THE HOUSES OF TO-DAY

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 6622, 11 September 1908, Page 4

THE HOUSES OF TO-DAY

It would be too much to expect that Lord Plunket's contemptuous reference to the style in which -Nciv Zealand houses are huilt will he followed by any immediate afflorescence of architectural art. "What his Eordship said is not new. The same expressions of opinion hare been heard hero and there, oocasiorihlly, for years. But his theme was a good one, and his remarks are a welcome contribution to contemporary criticism, on the principle that little drops of water and little grains of sand make the mighty ocean and the solid land. If the ordinary man turns up his nose at our houses nobody takes much notice; when his Excellency the Governor does so thorn can be no manner of doubt that the performance will attract at-

tention. It would be obviously unfair < to take Lord Finn kefs very moderate > criticism as a reflection upon archi- 1 tects. His words will boar no such , twisting. They are rather in the na- , turo of comment upon tho public j want of taste. That the public has no i taste in this matter is beyond question. Every architect, we should imagine, must suffer horrible anguish at the character of most of the domiciles ho prepares a plan for —stupidlooking boxes, with a funnel through the middle, called a “passage”; lopsided kennels with the front entrance at the side and the bedrooms downstairs ; grotesque imitations of Swiss chalets that look like bloated wedding cakes. All these tilings, which abound in their hundreds, are terrible eyesores, and must have a distinctly immoral influence, which the occasional contemplation of a terrace of oblong shapes having windows inserted with mathematical precision in a wilderness of badly-painted timber does nothing to dispel. His Excellency is wrong when ho says that these abominations are not built purely for the sake of saving money. They >, are. The speculator puts them up to save money—and make more money on the deal, The seven-roomed villa ivhose ugliness positively shouts at the wayfarer and exacts tho passing tribute of a sigh is put up in all its native hideousness to save the money that would otherwise ho expended in the erection of a comely-looking and more comfortable tenement of fire or six rooms.. The case is just the same with tho equally hideous habitation of twenty rooms. Probably the offence of its buildey is the greater, because something on a i smaller scale equally as useful, if more artistic, might hare taken its place, and at tho same time fulfilled all the ■ requirements of pretension. Money is ■ “ saved ” on these atrocities, and ■ there is also a great rush to “ save I money" by getting tho plans for , houses from promoted bricklayers and ■ carpenters who are as handy with a lead pencil as with a saw. This as , much as anything else has degraded i the architecture of Now Zealand resii deuces.

If something could he done to restrict the artistic antics of these people, a step towards amendment of the public taste might he secured, An architectural exhibition now and then might do some g6od, but we doubt it. What with the high price of land, the prevalence of dawdling artisans, the monstrous cost of material, the preparation of specifications by Tom, Dick,' and Harry, and a public more concerned about ornamenting itself in all tho colours of the rainbow than in the design of the places it lives in—with all these things to ho taken into consideration, tile prospect of immediate improvement is not groat. The only gleam of 'hope is that as ninetenths of the houses now put Up to filter tho winds into biting draughts are such trumpery, jerry-built shells they Will before a generation passes be inhabitable only by mopokes. By that time the technical Schools will have done their work and the architect bo allowed to do his.