BUILDINGS OF TO-DAY

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21970, 19 December 1936, Page 23

BUILDINGS OF TO-DAY

♦ THE TREND TO THE MODERN RESEARCH IN DOMINION ADVOCATED "The modern building, be it ecclesiastical or communal, civic or domestic, should be a product of vitality, and of our environment, of to-day, and not reliant on the expression of past social ages," said Mr Paul Pascoe, a young Christchurch architect, who returned yesterday from two years study of architecture in Great Britain, and who will now be associated with Mr Cecil Wood in designing the new Christchurch Post Office. During his stay in England Mr .Pascoe made an intensive study of his subject both in Great Britain and on the Continent. In an interview yesterday he gave a summary of his observations to a reporter. "Modern architecture in the Attest sense is the result of any building problem treated on its own merits entirely," said Mr Pascoe. "There must be no preconceived ideas to restrict imagination and the resultant work from structural skeleton to external skin must be organised to produce beauty in relation to practical efficiency." "In travelling to New Zealand, I should have thought it absurd if the New Zealand Shipping Company had a fleet of mediaeval ships. Yet how many houses the world over are yet designed in mediaeval idiom! Europe Beginning "Europe to-day is seeing the beginnings of a rational approach to architecture. Some countries such as Germany have suffered from dictatorship in art; some countries such as France have suffered from a slump in the building trade. England, though approaching the peak of the biggest boom of present times, has only isolated examples to show of the reality of the best modern work of 1936. The public authorities in London and the provinces oppose much progressive design and the story of many modern buildings begins with the architect's struggle to change existing restrictions. • "Of the old architecture of London some of the richest and most beautiful examples are to be seen in the Regency streets and Georgian squares. Yet when these were first developed, in accordance with the conditions and requirements of those days, there was a great outcry against these new and (so-called) severe architectural forms. So it is to-day with the changes of postwar standards. "Though modern architecture becomes more international, there is In New Zealand ripe opportunity for the development of national characteristics. This is made possible by the building materials available in the natural resources of the country, and also made necessary by construction for earthquake resistance. Timber and stone are very beautiful local materials and are a wonderful foil to the severity of steel and concrete. New Zealand's Chance "There were various ways in which such materials may yet be utilised, and architectural research may well bring aid to the greater development of our building and secondary industries. "The heritage of the old world today becomes a somewhat depressing scene; it is a relief to turn to the heritage of the new. to such a country as New Zealand where there is opportunity and background for fresh and vital growth free from the social unrest of European countries." concluded Mr Pascoe.