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House at Khandallah. Wellington.
Photo: J. Ashton
Also in this Issue:
Community Centres
Low Cost Houses
Reviews
Prospectus
Architect:
Owner: Mr. and Mrs. A. M. McBeath
Builders: Wilson and Jorgensen
Area: 1,100 square feet
Requirements: Three bedrooms, large living-room and outdoor living space to enjoy sun and view, Protection from midday sun in summer.
Construction: Standard timber frame, concrete foundations, flat fabric covered roof. Windows to north-west of living-room are large sheets of plate glass fixed directly into frame. Other windows either top-hung or horizontally sliding, giving good ventilation in any weather. As no side-hung windows are used thee was no need to restrict windows to two-foot widths. This leaves openings uninterrupted by mullions, sashes, or glazing bars.
Finish: Dressed weatherboards on exterior painted pale blue-grey with white trim. Front door bright yellow. Interior fibrous plaster painted. Walls and ceilings largely off-white as a back-ground for fabrics and furnishings.
Main bedroom off-white and blue. To reduce glare in living-room, ceilings and south-east wall are very pale grey and other walls coral. Fireplace tiles cream with off-white woodwork surround and cupboards. Cupboard handles in living-rooms and bedrooms polished turned wood.
The house is distinguished for its simple but very attractive exterior and for the fine detailing of the woodwork. The plan does not quite measure up to the straightforwardness of the exterior and appears a little tightly arranged. However, the principal rooms are well placed for sun and view. Access to the laundry appears difficult but might be explained by special requirements of the client.
‘An outstanding house which must take its place as a pioneer of good design.’
Reading the columns of the local newspapers for the last few years makes it appear as though every town in the country has decided to build a Community Centre. Cynics may suggest that this sudden eagerness is stimulated by the pound-for-pound subsidy which War Memorials in the form of Community Centres will receive from Government grants. But even then it is evident that the most vocal sponsors are some local enthusiasts—an enlightened minority so to speak—and the question still remains of who really wants, who rally would make use of a group of fairly large and expensive buildings.
What is more disturbing is that there are as many definitions of a ‘Community Centre’ as there are individual sponsors and enthusiasts. The only common ingredient which would justify the acceptance of the term ‘Community Centre’ is found in a hazy mystical fervour which would have it that now the time has come when people are ready to become brethren and to weld themselves into this beautiful something—the Community.
What basis is there in reality for such belief? Surely, if this were true there would have emerged before today, before the need for buildings, a strong sign of a living community spirit—a spirit which inevitably would have found its forms of congregation regardless of the lack of solid buildings. After all, the Christian faith and many others gained their vital strength in catacombs. Surely none would suggest that our little suburban houses are worse hide-outs? But let us not be too destructive. Planners and designers, we are sure, would welcome the existence of such a spirit—strong enough to develop them as members of this community so that they could give full, and maybe beautiful, expression to it in the buildings they may be asked to design.
Unfortunately it is at this stage of having to give concrete form to the myth that the designer fails to conjure up more than a village hall. Maybe, to be critical, many enthusiastic planners and designers themselves have spread this romantic conception dreamed up from history books. Their excuse may be that rather than sensing a positive existing demand, they have felt the lack of a centre—of a focal point in our towns and suburbs. True enough, but the danger is that instead of nursing it along they will kill a tender shoot of community spirit by forced premature birth.
For we do believe that there is a growing desire for community life and activity. From where does it come? Maybe from a feeling of frustration after having achieved in New Zealand many material needs. We have, most of us, reasonably good houses; we have, many of us, cars and wireless sets and so on. These things are necessary no doubt, but are they giving us true happiness?
We have holidays with pay, but do we know how to use our leisure time? Maybe this is the root of the desire for more ‘community’—it is no more than a guess. Maybe it is the soldiers returning from the war after the comradeship of the camps—who knows?
We do not know yet.
In these circumstances the best that can be done in each town is to analyse and find out the requirements of organizations already established, such as sports clubs, gardeners' clubs, and women's organizations, and provide the necessary rooms and facilities which even those still lack.
One may take the risk of providing some additional rooms for so-called ‘cultural’ activities such as drama and music, for which there is a very small demand, but which we may agree to be desirable pursuits. But do such rooms and buildings constitute anything new at all? Will they make a Community Centre? We have always had some sort of a town hall and a library in any case.
Are Adult Education and study groups the key?
