IN THE NEW WORLD

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21575, 10 February 1940, Page 4

IN THE NEW WORLD

THE ARCHITECT’S PART Mr E. Stanley Hall, president of the Royal Institute of British Architects, in a recent review of architects’ help in winning the war for democracy, projected his thought into the future, when the fight for right would have prevailed over the challenge of tyrannous Hitlerism. “Is there a reasonable alternative to the large cities and massed populations?” he said. “We know their disadvantages—over-crowding, lack of air, traffic congestion and the like. We know the causes in the past—convenience of centralisation, nearness to ports and railways, etc. But we have been forced to some extent to a centrifugal policy, and it would be well to see whether such a policy cannot be made permanent. “When one remembers that the average traffic speed in London is eight miles an hour, while the average speed in the open country is five times as great, we can discount some at least of the advantages of close centralisation. One is tempted to hope also that the emergency migration of children to the country may encourage among town dwellers a love of country life. These and similar problems we are hoping to study.

“A small nucleus committee is engaged in drawing up a programme for investigation. They will set a series of tasks for various groups to examine in detail. Such tasks will range from the larger problems of satellite towns, traffic distribution and resurrection of derelict areas, to more intimate investigations of household equipment and economy, design of pottery and glass, information on the relative casts and merits of floor and wall materials and such-like; and in building research we shall try to elucidate the mysteries of damp walls, cracks in plaster, peeling and blistering paint, dry rot, and the other bugbears of the building world. The results will be, we hope, of real value in approaching the new constructive era.”

A similar glance to the time following the Allies’ victory over Germany has been given by a South African, Norman Hanson. "I believe that the architect will play a decisive part in the rebuilding of a new world—that many problems, social, economic and spiritual, will fall to the architect to analyse and solve, and that his control of these problems may be of determining significance,” he states in the “South African Architectural Record.” “To play this part the architect must be fully equipped in every sphere of his work—he must be socially and politically conscious, he must have a creative grasp of scientific progress impinging on his work; he must be trained and confident in handling and controlling industrial and economic aspects of building, as well as understanding and appreciating .the personal needs and reactions of his fellow men. In other words, the full background of technical, psychological and organisational knowledge must be given to his creative aesthetic faculties. Certainly an ambitious programme, but with less than that the architect cannot hope ■ to control and direct the engineer, the I industrialist and the social organiser, ; as he must do to retain his place in I society.”