TOWN-PLANNING.

Evening Star, Issue 14965, 27 August 1912, Page 7

TOWN-PLANNING.

PAPER BY MR L. D. COOMBS. At a meeting held last night of the Otago branch oi the New Zealand. Institute of Architects, Mr L. D. Coombs, A.R.1.8.A., read a paper on 'Town-planning.' In his paper Mr Coombs t>aid: "If we d««ir© to plan our Xew Zealand towns and villages in the way to obtain tho best result?, we must study local condition*, and use our own common sense. We must not ape out and out the English designers. It would bo foolishness to copy the huge American schemes of cold magnificence or the forced picturesque German so-called * model towns.' Without doubt we can learn many things from each and every country, but such lessons will bo more of the nature of what not to do than of howto act. Before a town is planned its posi. ticn and the country around it must be examined, for. as Yitruvius, the ancient Hcmaa, remark*: "As an infant is nourished by the milk of its mother, depending thereon for its progress to maturity, so a citv depends on the fertility of the country surrounding it-' It would, therefore, be unwise and most expensive to plan a citv on large and broad lines that will never grow "above the dignity of a small town. On the other hand, it would, be well for the authorities of rising towns in prosperous districts to broaden their streets and acquire' lands for public buddings, squares, parks. and recreation grounds now while land is inexpensive, or later they will be forced to enormous outlav, and" in consequence a waste of public money. I am of opinion that if designers care fill It consider the sit? of a town, and then place the public buildings, etc., in good positions in relation to one another, thev will find that they will fcrli the development in the right direction. In designing a citv it is first necessary to determine on the "main centre, the civic centre, as it mav be called; next the second;; ry centres in proper relation and proportion to it, and especially in relation and proportion to the country immediately surrounding each. '•First, it is necessary to have a frame- , work of main streets." Between these streets we will have a number of spaces it will be necessary to divide up by secondary streets. It'does not matter one iota if "the plan of a town does not look symmetrical on. paper. We have the main streets broad and straight. If wo are standing in one of these streets wo cannot see that the other streets .-wo not all parallel and at right angles to it. If thev were, and we knew it, 1 am sure we would feel most depressed. The fault of Sydnev is not that the streets are at all angles, but that it, has no good, wide, straight streets. No doubt, to suit certain purposes, towns and cities mav be planned on rectangular. o:i radial, and on meandering lines, and such schemes may be square, circular, fanlike, or irrearnlar, as the case may be. lor general purposes' 66ft is wide enough for a street, but if tramways occur _ tho streets require to be much wider, likewise those in front of the chief publie buildings require to be wide and imposing, and, advisedly so, with avenues of trees and protected flower beds. As regards tramways, these shoidd be permitted on the main straight, broad roadways only. Subsidiary rends should not require to be wide, but, nevertheless, should I* of widths in accordance with the nature of the districts they may b* in. For instance, those roads that will be flanked bv hj<*h. buildings require to be wider than these that will have smaller erections. If the roads in a town be ot sufficient width I see no Teaeon. at anyrate a* regards light and air, why skyscrapers should not be allowed. "In the centre of a large city large parks are not to be desired—they take up too much room for one reason, and are verv costlv from a variety of other economic" reasons: but small plot* of greenery, suck as we have here in the Octagon, the Triangle, the Market Reserve, etc., are ■verv welcome. In the suburbs, however, it is another matter, and here parks, and especially playing fields, should be provided at frequent intervale. " The time will come when all buildings, interior partitions as well the exterior walls, will be required by the- authorities to be constructed of good fire-resisting materials. It should always be remembered that it is a dead loss to somebody when propertv is destroyed, even if it be insured. In England we find the big problems that trouole designers are ones involving the. improvement, oi existing towns, and not the complete building of new ones. In London and the. other large cities immense improvements have been made during the hist few years. These improvements have been brought about by various causes, chief among which may be mentioned: (1) The congestion of traffic in streets which are all too narrow for their

purposes; (2) the length of time that some »>f the roundabout crooked roadways wasted for people who required to go from one centre to another; (3) the desire for more hght and fresh air brought about by more advanced ideas of health and hygiene

than existed even in the days of Dickens ; i4i the evils of slum life; (5) the expense of having ft house with even a smaJl plot of garden in the city; and last, but not least, the ambition to have everything to look and to be more beautiful. Phis last, I take it, is a sure sign of the advanced refinement that is taking hold of modern civLliaatioE. It is estimated that 15,000 families move every year from inner to outer London.