Here, with this concept of ‘education’, a danger starts and an excellent idea may be killed by presenting itself in a pretentious way. We suggest that the sure way of putting New Zealanders off is to erect a precious little temple in the centre of a somewhat inaccessible ring of tulip beds, this entrance banked by sombre cyprusses, and with the words ‘Community Centre’ incised in Roman letters above the bronzed doors.
Yet this is what many of the earnest protagonists have in mind. They will be content to have given dignified expression to ‘Civic Pride’ and will be peevishly surprised at the ingratitude of the rising generation who will make no use of it. We suggest that vandalism in such places would be the natural result of frustrated vitality.
Because who is to tell us that we are not educated enough at the age of 25? Are we likely to go back to school after the day's work? Will we respond readily to education which is handed to us from such a forbidding altar?
What's wrong with watching ‘rugger’ in the week-end?
To put it bluntly, is not the shop, the pub, and the billiard-room our community centre?
What then do we do?
We show in this issue projected schemes for the centres of two rapidly growing towns—Upper Hutt and Mangakino. Both provide for group activities already organized in most New Zealand communities, but which have so far had inadequate and poorly-designed accommodation.
They are unpretentious, simple buildings that do not try to imitate Roman temples or Renaissance palaces. Their dignity, if any is desired, will derive largely from their honest appearance through the sound use of good materials, from their sympathetic blending with their surroundings. They are merely designed to fulfil their purpose as best they can with present-day means.
Their appearance is friendly and can be colourful. Most important of all, they are placed in a position where people meet in any case, in the pursuit of their daily tasks or pleasures. They are situated close to shops, close to the cinema, close to the pub, and the playing fields.
Maybe, when Bill Smith waits for his turn on the tennis courts, he will hear the voices of members rehearsing the repertory play. Maybe if Mrs. Jones goes shopping past the clubroom doors she will spot the announcement of a discussion evening on child psychology. Maybe when Jim Brown has a handle at the pub he will hear the rehearsal of the local orchestra and discover his inclination for blowing the trumpet.
Designed by Town Planning Section, Ministry of Works.
Fire Station
Ambulance
Youth Centre
Department Store
Shops
Shops and offices above
Post Offices
Hall
Municipal Offices
Library
Government Offices
Police
Cinema
Restaurant
Caharet
Bus stop
Quinn's Post Hotel
No clanging trams, hooting motors, or traffic cops. “Bazaar” Street, with grass, shrubs, flowers, and trees, exhibits storefronts and wares to best advantage for quiet, safe window-shopping.
Town square.
Post Office at left. Town Hall, Library, and Clubrooms at right. Texture and pattern of paving give warmth and character.
Open-air meetings, public receptions, concerts, and addresses can be held here in the open.
Buses and cars drop passengers within a few steps of the shops. Once leaving bus shelters and off-street car parks, shoppers and children are on safe, attractive shopping streets and courts from which all cars are excluded. Parking areas are separate but close by, and goods are delivered to the backs of shops from special service lanes and courts.
Hundreds of small towns throughout New Zealand are raising money to build War Memorials in the form of Community Centres or Village Halls. Most of them have been conceived as classical halls with the emphasis on exterior monumentality rather than for the best use of the community.
This design attempts to break away from the stereotype, and lets its character evolve from the honesty of its approach towards human needs. This appears to us the meaning of the widely subscribed idea of a ‘Living Memorial’.
This building has been designed for use as a hall (Flower Shows to Protest Meetings), a theatre (Macbeth to Les Sylphides if you wish), and a dance hall.
While ballet and some plays will take place within the ‘stage box’, the majority of productions can be produced upon the large apron stage projecting into the audience. This intimate audience-player contact is evident through the whole design, and backstage and auditorium are no longer two self-contained entities. The wings are small but there is a large area behind. Most plays have little need for drop scenery, and the modern use of drapes and lighting will be found to be less expensive. The rooms marked ‘Dressing’ and ‘Props.’ may be partitioned by curtains to suit different requirements.
Site Plan for a Local Hall
The outdoor stage, on opposite page, enables the court to be used for outdoor acting. For dances, the chairs are stacked underneath the stage and the doors to the court are thrown open. This makes the court either a sitting-out area or, if floodlit, an extension of the dance floor. The orchestra can be mounted on either stage.
A portion of the court forms a quiet corner which provides the memorial aspect of the building.
