WOMEN ARCHITECTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19177, 17 November 1925, Page 14

WOMEN ARCHITECTS.

" To women with the requisite qualifications and artistic bent architecture should offer a fascinating and even lucrative career," says an English writer. Unlike that of many other professions, this new field for women is not overcrowded; two years ago the qualified women architects in England scarcely numbered a dozen. Nearly all the universities grant diplomas in architecture and prepare students for the qualifying examinations of the Royal Institute of British Architects, The universities require students to have passed the matriculation or a similar examination, but this is not necessary in the case of the School of Architecture, Bedford Square, which is under the auspices of the Architectural Association. Training extends over five years, and fees to cover the entire period of instruction vary from £260 at the School of Architecture to £240 for a similar course at University College, London. The fees charged by provincial universities are less, in some cases being as low as £l5O for the full course. The payment of these fees may be spread over the terms, but they are not inclusive of the cost of special text-books and other small expenses incidental to training. The first three years of the course are spent in the study of theoretical and practical architecture, drawing and design, • estimating and town-planning, and during the remaining two years the student is ; required to put in her time in the offices of a qualified architect in order that she may gain a practical first-hand experience of professional routine and method and of indoor and outdoor work. During her time at the university or school the student is enabled to make special arrangements to enter for the examination of the Royal Institute of British Architects after she has taken her diploma, and to . become fully qualified as an E.R.I B.A. ' Well-paid posts are offered at home and abroad, especially in our growing colonies, for qualifiwl architects with ideas, for in this as in.every ?other. profession—-perhaps ' jn . ar . c - llte ?ture.to an even greater degree *r? v t* and initiative that are facV »' ? ' which make w success..