ARCHITECTURAL TRENDS

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21866, 20 August 1936, Page 9

ARCHITECTURAL TRENDS

Building in England And Germany HITLER’S DISLIKE OF MODERN DESIGN Recent developments in architecture in England, the United States, and on the Continent were outlined in an interview yesterday by Mr G. D. Griffiths, A.E.1.8.A.. on his return to Christchurch after practising his profession in London for the last five years and a half. Mr Griffiths, who is an old boy of the Christchurch Boys’ High School, distinguished himself in London by winning the Bossom Scholarship, open to any member of the Royal Institute of British Architects, the scholarship entitling him to travel in- the United States for four months to investigate developments in industrial and hospital architecture in that country. Mr Griffiths was placed in an important competition soon after he had qualified for membership of the institute, and he won the Bossom Scholarship in 1934. After his return to London from the United States, he joined

the firm of Whimperin, Simpson, and Guthrie, which specialises in the design of high-class flats and hotels. One of the undertakings of which Mr Griffiths had charge was the construction cf a block of flats in London at a cost of £BO,OOO. He has returned to Christchurch to take up an. engagement with Mr W. H. Trengrove Classical Principles Favoured One of the most noticeable features of architecture in Germany under the Hitler regime, Mr Griffiths considers, is the reversion to classical principles. "I was most impressed by the amount of work that Hitler is pressing on with at present,’’ he said, “Hitler does not favour modern architecture, and architects are reverting to the classical principles,. If you go to the travel bureaus and ask to be directed to modern buildings they will send you to thostr that have been designed according to Hitler's likes. “What we consider to be modern buildings were done before Hitler came into power. Much of the truly modern architecture was conceived by Mendelssohn, one of the leading architects in the country, but he is a Jew, and has been forced to leave Germany. Mendelssohn is now. living in London and is building up a very successful practice in England.” Discussing developments in England, Mr Griffiths said that the Home Country had no modern architecture of its own. Developments overseas were being copied, and in all the modern buildings in England were to be seen Continental and Swedish influences. At present there was a good deal of speculative building in flats, on slum sites. As yet there did not seem to have been any development in fiew schemes whereby the middle classes could have flats at reasonable rentals. If the middle classes wanted better accommodation they had to go into the houses that had been converted into flats after their owners had left them to go into expensive flats. Housing the Worker Quite the most intensive work was being done in the construction, of tenements and flats for workers. This was going on at a tremendous rate, and was being financed by councils and church missions, It was very noticeable at present that England lacked good tradesmen for building. This was most marked in the large blocks of flats that were being built as a speculation, the work in these not being of a high standard. Very little was being done in London to house the middle-class worker. Rents for flats that were in keeping with the mode of living of the middle-class man were not in reasonable proportion to his wages. The man receiving £6 or £7 a week could not afford to pay more than £2 a week for accommodation, but all he could get for that was a flat with a sittingroom, a bedroom, and a bathroom. The need for flats to house the middleclasses was urgent. “London is badly in need of new office blocks,” Mr Griffiths remarked. "Many of the older buildings are illlighted and ill-ventilated, and it is surprising that people can work in them. New regulations, however, are improving all classes of building. Town planning requirements, for example, are making a great improvement. In residential areas town planning regulations have brought the heights of buildings down to 40ft, thus limiting new buildings to four storeys. Office buildings in London have been limited to a height-of 100 ft, the main reason being that it is not possible to obtain sufficient pressure to carry water above that height.” New Lighting Technique A recent development in fitting interiors of buildings had been the elimination of pendant lights. The purpose of this was to eliminate glare and to soften, the light so that it would be more like nominal daylight. In restaurants this wag particularly noticeable, tube lighting being installed. The cost of installation of this type of lighting and the running cost were more expensive than the pendant fitting, but m spite of that it was becoming general in new buildings. Mr Griffiths found Sweden to be the country in which a national architecture was being developed most strikingly. In that country the trend was towards classical proportions with modern detail. One was inclined to feel, be said, that modern architecture was tending to become typified by a building of pleasing mass and proportion, its ornamentation being the placing of pieces of sculpture at focal points. The idea was to get a very pleasing contrast to the plainness of the mass. The outstanding feature of buildings in the United States was that they had the most modern mechanical equinment in the world. Many of the buildings had ventilating systems that kept them at a temperature of 60 degrees throughout the year. Industrial buildings such as factories were the acme of efficiency in equipment and natural lighting. To visit some of the larger factories was a revelation.