"NOT AT HOME"

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 664, 15 November 1909, Page 8

"NOT AT HOME"

/AfiWITECTURAL PREVARICATION. ' ; , ABOUT FRAME BUILDINGS.:

-■'.-.:■':"..■ ,■■ -;;0 (Br J.Q.X.) ;. ..'

A booklet charmingly intituled "A Few Enles for the Manners of Servants in Good Families" •directs the, domestic, on answering the knock or: ring of a' caller whom mistress would rather-:not see, to say that Mrs. So-and-so is "not at home." This, the writer states,- is "a polite form used to save explanations and avoid giving'offence." I came across a review of this valuaole wprk in the pages of a brave Utopian periodical which long since died out of a world that was. not ripe for it. The reviewer quoted the precept. and the - definition, but added sharply,"!, shonld have thought it was a lie." :•• ,I..was reminded of this on looking at a certain desirable .'.residence,. :oiie of many snch within easy .reach of Lambton Quay. It is built of wood, arid'the front wall is painted white, or-j-'-sonie light colour. Other boards, four or, five -inches' wide, are nailed' on the face of it'so as to make a frame-like pattern of upright, .horizontal, vertical, and diagonal bars. This' arrangement, it, occurred, to me, is"' the 'same ■sort'of:-thing ! as the polite formula presented:for; the'use of the.'domestic who "questioris',th'e?stranger and: answers the door." A ..rathef,|roUridpbout explanation 6eemß necessary. '.';..AuthbritiesVdivide, (ill architecture" into two fgreat -trabeated- and: the arcuated or the-architecture'of the; beam and' the archi'.tec'ture'of ith'e arch. ';Thus the Greeks spanned every, opening.-in their walls with a beam or a 'lintei,,arid the Eomans introduced the arch, itHiich with ;them largely,'and l with their, successors, the Gothic builders,' entirely, supersededstheibeam.-. Grecian architecture, there-fore,-.is trabeated,'Gothic is -arcuated, and -Eoinan is transitional.. The classification is a rational "one, for alihost the "whole design of a food building, in its scientific as- well as'its ecorative: aspect, depends upon the method of supporting material above a vacant space. >'. .Yet th«re is one mode of building which is •neither'of the arch nor,'of the beam, and this .mode-'is; of.;spicial interest to. New. Zealand. ■It is''the 'architecture 'of the' frame,. and it ■'is scarcely:'aldpwed a,'place in the 'histories"" of the 'art.- ■ '.An: eminent; American • arcliitect, Mri Busselli Sturgisyiri a.book on "The Appreciaticri'of Archi'tecture," does not even '■ give it a sentenced to','itself.",.'"lt. is upon the, Roman practice," he says, '"that all subsequent Enro<peari systems of decorative ;building. have beon founded; except the lightest: and slightest—the wooden-franied. houses of medieval Europe and those of." modem' " America.'. and 'their - like.. Other -authoritative writers ( while . treatirig. frame'architecture not quite, so. barely, do not appear,to recognise its exceptional position ,in the history of the art. "•,', t Mr "VJbhri Foster Eraser (who, 'of" course,-: is not .mentioned ; here as", an authority- on ,architecetue).shows, in his,lecture on Aranoa, some pictures .which illustrate different stages of the ; construction of:, that steel-framed monstrosity called' the Fiat-iron Bui Wing. The walls of pome of the -upper stones are seen to have beeii'finished before the masonry below was begun.'. It-would : be possible, ln-liko manner,, for-i'tte'builder of, an ordinary New Zealand wooden''house, once. he.-has the frame uu to iomplete the walls from tho .top,down--wards; houses/ which, are. the "ibid-"towns 'I like, Chestor and Tewkesbury,: may,' for .all we; know,. have, been constrnct'e.