Pica For Attention To Aesthetic Values In Planning N.Z. Towns

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28099, 15 October 1956, Page 10

Pica For Attention To Aesthetic Values In Planning N.Z. Towns

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, October 14. Towns should not become places which, because of squalor, litter, and neglect, caused the nervous exhaustion and neurosis that were the lot of many city dwellers, said the president of the Association of New Zealand Art Societies (Mr F. G. Wilson) in his report to the annual conference of the association on Saturday. Municipalities tended to give little thought to this aspect of town development. said Mr Wilson. Hence towns and cities were becoming cluttered up with overhead wires, notice boards of great variety and size, lamp posts hoardings, telephone kiosks, rustic fences. advertising signs. broken pavings, and car parks which all caused a feeling of chaos and litter because of their unplanned relationship. A recent exhibition in Wellington had admirably illustrated the deplor-

able state to which New Zealand towns were drifting and where the remedy lay, said Mr Wilson. “The remedy for this state of affairs is not to plant one or two shrubs or flower-beds and lawns scattered here and there,” said Mr Wilson. “It is a. matter for good design of the utility pieces such as lamp standards and telephone kiosks, and just good housekeeping practice—always remembering that we are dealing with cities where urbanity is the quality aimed for, not rusticity. This is to make our towns more satisfying, more pleasurable, gayer places in which to work and live.

This art of *townscape’ is not a matter of spending vast sums, but more of cultivating a visual awareness. a sensitivity, and the greater use of intelligence.” he said. Mr Wilson referred to the possibilities of the much greater use of colour in the brightening and creating of interest in streets. Colour could be very important in the daily lives of all citizens. he said, and it warranted serious consideration for making New Zealand towns more pleasurable and gay.