CULT OF BEAUTY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22563, 6 May 1935, Page 32

CULT OF BEAUTY

LACK OF HARMONY DOMINION TOWN PLANNING. The lack of harmony in town planning in New Zealand was referred to by Professor C. ft. Knight, Professor of Architecture at Auckland University College, in a luncheon address to the Auckland I Society of Arts. "There is.opportunity in everything we design to make it beautiful," said the professor. " Country towns in the Dominion lack individuality and are all the same, whereas they should be fitting additions to the rural landscapes that have been destroyed in their building. I cannot understand why country shops should be replicas of city shops, nor why farmsteads should bo built like suburban houses. Country houses should mergo with the countryside and appear to grow out of it." Commenting on city buildings, Professor Knight said they should work up to a climax, preferably in a fine group of municipal buildings. Auckland and other New Zealand towns were very backward in this respect. The Town Hall was built on a most unfortunate angle site, where it was impossible to look at it squarely in the eye. Architects had almost given up hope • of a British town ever attaining that I harmony of design that characterised Continental towns. There should be harmony, too, in utility articles such as poles, letter boxes, signs and other town amenities. Art societies should take a j hand in the guidance of public opinion on these questions.