-i,iri; just",that order. In,every other .kirid-'bf..'. l stone,.-brick, 'concrete,; or logs of; timber, mass must. be".piled( upon mass .'from ;-,che-. base .upwards to.'.tho'roof. Thus- it is evident,, with-out-forcing the- matter, .into ./terms-;of scientific'" precision, that 'frame' : architecture/ iis, structurally speaking,'a class'by.itself. .-....". ,In the fifteenth century and thereabout?,-this ' difference . in; structure was accompanied • by •an "equally great-difference in. outward, apipearance.' A Chinese pagoda ; and Christ-, ohnrch Cathedral are' not: more unlike than the houses; whibh joiners and plasterers built in the Vale of Severn, and thoso which stonemasons were building at tho same time, and a few miles away, on the Cotswold Hills. The locality/accounted for the choice of material, the material determined ,the'construction, and the construction 'controlled ' the 'ornament There was ho attempt to.{dve timber the look of stone. The frame houses were constructed witi; the- ritraost: sincerity. The timbers-were visible : fromjfthS" outside, and- sometimes also .from-'.within,--.and were.'painted dark so as.,to,'. ; stand - /p,nt-'''fi^p(t' ,: tiie r-brtckwork,;.' or. the - more ; .usual piaster -irith 'which the interspaces were filled. ...With ..the general:' effect, pictures and ;imitatronsi-h&ia',;familiarised !even • those.;who I have i-never a«n..vthe. real. thing. • The .' aspect -of. these -old houses, whother they,'stand 'in' streets, Jot.' in" quiot^country, places, ;is .'some-': times:' highly. oi;name3ital, : :.BOrii6times:;f aritastici' sumctim'js, 'quaint, .ana,.h'oiriely,: but : ;-always ' picturesque.'... 'Cottages, .farmhouses, % mansidns, 6hops,%;niarket".'houses, and town ■• halls - were built'iri' thisjstyle/:but -hot /churchesi.. Ruskiri tforgot ■' this,:when-'-.he declared it :a . peculiar degradation of' : modern times that people' lived under, one..'school- of architecture arid':wor--shipped under'another. Herein lies the limitation of timbCT-rrauied afbhitecturo, twen at its-.best.-: There is. no solemnity, about!! it; 'It •is.ifreclaimablyiisecularr It.>lacks -niajesty. '.This may;be ; ,why;tho t architectural'authorities! do riot enlarge 'upon:; it. Craftsmen probably. had,:a much larger .share,;than, architects'in 'forming 'it, and' it is among craftsmen, or those .ofiorai'tsman syriipathies,':that: it is most adi.mired' to-day.; "Tiey. knew nothing of classic .temples"—l am quoting a lecture delivered for the^Worshipful Company of Carpenters—"or of. buildings, designed!'.in other -,lands. ..:'■'; They worked out' their own' locel.proWems in their: own way, miencnmbered by any unnecessary! 1 knowledge,: and so ; could bring the whole of their unbiased! intelligence -to bear on what! they* had to do: .'• And • the essential fact about ■ their w,ork ,is its. unpretentious reality, "designed and executed by the. same' craftsmen". .The lecturer undoubtedly glowed with enit, is .infectious—when he de-scribed-the ! and' "devices ..of- .these, fifteenth: and .sixteenth - century' craftsmen; architects—the 'timbers squared with the.adze; ■the curved pieces cut from a: crooked "branch or from the junction Vo'f branch or root with! -the. trunk; the post arid bracket 'in one piece.'formed of the like junction; the curve of'"a brace just as it-grew, allowing the tenon at each end :to"run with the grain; the -effeeti-of the overhanging upper story in sheltering (he lower• l'talls,-and 'balancing the .weight of. the. ■floor j the gentle divergences from tho strict horizontal and perpendicular. things, to r ;the: mind, that would. ~.; ■■ ■''■":■: ]'\' ',

