OUR ARCHITECTURE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 645, 23 October 1909, Page 6

OUR ARCHITECTURE.

Sir,—The other day when'passing'down T a Wellington street with'"'a layman, friend, lie remarked, waving towards a. new; structure opposite us, "Thoro is a' building that they tell mo is built on that now-fangled,ferre-concreto; system. . I wonder why, when you architect building in this; 'stn.it,. : you' don't ■ design' something that will give us ail inkling'whether the building is .'in ' f erro-concretp;.ioi■.- what,?'' His phraseology is crude, but,,coming;from''a member of the.great general public,..who.:aro supposed to bo content with what their architects choose to give them, it touches a weak spot in bur armour,,' He is quite ■ right, and Now Zealand.is, a country to which her neighbours will look to develop this typo of structure; owing to her natural disadvantages in the form of earth-' quakes, to say nothing of the universal cry for fire prevention/' Foreign countries, such as France and Germany, have made big strides as regards design of facades, for these structures, a'nd'though in 'our'own Motherland , th£M has bm mui± culiniiiiitms'in I

a competition being organised some little' time •ago.by the nothing really, successful or indicative .of this type of • construction has beon produced. Wellington, 1 in particular supplies every excuse for some effort in. this direction by her architects. The absenco of any suitable building: stone throws her architects back on >brick and stucco; and what is stucco but cement or concrete?. The very material which is calling out for proper treatment in the hands of the designer; instead of being stiffly modelled and-stuck about in a clumsy attempt to imitate a stone construction. In the hands of a capable man stucco is a most charming material to work. It is open to treatment in various ways; plain, roughcasted', Hinted, and to a certain extent tiling, is legitimate, and yet tho old'out-of-date process of modelling to imitato stone, corbels, brackets,ornament, goes on, ad nanseum.- This con-, struction has reached a stage when it calls for proper and distinctive treatment; a treatment which will indicate the closely-tied and pliable nature of the work underneath'. And- surely your'architects will not be found wanting in an. ondeavour to perfect this. An architect! as every one knows,- is : not always his own master in these matters; therefore I would suggest that-a competition for an ideal, facade in the material should be organised by some such body as the Institute : of Architects, or, failing their •'co-operation, by the press or the local, Academy 'of Arts; A certain compensative premium' would'bo necessary, and a mnttor of twenty or thirty guineas should soon bo subscribed. -'•':.;''• • ' , An unbiassed adjudication could bo-obtained from one'of our neighbouring' Australian Architectural Councils, and an exhibition of the designs in New Zealand would, I am sure, I bo not only interesting but highly appreciated -by the.general public—l am, etc., '. . - -.' :•' - ' -.'. - A VISITING ARCHITECT. I