Modern Building Construction.

Progress, Volume I, Issue 8, 1 June 1906, Page 193

Modern Building Construction.

We have referred on more than one occasion to the enormous scale on which steel-frame building is proceeding in the United States. The introduction, m addition, of ferro-concrete as a building material has added another demand to the general call on steel manufacturers, till at the present time they at last find it almost impossible to cope with the orders pouring in upon them. Both systems of construction are making headway in England, in spite of the absurd building regulations, and it is interesting to note the concern of those associated with the older methods of construction in view of the change which is threatening them. The wellknown architect, Mr. John Belcher, recently expressed on a public occasion his opinion that steel-frame building presented " a very serious problem" ; and that he could not help feeling, " if anything of that sort " were developed to any great extent, architects would have to become engineers. In view of the rapid advance in steel frame and ferro-concrete construction, it is not improbable that architects who wish to keep in touch with their profession may be forced to this necessity. But to suppose that architecture as an additional consequence should be driven into desuetude is much too gloomy a forecast. As far back as September 1 3 last year it was pointed out in The Times Engineering Supplement that Mr. B. H. Thwaite in his investigations into steelframe construction in the United States, had discovered many aesthetic beauties in buildings of the " flat-iron " type peculiar to that country, which, in his judgment, afforded a wide and varied scope for the architectural profession. Progress in building construction, after all, is only another name for adaptation to environment ; and New Zealand architects would do well to encourage, instead of to repress, a development which they will find it impossible to resist.