The Importance Of Design In Living

Press, Volume C, Issue 29474, 28 March 1961, Page 10

The Importance Of Design In Living

PAUL. PASCOE, the wellknown Christchurch architect, -was one of the founders of the Design Association of New Zealand, of which he writes in this article. Mr Pascoe was recently awarded the gold medal of the New Zealand Institute of Architects for his terminal building at Christchurch.

Seven architects are included among the foundation members of the Design Association of New Zealand which published its aims and aspirations late last year. The importance of design in everyday living is obvious in the larger issue of town planning, engineering, architecture, public buildings, housing and so on. Descending in the scale. It is equally important in the smaller details. When a building is well designed, how much better it is if the articles of everyday use are well designed, too. These articles include furniture, fabrics, crockery, tableware, and clothing. There is also ample scope in the more mundane matters of life. The city bus, the motor-car, the street fences are all important from the larger view. But a study of the smaller view, that of the design of the desk, the ash tray, and even the garbage tin can show importance.

The functional approach is one of the characteristics of recent times—that of the need or requirements of an article to be the basis of the first steps in the design or form of that article, A clear analysis is required for the definition of that need or those requirements. Only when such needs and requirements have been defined can the artistic side of the designer come into play. Then, knowing the needs, the designer can apply his intuitive faculties of appreciation of form, proportion and colour, and thus create a satisfactory article. Value to Industry

The value of such ideas to industry cannot be too strongly stressed. In an age where vulgarity and phony ideas can well flourish, there is a need for integrity and common sense. If this age can appear to produce the mechanistic or over-simple in its buildings, it is more important still to retain the beautiful in its useful objects. The industrial designer need not be afraid of standardisation. A brick is a standard unit, as are sheets of many kinds of materials. Yet all can be used to produce a diversity of forms. Standardisation plays into the hands of the industrial designer, because by this means he can produce greater economy and therefore lower prices.

The Design Association of New Zealand will enable many worth-while professions and occupations to

come together. When the artist, engineer, graphic designer. architect and business executive sit on one council, and begin to understand a many-sided point of view, then design problems can be discussed and placed in full perspective and in capable hands. When this association fulfils its hope of creating a permanent design centre, and of providing travelling exhibitions at periods, of publishing booklets, it will be seen what a lot it has to offer. Element of Change One of the characteristics of design is the element of change. New thoughts, materials and techniques are arising all the time. Plastics, air travel, television and the many new inventions make it imperative that designers move forward. If anyone stands still, the rate of progress is such that he is soon left a long way behind. The problem of keeping up-to-date is the problem of knowledge, and the manufacturer or sales organisation that is behind the times has, in slang terms, “no show.” The value of this new association, D.A.N.Z., which hopes to be New Zealand-wide in the truest sense, cannot therefore be over-emphasised. Its value to distributors, manufacturers, teachers, designers, students and craftsmen, and even those only generally interested, will be selfevident.

A further aspect is that of New Zealand itself, as a country. With all its beauty of environment, its extraordinary variety of scenery, its being so far from overcrowded, New Zealand could be subject to the drawback of being a backwater set apart from the main stream of real progress. Our country has passed through many stages from that of pioneering and of struggles, to a degree of achievement. But. there is a tendency to be self-satisfied, particularly on the part of those who have not seen what treasures of beauty are to be seen in other places. In the field of industrial design, there have been some groups already working well, notably the Standards Institute, some of the professional bodies of architects and engineers and other groups. But there is a need to synthesise these groups to a focal point for the particular problem in industry and everyday things.

D.A.N.Z. will benefit all fields of endeavour in architecture and related professions. The architect, apart from helping to create new buildings and forms, is vitally interested in the equipment and furnishing of such buildings, and if he had a central body, or pool of information to which he could come, the architect's work would benefit to a very great extent. Thereby, the man in the street and country would also benefit.