ARCHITECTURE

Timaru Herald, Volume CL, Issue 22063, 9 September 1941, Page 6

ARCHITECTURE

EACH AGE HAS ITS OWN NEED

Some of the present preachers of allegedly new doctrines in architecture will find—if they look through some old books on the subject—that they are merely repeating words spoken and written long before they were born. For example, a contributi'n to the “National Encyclopaedia,” published about sixty years ago, made these remarks:—

“Those buildings only, in which the aesthetic elements grow naturally out of the constructive, are true in style; and all such are alike true, however variously these elements may be expressed? This unity of design is to be found in every noble piece of architecture in the world. . . .

“With all their magnificence of decoration our Houses of Parliament (in London) are, in a certain sense, shamed by the humblest Swiss chalet; we feel that the one is an imitation whilst the other is a living reality. . . . “Cast-iron decorations do not enrich; they impoverish a structure. The ornament may be small in quanity or simple in design, but it must be in some way precious; it must be the best we have, and never at all bear marks of stinting for mere saving’s sake. On the other hand, waste of work is utterly reprehensible in architecture as in anything else. . . .

“All good architecture is universally and absolutely true. If a column seems to support an entablature, it really must do so; if a panel is of wood, it is not to be painted to imitate marble. . .

“We find the necessity for the sublime in a building which is to be truly noble. A precipice of wall, a sheer unbroken flank of a tower, may be all we require; and often with great size we may almost trust to the sublime for effect, and disregard decoration. . . . “We are now (1880) in the midst of conflict; it is an age of experiment in every direction except the classical; that at least has gone, we may hope for ever. We have yet to learn that architecture is not and must not be archaeology, but that it must arise from the needs of the home. . . .

An earnest spirit manifests itself on every side in the search after great principles such as those which guided famous architects of past centuries who built nobly for the needs of their own time. It is thought, and rightly thought, that if these can be discovered, then a basis will be laid for a true and living architecture for the future.” The search during recent years has led to the practice of principles from which admirable buildings have sprung.