CITY PLANNING URGED TO AVOID “SUBURBAN CHAOS”

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28661, 11 August 1958, Page 10

CITY PLANNING URGED TO AVOID “SUBURBAN CHAOS”

There wept? “menacing signs’' in the lack of planning in the outer suburban areas of Christchurch which threatened “complete chaos,” said Dr. N. Pevsner, a noted authority on architecture, who has been visiting Christchurch during a New Zealand tour for the British Council. He advocated “mixed development” with terraced houses and “both high and low flats” as a vital need in answer to what he said was “an almost total lack of visible planning in the outer suburbs of Christchurch.” He said this showed itself in “the unchallenged prevalence of the builder’s bungalow and the freedom of the builder to destroy what there is left of landscape possibilities round the town.” He deplored destruction of trees in subdivisions and the threatened decay of important historic buildings. Dr. Pevsner has made thorough and extensive surveys of city and suburban areas while he has been in Christchurch. With members of the Canterbury branch of the New Zealand Institute of Architects he has motored many miles in Christchurch to inspect a wide variety of domestic Sind business building developments. Government Housing

Asked to comment on Government housing in New Zealand, he said he deplored “a neglect so far by the Ministry of Works to develop small-scale housing into something more coherent than winding streets peppered with bungalows.” “But the Government Architect has done some extremely interesting building recently with high rise flats,” he said. “If the same initiative could be applied to Government housing in smaller units there would be similar good results. But there is no sign yet of change of policy here.”

Christchurch was established at a fortunate time and in the course of its first 20 years acquired a large number of dignified buildings in the Gothic revival style which was current at that time in England. There was also some equally careful landscaping. Dr. Pevsner said “The architecture, as well as the landscaping, has aged extremely well and the result is a charm and dignity which no other New Zealand city has. “This charm and character is being preserved in the city’s central areas; but outside the centre the situation is-very different,” said Dr. “Time after time when estates are broken up and smaller houses built the old trees are felled. Valuable buildings are in danger of decay and the respect for trees has gone to a shocking extent. “It is gratifying to see, how-

ever, that among a number of Christchurch architects, both young and old, great care is being taken over landscaping so that one day a New Zealand suburban landscape may arise,” he said. Commenting on modern housing, Dr. “There are quite a number of recent houses as interesting as any of the early days. . . . Unfortunately they qan rarely be seen because, for financial reasons, they are usually placed close to other new houses —houses of less distinction. Detached House

“The detached house on the small section is the curse of both Australian and New Zealand towns,” said Dr. Pevsner. “They grow like mushrooms everywhere, covering large areas of countryside and they are not only unplanned but make all planning impossible. No suburb can assume a pleasing shape on a large scale than that of the occasional individual pleasing house as long as there is no grouping of units into large sequences.”

This, he said, could only be done with flats and with the use of terraced houses, a good example of which had recently been built in Dorset street, Christchurch, and which could “help point the way towards a remedy for New Zealand housing problems ”

This sort of* terraced housing, said Dr. Pevsner, had nothing to do with long uniform terraces of the poorer houses of the Victorian era. Terraced houses could now have as much attractiveness and priyacy as detached houses. In addition, they could be grouped into twos, fours or eights and could be staggered and arranged in crescents or ' around closes and in other ways. The individual house could have the same area of garden as the detached house; but the most im'portant point about their us 6 was that the whole of the suburb could become a pleasing thing. Flats were apparently much neglected in this country, said Dr. Pevsner. Although nobody would want to force people into flats a census showed that in New Zealand a high percentage of households consisted of two persons. That indicated that many would readily take flats if suitable ones were available.