Shopping and Community Centre now under construction at Mangakino, a new town on the Waikato River between Taupo and Putaruru to serve newly developed forest and farming areas and hydro-electric works.
The integration of the shops and community buildings and the recreation areas should ensure the maximum use of each, and a ‘live core’ to the whole town.
Designed by the Community Planning Section of the Housing Division, Ministry of Works.
1. Fire Station
2. Church
3. Converted Y.M.C.A. Hall
4. Social Hall
5. Bakery site
6. Cinema
7. Shops
8. Post Office
9. Bus Office
10. Bus Stop
11. Parking
12. Service yards
13. Tennis
14. Corquet
15. Bowls
16. Hospital Reserve
The Community Centre should be designed to meet three fundamental needs of modern man: his need for fellowship, his need for self expression, and his need to learn. The kind of building and the nature of the activities to be carried on within it will depend upon what is already provided in the local community: the Centre should fill in the gaps, supplying what the community has so far failed to supply in the realm of education and recreation.
All Centres should have as a focal point near the entrance a comfortably furnished common room where people may meet freely for conversation. The common room should be designed so that two of the walls at least may be used for the exhibition of paintings and prints. There should be room for occasional exhibits of sculpture; there should also be a well-lighted show-case for changing exhibits.
Near the common room one would expect to find a kitchen or cafeteria. If there is to be a separate library, it should also open from the common room.
Having designed the hub of the wheel, so to speak, we must now consider the spokes and the rim. It is here that there is much difference of opinion; some want it to be like a school—a place for lectures and discussions; others look upon the Centre as a kind of super-pub, the modern counterpart of the village inn; others again see it as a sports' centre—a place for indoor games and contests of one kind or another. Others make out a good case for creating something more in the nature of an Arts' Centre, with a music room, little theatre, and a crafts' room. A glance over the Centres in existence in England will reveal all these types—most of them merely extensions of what already exists in another form—and catering in more generous measure for activities that have already established themselves elsewhere.
Community Centres designed upon a partial conception of their function are sure to be inadequate. The only way to design one is to look upon it as something completely new in the life of society, something as novel as a broad-casting station.
It is necessary to remember that a Centre is not a pantechnicon for the housing of every social and recreational activity of the place. It is desirable that groups catering for well-established activities such as cricket and football, band music and the like, should remain in their own premises, though they may call upon the Centre for assistance in any way possible through the use of special services and equipment. It is likely, for instance, that the Community Centre will have a film projector which should be made available to sports' bodies and others for instructional purposes. The Centre exists to serve the locality, but it will defeat its purpose if it sets out to cater for too large a part of the leisure time of the community.
A sensitive approach recognizes that there are well-established ways of spending leisure which a majority of the people use without much persuasion; it goes on to assume that there are alternative activities in which many people would be interested if the opportunity were offering. It is the function of the Centre to be aware of these more subtle needs, and, by providing for them to aim at the enrichment of the life of the community. If, for instance, there is no amateur drama, the Centre should gather together those who are interested and start a little-theatre group. If in the area there is no opportunity for the study of literature or poetry or art or world affairs or child psychology or gardening or home decoration, then the Centre has work to do in these fields. If in an area of small houses adults find there is little opportunity for reading in the evenings, then the Centre should provide a quiet and comfortable reading-room for the purpose. In these and many other ways the Centre becomes a growing point in community life.
The essence of community is communication. The first essentials of any community (apart from roads, railway, the post office and the telephone, all means of communication, by the way) are shops for the transmission of goods. Reaching away behind every shop are well-preserved lines of communication for such things as bread and meat, petrol and cars, pressure cookers and nylon hose. Commercial interests see to it, quite properly, that all these goods reach the people who need them. In the universe of ideas the lines of communication are not so well preserved. It is usually nobody's business to carry them much beyond the terminals in the university colleges.
Schools deal only in elementary ideas; the Centre is concerned with the adult mind. It is part of its duty to see, for instance, that what Susan Isaacs has discovered in her studies of children is passed on to young parents; that everyone should have the opportunity, in the small town as well as in the large, of knowing something of the significance of the work of such as Einstein and Rutherford, Bernard Shaw and Thornton Wilder, T. S. Eliot and Stephen Spender, Henry Moore and Pablo Picasso. Ideas are also goods to be kept moving.
