BUILDING REGULATIONS

Taranaki Daily News, 26 February 1931, Page 6

BUILDING REGULATIONS

PERSOI 9TEL OF COMMITTEE.

protest by architects. •Strong exception to the constitution and. personnel of the Building Regulations Committee, appointed by the Government to prepare recommendations regarding the earthquake-resisting building regulations for presentation to the forthcoming session of Parliament is taken by the Auckland branch o the New Zealand Institute of Architects. A telegram has been despatched to the executive of the institute, in Wellington urging that a strong protest be made to the Prime Minister. At the conclusion of a meeting of the Auckland executive, the vice-chairman,' Mr. J. Park, who presided, said the architectural profession was surprised that the Government 1 had acted contrary to what had been expected. It was evident that not a thought had been given to the co-operation of architects on the committee, which was largely composed of civil engineers. \ e “It is not our intention to criticise the personnel of the committee, but we feel we have cause to criticise the manner in which it has been set up,” said Mr. Park. “Any by-laws framed must be applicable to the whole of New Zealand; therefore, does it not seem reasonable that the city engineers in each centre should have been appointed to the committee? We also feel tluj,t Professor Knight, of the chair of architecture at the Auckland University College, would have been valued on the committee, as in his hands is the training •.of aspiring architects in the Dominion. “We seriously thought that the committees of the Engineers’ and Architects’ Institutes, together with the New Zealand Builders’ Association, which have been visitin gthe earthquake zone at the instance of their respective conferences, should have been askd to appoint atleapt one member each. We feel that the Government Committee, already too large, could not suffer in efficiency by the° addition of a few more members. The Builders’ Association representation is a matter for themselves, but it will be interesting to hear their considered opinion.” . . Mr. Park said the practising architects had been ignored, when their efforts for many years had been exerted in the direction of keeping before the Government the necessity for the regulations now being prepared so hurriedly. On May. 25, 1927, two years before the Murchison earthquake, and again on April 27, 1928, the executive in Wellington drew the attention of the Government to the necessity for drafting building regulations for the Dominion. The annual conference of architects, held in Wellington last week, had again offered the help and co-operation of its members. Tb be ready when called upon, a committee was set up to inspect and report on the damage done by the earthquake as affecting reconstruction, and this committee, after obtaining the necessary permits, had visited the scene of the disaster. The civil engineers and. other organisations had undertaken similar inspections, at their own expense. It now appeared that the Government' had set up its committee without any opportunity being given to the committee already- investigating the position to nominate men from their, own numbermen whose opinions and experience should not be lightly passed over. Mr. R. A. Lippincott, chairman of the Auckland branch of the institute, and Mr. F. L. Moodie, a member of the Auckland executive, who have returned fro ma visit to the damaged area on behalf of the institute, expressed astonishment that only two architects should have been appointed to the committee, as against eight engineers. “We consider that the architect is the man who, in the end, is responsible for the erection of a building,” they said. “It is the architect, not the engineer, who is employed by a client, and if anything goes wrong it is the architect and not the engineer who is held responsible. In that case, we think the architects should have further representation on the committee.” ■

Every type of building was to receive consideration by the committee, they business premises, but everyone would agree that residential buildings were quite outside the scope of the engineer, who was interested primarily in structural steel and reinforced concrete, if not actually biased in their favour. The engineer, too, was not interested in brick, and it was very questionable, ontwithstanding premature opinions, whether brick was going to be abandoned as far as New Zealand was concerned. One . big factor of the Napier Boys’ High School, for instance, was almost intact, showing that brick was perfectly satisfactory provided the construction was of a suitable type.