BUILDING FOR STRENGTH

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21821, 26 November 1940, Page 2

BUILDING FOR STRENGTH

ENGINEERS IN CO-OPERATION WITH ARCHITECTS The modern use of reinforced contrete began in Europe towards the end of last century (remarked Mr Paul Pascoe in a Centennial review of New Zealand buildings). By 1905 it was in current use in Britain, although it was not until 1915 that the London County Council made it legal building practice. The Auckland architect, R. W. de Montalk, was an Innovator in the use of reinforced concrete in New Zealand. He began with residences in 1902 and soon built warehouses and other large buildings in this material. In 1912 he built the Cargen Hotel. Auckland, in defiance of the local Master Builders’ Association, which boycotted this new method of construction. From about 1908 the Auckland Harbour Board has used reinforced concrete for its harbour works, an example followed by other Harbour Boards with equally impressive results. The French contracting firm of Hennlbique helped to pioneer its use in New Zealand. During the Great War office buildings in New Zealand began to be erected which either used reinforced concrete throughout, or else used a steel frame with reinforced concrete floors. The earlier steel and wood construction was unsatisfactory, a fact made more apparent by the Hawke's Bay earthquake of 1931, which has led to a much stricter code of building by-laws in most parts of New Zealand. (Building standards, incidentally, are still controlled by the city, town, or county council in whose territory a building is to be erected J If brickwork is used in building, it can be reinforced by a system of slotted bricks, metal bonding strips and vertical reinforcement. Another engineering aid to building practice is welded steel-work. Thus the engineer is giving a new flexibility to the work of the architect, who is using steel, glass, and ferro-concrete and by them finding emancipation from tradition. The logical utilitarian mind of the engineer, whose work resembles such natural feats of design as a blade of grass or an animal skeleton, is an excellent addition to that of the architect, who is concerned with the aesthetic as well as the practical qualities of design.