It may be objected that people cannot comprehend these things and that if they could, the place to learn about them would be in the university college. That, of course, is an argument drawn from our specialist-vocational attitude to learning. Every man in the community learns his vocation; beyond that he needs knowledge applied to the business of living in the modern world. He need not know all about the history of poetry, all about metre and symbolism, but he should realize that T. S. Eliot had something important to say when he wrote The Hollow Men; he need know little of the structure of the atom, but there should be some place in his town where he can discuss intelligently the long-range effects of that day in Hiroshima; he need not do an honours course in psychology to learn how to respect the
It should not be inferred that the Centre should have a bias towards intellectual and artistic studies. In New Zealand, with its large number of small communities, the Centre must be multi-purpose. In England, where a single town like Manchester has a population equal to that of the whole of our country, there is room for youth centres, adult education centres, arts' centres, and many variants of these. Here it is desirable that they should be combined.
Let us then design the spokes of the wheel beyond the common-room. There should be a noise-proof wing for the activities of young people-in their teens as well as a place for arts and crafts, a stage for drama, quiet rooms for reading and study, rooms for lectures and music. Most Centres will begin with little more than two or three rooms, but provision for extensions should always be made in any plan.
Again, we should not fall into the glih error of trying to cater for all tastes: we should think rather of catering for people with their various approaches to thought and feeling. For this purpose it is convenient to think in terms of the useful classification of human types, suggested in the recent work of W. H. Sheldon. He recognizes three extreme types of temperament (the viscerotonic, cerebrotonic, and somatotonic). The viscerotonic is the ‘good, easy man’, the good talker, fond of a comfortable chair, good food, and good company; the cerebrotonic is the spare type given to thinking. Like Cassius,-
He reads much;He is a great observer, and he looksQuite through the deeds of men; he loves no plays,As thou dost, Antony; he hears no music.
The somatotonic is the active, muscular type, fond of games and vigorous exercise. Very few of us could be described as being entirely one of these extremes, but most of us, while having some of the qualities of all, incline somewhat towards one of the three types. Sheldon has found that intelligence is evenly distributed among all types. My own experience of many years of adult education has tended to show that the first or sociable type is enthusiastic about the arts, films, gardening, and home-making: the cerebrotonics second type, the thinker, is attracted to courses on world affairs, psychology, literature, and poetry; the physically active type is naturally attracted to gymnasium, dancing, nature-study rambles, and to the more vigorous crafts. The one activity which attracts all types equally is play acting; that is not surprising for it is the most inclusive of all the arts and the most valuable integrating factor in the community centre.
It will be seen, therefore, that it is through no concession to expediency that I recommend the multi-purpose Centre; if we are to make it of value to everyone in the community, multi-purpose it must be, with the integrating units in the common room, the library, and the little theatre—no matter how little.
No Community Centre in this country has been designed for the purpose. It is a theme that calls for the utmost skill in design to produce something worthy of being a local home for the human spirit and at the same time capable of adaptation as the spirit moves.
The National Art Gallery, housed during the war and post-war years in the D.I.C. Building in the heart of Wellington, is about to move back to its own premises in the Dominion Museum on Mount Cook. The central position of the Gallery tempted many to view exhibitions which would not have drawn them to the other end of the city. For the keen follower of Art the journey will now require more than a lunch-hour visit. This will be a setback to the increasing appreciation of Art in Wellington.
The New Zealand House in its First Hundred Years is to be the title of an exhibition to be held in Wellington from 14th March. The exhibition is being prepared by the Architectural Centre and will be presented in conjunction with the New Zealand Institute of Architects during their Annual Conference. A subsequent tour of the main centres is a possibility.
The Centre's exhibition Te Aro Replanned is touring the East Coast of the North Island. During December it was shown in the Hawke's Bay Art Gallery in Napier and opened in Gisborne on 1st February.
The National Film Unit's much-discussed film Rhythm and Movement has won acclaim in England as first class cinema art, and has recently been televized in the U.S.A.
The first School of Town Planning in Australasia was opened in Wellington on 1st February. The School is run by the Architectural Centre in conjunction with its School of Architecture. Mr.
Students of the Architectural Centre working in offices under P.S.C. control will in future be entitled to one afternoon a week for design instruction in the studio. This will provide relief to the heavy programme of work during the year.