" John Kurns says that the object of garden cities is to bring the town into the country and the garden into the town. We have Suburb*, and there is no reason

-irhv we should not, but every reason why we should, study the problems, and make our suburbs equal to the- finest garden cities in the world. In a. town such as Dunedin our individual property rights iire unrelated, and for the most part uncontrolled ; in a garden city the whole thing is planned and adjusted to suit th« community and not the individual. The design of" your house must be approved of by the community, your garden must be iu keeping with other gardens. In fact, the American idea, of having no fences is often carried out, so that each person will receive the benefit of a view of his neighbor's garden as well as of his own. Houses and gardens must harmonise, with their surroundings, instead of being architecturally at war with them. The following statistics are remarkable evidence of what English garden cities have, done for the health of their inhabitants. The infant mortality of London is 107.9 per 1,000; of Liverpool, 143.6; of Manchester. 134; while at Bournville it is 78.8, and at Letchworth only 31.7. Almost every city of importance in America is preparing-, or has had prepared, schemes for grouping its public buildings and for making civic centres; and many cities are actually carrying out construction work in the realisation oi plans oi this kind. "Among the examples of advanced townplanning in America may be- mentioned Bopedafe and WhitinsvilJe in Massachusetts, Uarz in Indiana, Roland Park near Baltimore, and Forest Hills at Long Island. Ail these places are ex-mptes to show that the Americans are fully alive to the advantages of beautiful and healthy homed. Germany, with her characteristic thoroughness, has carried out the policy of townpianning more completely than any other country. Architects, surveyors, engineers, doctors, and landscape gardeners of the highest standing are consulted, as well as the landowners themselves. The plans are obtained by public- competitions, which arouse even more popular interest than the musical and literary competitions do here in Xew Zealand. We Imve heard

much of the recent competition fur the pian of the Australian Federal capital. Reproduction*) of the premiated designs have been published in several of the building papers- Undoubtedly, at a casual inspection, the design placed Jirst—by Walter Burley Griffen, of Chicago—ia the best. The one placed second—by E. Laaruieu, of Finland —exhibits ths characteristics ooanmon to German ajk! Russian plans—oharacteristiw that I am surprised found favor with the judges, for with few exctptiotaa ©very street is shown with a curve. The third "pm 6 design—by Dr A. Agache, of Paris —appears to be a splendid con eeption, but somewhat disjointed in eome piaoea and tegled in other*. It is to ho much regretted that the« conditions of competition issued by King O'Mailcy, Minietor of State fox Home Affairs for the Common. : wealthy were such that the Royal Institute

of British Architect* and the differemS institutea of architects throughout Australia saw fit to ask their niembars not to compete unless such conditions were altered and i«ad« more reasonable. It is therefore not surprising that the prizes were not awarded to Ift-itiish and Australian. designers. An opportunity for a scheme of city-planning just as great as that of the Federal capital is for the new capital of India at Delhi. Two architects, nn engineer, and a non-professional student of civic problems (added as a lay coadjutor) have, been appointed, nob to plan a city in detail, much less settle the architecture ot the public buildings, but to iay out the land with reference to the scheduled requirements of the Indian Government, and with an ere to the future. The two architects appointed arc Messrs Edwin I/. Lutyens, F.R.18.A , and H. V. Lanchester, F.R.1.8.A. Both are remarkably capable men of wide experience, and the result of their work at Delhi is sure to be of the highest standard. "In concluding this paper I would like to mention come of the speech made hv His Excellency the Governor. Lord Islington, to the recent Conference "at Wellington. Ho urged that attention l>e turned to town-planning. a« the homing of the people went to tho very root of the physical and moral fibre of the people of ft country. Nw Zealand had not kept to the "Old World in town; planning. Happiness, contentment, and even the chaiaeter of the population were largely influenced by environment, and town-planning meant an improvement of cri\ironment 'to town dwellers. They .should take thro by the forelock and free themselves from, tho terriblo problems and difficulties which beset and confronted their colleagres in the older world. They knew of tho dangers in the Old Country, where year after' vear • and decade alter decade a frightful eantrstion of shuns had grown up oil them, filling their hospitals, their gaols, their asylums, and other institutions with their products, the -unhappy result of their bad and congested districts. lie urged that by establishing town-planning thev would be moving forward to a great social advance. They would bo doing more for those who coins after them, and for the poorer classes living in humbler dwellings, than anything else they could do in tho present generation. He said they could not prevent the concentration of "population in towns. They couldn't do am-thing beyond checking it, but they could "see that those centres of concentration of population be made as habitable, as attractive, ns healthy, and as convenient as administration can devise Ho pleaded for trees and flowers and green grass and artistic architecture Let the men. women, and children of their cities go to their happy home* and look upon their surroundings with joy and admiration. He would like to see garden cities in New Zealand. He was sure" tho moment one example were established the town councils would be tumbling over one another to introduce the same svstem into their owm towns." The paper was listened to with great, attention, and provoked at its close an interesting discussion.