ARCHITECTURE AND CLIMATE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18455, 19 July 1923, Page 13

ARCHITECTURE AND CLIMATE.

j It is interesting to observe how the development, of architectural style and' decorations differs .in various countries according to their climates. ; With the ancient Greeks, in their warm southern climate, the home was comparatively unimportant as men lived a more or less public' life, spending a great deal of their time in gymnasia and theatres, and in debating the problems of the day; consequently decoration was largely confined to their public buildings. It is at Pompeii that . the . private house seems for the first time to have reached any degree of refinement of decorative effect.

Rome, we know, showed great magnificence in houses, but there again the life wag one led largely away from the home not in it! v Thf.s resulted in the principal effects of architectural art being given to public buildings, and to more public portions of the private houses in both Greece and Rome was the atrium, or court, with its central fountain open to the sky. and surrounded /by a colonnade, from behind which the rooms opened. The atrium gave great opportunity to the deaignor, as the form of ' these courts constituted a splendid, background for such decorations as were required. Compare this type—suited as it was to a warm, consistently sunny climate and the open-air life lived by the people, with its open colonnades, its running water, coloured and painted walls —and tSie totally and necessarily different style found almost everywhere in the more northern countries . whose climate was such that a very much greater'time was spent in the home. Here the atrium gave way to the hall, or house place*, and decoration became more strictly interior. . . ; r '■■•■■ !

Rooms naturally assumed an individuality, reflecting the character of the inhabitants. The fireplace, unnecessary in the warmer climate, became the focal point in the : scheme of decoration. The tendency was toward comfortable, wellfurnished, . easily-warmed,., low and cosy rooms, in contrast to the more open, lofty apartments opening off gallaries surrounding the courtyards of the south. The houses of various countries grew along these lines, and in Italy on the one hand, and in England on the other, the highest development of each type was reached. ' With the introduction of the Renaissance into England, the natural style _of tho country, was invaded by this Italian foreign in every way— and nearly two centuries passed before it adapted itself to English customs and English climate.

It was not until the Georgian period, "however, that the Italian style became thoroughly acclimatised and suitable to English conditions for, residential purposes. Such men as Robert Adam and his brothers produced work that was thoroughly suitable and remarkable for its beauty. The Georgian work extended as far as New South Wales and Tasmania,' and some fine examples of it are still to be seen in those states. It was characterised by a dignified simplicity which might well be followed to-day. In our climate, with its bright sunshine and strong light, it seems out of place to follow very closely the purely English traditional - style, but the development of this geprgian work gives us the opportunity of keeping to a sty'/e sufficiently English, and, at the same time, capable of the necessary variation to suit our climatic needs. In Now Zealand one of the most important questions is that of fenestration. We like quantities of windows. The natural result is difficulty for the designer to prevent the room responding too rapidly to variations in the outside temperature, and a room . with too much window space is much more difficult to' decorate, owing to the ever present feeling of exposure to the elements that large expanses of glass produce. Now, the Italian does not 'use a great expanse of window. His point of view is that while the weather is good he can livo on his loggia, or in his garden of open-air cafe, and get all the air he wants. Therefore, when be goes inside it is to get out of the "air and bright light.' , We Ui New Zealand live a great, deal out of doors, and when we come inside it generally means that it is either too hot or too cold to remain out; so our excess :of. fenestration does not. really, serve us well in the end.' The (ityle of living,. too, is entirely different' from that of England previous to, and including, ttie Georgian period, or from that suggested, by the decorative ■work and furniture, of . Italy. V After all, we, as designers, afe' faced with the task of creating rooms that are cool and look cool in hot' weather, and that are warm and look warm in cold weather. But the more the question is gone into the' more it is brought home to the student of architecture that the Northern European styles ' are not those on which <we should base our architecture and decoration in ' Now Zealand.