~-..■ "Give .t6:.barrows,:,trays, and_pans, ..:'Grace and glimmer of romance, , ; !j.'■• ■■ are .an enduring joy. '■■ And not less ; the homely : filling ot the spaces between .'the' tim-, bers—'wattle .and. ■■'affair.;.of., ash sticks, the .thickness: of • a", mail's .wrist, .with laths: or; twigs 'inwoven and clay or'plaster for ..a covering. .-.' ".' •ilt was to our. workmen" that- Harrison, in,; Ms description of; Elizabethan England, 'ascribed. "sucn an excellence of devise in the frames now made, that they farre passe the finest of the bide." ■"■■;.■;

i.."My heart:,aches,".says .another ilecturer of the Carpenters' Company, "when I see the delightful old farmhouses and cottages of Surrey and Sussex, 'and realise, as I. do, how impossible it is even' to imitate that work today." "'•:■:-''■ :. : . •"" ■■'■'■' ; '. ''' , ', ■ • ■'; : '.';'!.' ''. 'Even for: those who'-have not a "craftsman's insight, these old "half-timber" houses have some special charm; 'There are. associations. Shakespeare was born in such a house. : Ann Hathaway's humbler ■ cottage is partly timberframed. ■:.. When among *. antipodean newnesses there comes remembrance of, the. checuered gables of an •; old Worcestershire manor house, touched'with dawnljght, reflected; in .the still moat, backed bv great elnis, surrounded by meadows and ploughlands^it .,m. ■ upon the '.heart: thaf'the picture is painted. .. ■•.•■'•.:. .. of romance are not excluded from any human dwelling,'but rimu that has'passed, over the ; saw-bench and through the planiri'g.macl.ine does not invite them like oak that was : squared by toil of knowing hands, that have been'dust, for centuries. .', .

.Theso ' beautiful old works aro very inadequately imitated in.such New Zealand houses as the.:ono 'mentioned at the outset of thi9 article. The resemblance is too'distant to deceive, and. it-may be presumed that the device is recognised by everybody as a mere surface: decoration. It is a polite form used to' We explanations and avoid giving offence. It is'in-more senses than'one,' "not at home;" The real frame .of the building,, which is of quite a different pattern, stands : behind .this .shorn frame and behind the weatherboarding, precisely as it 6tands behind the wooden imitations of stone fronts—which also are "not at home." . ■~; .'.'■'';■•■•;;.■.■'.• ■. - ■:

Some people may think that.if we had imbibed the spirit of the' old English''builders (instead of merely copying ';the appearance if Ihoir work):;we .should shape this real frame' more artistically and expose it to. ,'riow. ••■'■'!■ beHove something of the- sjrt has been done, ibut it is not generally,rpractfcable in: New Zealand. :, There is, however,; at' least one building m this country .which is actually 'constructed m'the old timber-framed style. This is tho neiVrbath-honße at Botorua, and a very handsome and interesting piece of work it'is.' The openings of the frame ore filled With thin plates; of ferrd-concrete, and the whole rests on 'a base'of the same .material. In almost till other \ buildings'■:an vNowi-Zealand where timber,- frame-wpTk.' is visibly, used; it is not structural,'but.jhbwever realistically it be filled ;ii» with -Irough-casVor airy&tofc

else, it is merely', a' snrface ornament.. It is often picturesque, and is used effectively in gables. When lit becomes generally known for what it is, it will ho longer seem insincere, but at present l some of the most satisfying effects in domestic architecture are obtained without it. There are examples enough to show that artistic houses,'can be built with no great departure from our . ordinary methods of construction, and if they do not, reveal their frames, they.do not, at,nny rate, deny them. Snch erections as the Rotorua bath-house will remain exceptional, because 'they are copied from an age before modern sawmilling had developed.. ~; •.-•".,'.'...

So much for the medieval and the colonial styles offranSe architecture. The latest is the American skyscraper' style, which differs from the others in|that the-frame is of steel instead of wood. ! Hence the enormous height of the buildings, which, are the pride of New York and Chicago. In that respect the steel frame is a success,.; but artistically it presents a problem which the cleverest architects have, so far, boon unable to solve. They cannot make the exterior of; these buildings express the structural fact.'"; All our conceptions of beauty in building are' so inextricably interwoven with the stone and wood that have been the materials of all architecture in all ages, that n frank and sincere steel-framed building that shall be satisfactory to the eye seems an impossibility. A' newspaper correspondent declares that the skyscrapers are the expression of a new'stylo of architecture—"a styte that is so peculiarly adapted to the conditions of business in the United States that.it is only fair to call it the.American; style. In it American life is expressed with all its vulgarity, all its nobility, all its soaring ambition, all its "utili-. tarianism, and all its tromo.idons energy."-' It may bo so, but those, overpowering frontispieces of stone, brick, or stucco are merely polite forms used to save explanations and avoid giving offence; v They are "not at home." . ''