ARCHITECTS AND CLIENTS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 244, 16 October 1939, Page 3

ARCHITECTS AND CLIENTS

QUESTION OF A FAIR DEAL Talbot. Hamlin, a well-known) American architect, and writer, de- ; fends the “Ivory Tower Artist. - ' a) term used in the United States to describe contemptuously a person who i is accused of “using his art. as an | excuse for a cowardly escape Irom | responsibility." Mr. Hamlin contends! that men engaged in creative work' must, have time for real helpful thinking as well as acting. “We need contemplation as well as j intellection, and a conscious relaxation of daily strains,” he says in Pen- : cil Points. “Above all, we architects 1 need it. It is one of the curse-5 of, modern architecture that in the ■ hurly-burly of modern life—of re- i tractory and penny-pinching clients, in the confusion and contradictions ol economic pressure and idealism, in j the endless time-co.-timing details of | running an oilice and getting out. de-1 tails -there is so little time for con-, sideration of the larger matters of de- | sign. It takes a great, architect and a strong man to light, through all this > to serenity, to keep alive through all ! this the essential clarity of an archi-1 tectural conception. “Particularly unfortunate is a custom, in much of the largest coni!/ - cial work, of over-hurry in the preliminary design stages. Clients do- j mand a ‘show drawing’ almost as soon as the commission is given; to protest ■ that the building of group is not yet 1 designed, the answer is that it doesn't really matter; all they want is just, a drawing ‘to show to prospects.’ So the drawing, ill-considered and undesigned, is made, and dolled up by a clever Tenderer, with trees and bright colours, or snappy darks and lights, to conceal its lack of design. Then, suddenly the architect, learns that this is the accepted design, and any attempt to change or improve, to restudy and vitalise, is rendered fruit-less-the prospect has been already sold, and to make drastic changes would endanger the sale! How can good architecture come out of such a system? Architects must light for • the importance of the original period of study, and for their right, to furnish the client the best building they < can give him. What an ironic com- ’ ment on things this condition is! Wc j are paid to give our be.xt talent, oui’i creativeness and our judgment - and | the very people who pay us for that i then combine to prevent our doing j it . . . My, what intelligence! “In the Ivory Tower, one has a chance, too, to examine one’s sell, one’s own ideas and achievements., Sometimes that is not pleasant. Occa-; sionally—perhaps often —those who • so savagely attack the Ivory Tower , dwellers do so. and bury themselves ' in the constant, shock of day-to-day j action, merely because they are afraid ) to look at themselves in the quiet of | < the high sky.” 1t