take the Plac \ endome at Paris. There are l'ew more magnificent groups ot' buildings in the world. And why.' lie-cause no owner ot a shop in the Place Vendome is nl- ; lowed to diverge, in the smallest degree. front the main plan as laid down by the artistic authorities. 4 'We have the city. We have the money. We have the architects'. We need only the will. If you wish to set.' buildings of the greatest beauty, as well as of the highest utilitarian value, it is not necessary to go further than Sydney University. There, in the middle ot' last century, buildings were erected which might well compare with sonio of the loveliest colleges of Oxtord and Cambridge. If Australians could do that sixty years ago, in an epoch when taste was most primitive, why can they not do at lease as well, now, when, in most parts of the world, taste is daily improving? I am well aware that Sydney University stands in a particularly favourable position, not only geographically but financially. However, beauty is not matter of money alone, and we could build beautiful streets for less than we are building ugly ones. And I need not remind you of the value of beautiful surroundings as a constant influence for good in the psychology of a nation."