DESIGNING MEMORIALS

Northern Advocate, 8 October 1920, Page 2

DESIGNING MEMORIALS

People in this country who find it difficult to make a choice among various forms of war memorial may gain some little satisfaction from the knowledge that older and bigger communities also have similar troubles. Even in London there has been quite a stir over one proposal for a .national war memorial. It was suggested that a gigantic pylon should be erected in an open space between Hyde Park Comer . and Burton's Arch, ■at the top of Constitution Hill., and the design for the monument was prepared by Sir Prank Baines, principal architect of the Office of Works. His idea is a monument in the Egyptian style, comprising a, central reotangualr block of masonry, the pylon proper towering to a height of 160 feet, and flanked by two temples. An immense baa-relief depicts in vague, cloudy forms the disembodied spirits of the dead sweeping up towards a symbol of immortality. On a pedestal before the arch of the pylon is a solitary statue of a yong man gazing upwards —ithe youth of Britain contemplating the sacrifices of the war. The criticism inspired by this design,; which /.ertainly is not lacking in .grandeur

and dignity, is very similar to the

kind of criticism that hr.s boon levelled at many proposals in this country. The Egyptian style is condemned as heavy, passive and sulky—the style of :i easte-riddon people. Some critics complain that the idea evolved by Sir Frank Baines is utterly alien to the British temperament. One critic asks why an architect niu,st adopt some '' stylo '' when he sits down to design a war memorial. ''' If an author sat down to write a eulogy of our I'alloii heroes would he consider whether lie should Write it in the style of Burke, .Swift, Macaulay, Froude, or .Milton? ,, This critic's view is similar to that so often expressed by Mr. W. Hurst-Seager, the Chnstehureih architect, to whom New Zealand is indented for the collection of war .memorial designs that was recently exhibited in Whangarei. The first aim of those who seek to design memorials should be, not to choo.se a set style, but to conceive an idea and to express it naturally.