ARCHITECTURE AND THE LANDSCAPE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21598, 19 March 1932, Page 16

ARCHITECTURE AND THE LANDSCAPE

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, —As a visitor who is seeing for the first time the impressive scenery of the South Island, I cannot help noticing how greatly the crimson-red roofs scattered over the landscapes, detract from their beauty. Wherever the corrugated iron is painted green or is left unpainted, the scenery retains its charm to a very great extent, but as soon as the crude red commonly employed on iron roofs intrudes its high note into the quiet symphonies of Nature there is a dissonance which is quite disturbing. The orange reds of the tiled roofs, however newly laid, are infinitely less unpleasing and in time will tone down and, easily fit in with the prevailing colour scheme which Nature has provided.

Can nothing be done in the next decade to remedy the present discordance? Iron roofs are frequently, repainted, but green generally costs a little more than the usual red employed. If that little more is at the present time not to be thought of, there will certainly be a day, which I venture to hope is not very far distant, when it will not be beyond the reach of the average householder to expend what is necessary to allow his home to become a part of the landscape instead of a disturbing element from every point of view. The Otago Peninsula and indeed the whole of the bold hillside,? and braes which give the neighbourhood of■ Dunedin such distinction and character deserve the necessary care to prevent them from being permanently disfigured with a rash of crimson-red patches, and I venture to hope that this letter may before long lead towards a heavy : reduction of this scarlet fever on the roofs. Of the town and its suburbs—l am, etc., ■:V *’ Gordon Home. Dunedin, March 18.