Taina is an exciting book to look at, but somewhat disappointing to read. Without Mervyn Taylor's wood engraving Taina would merely be another addition to the already overstocked shelf of dull books about the early days in New Zealand. The fault does not lie with New Zealand's history as such. This country has had its fair share of glamour and glamour boys—whalers, traders, missionaries, settlers, the whole complexity of Maori-Pakeha relations—there are incidents and personalities enough for a first-rate historical novel, for a really good biography. Instead library shelves are littered with second-hand biographies of early missionaries written by conscientious descendants and with ragged reminiscences of pioneer settlers. Oh that elderly citizens would follow il faut cultiver notre jardin, and not feel impelled to rush to print with a ditty bag of stray reminiscences. New Zealand has had too many chroniclers and too few standards.
Taina, however, is not a pretentious book. The story of a white seaman turned trader who settled in New Zealand and married a rangatira wife, and of the early years of Taina the son of this marriage, are recalled simply even naïvely, and if the story makes few pretences to literary style, the reader is not jolted by literary lapses. There is one delightful story about the escape of a young Maori boy and girl made captive by a Ngapuhi war party. And some of the translations of Maori chants are good. The English phrases are poor media for the rhythm of the Maori language but there is a simple and quiet beauty in
It seems a pity that
But the book will sell; partly because there seems to be a ready market at the moment for books about New Zealand, but mainly because of the highly satisfactory wood engravings by Tangihanga, possibly the finest engraving in the book—reduced from 7¼ inches by 5 inches
Tangihanga, possibly the finest engraving in the book, is a perfectly designed and balanced group, achieving in black and white a striking statuesque effect. But the most interesting is Hineato climbing into the cutter. This is not a slick engraving but Hineato is alive, the pose is realistic, it gives the effect of solid bodies. More attention could have been given to the faces and hands, but the study although not immediately attractive is worth looking at carefully.
The book can stand criticism; it is attractive and is worth buying.
The grocer's Christmas calendar is usually an atrocity which we accept with thanks and hang in the kitchen simply because it is at times necessary to know the exact date. The Imperial Chemical Industries calendar is not to be treated so lightly. That a New Zealand firm should take the trouble to employ a first-rate wood-engraver to illustrate a calendar in which design and not advertisement is the keynote is in itself a triumph of good taste and sound psychology. Because good design pays.
The six wood-engravings depicting scenes from Maori life and legend were made by
Good taste in everyday things cannot be imposed on people, but they can be led by example. ‘It is the responsibility of big business and the large agencies of the State to use the work of first-rate designers at all their points of contact with the community,’ wrote the editor of the current Arts Year Book, and it is a responsibility and an opportunity that the Imperial Chemical Industries has realized. As a harbinger of the aesthetic in the everyday a demonstration calendar is as worthy an achievement as a demonstration house.
Maui Snaring Sun God. Reduced from 5 in. by 3½ in.
General view from main road
Sketch plan (not to scale)
This group of eleven new houses was discovered by a young student during a Sunday afternoon walk at Ohiro Bay, six miles from Wellington. He reported his outraged feelings to the Editors. The houses are illustrated to show that bad planning and ugliness are as conducive to bad living conditions as any lack of sanitation could be.
The surprising fact is that though they are built as lowcost houses, they are neither of minimum area nor construction. Cost is about £1,300 per unit, a figure for which attractive houses of a high standard are being built today. Yet these houses by their shocking design and weak planning give the impression of a very poor standard. The scheme was financed by a Wellington City Council housing loan.
The environment the houses create has all the potentialities of slums without their one advantage—a feeling of community spirit and neighbourliness.
All in all it is obvious that the prospective owner who is forced to take up such a property by the housing shortage is getting far less than his money's worth in comfort and quality of design.
Is this the way we want our cities to grow?
Should not such schemes be designed by trained architects and designers?
And should the City Council have supported such a scheme?
The illustrations reveal the most fundamental planning weaknesses: to reach the bathroom from the bedrooms practically every other room in the house has to be traversed. While the living-room is in use this would cause embarrassment.
The kitchen looks south on to a high clay bank only three feet away. Living-room cut up by cross-circulation and used as a passage from one room to another.
No paths, fences, or clothes drying facilities.
During the 1948 Parliamentary Session the Town-planning Amendment, Act a measure of great importance for town-planning, was passed. The amending Act, which sets out to correct the more obvious difficulties in the way of progress, was introduced at the request of the Municipal Association.
Another section of the amendment Act gives local authorities wider powers for enforcing finally approved schemes. Previously any person who used a building or land otherwise than in conformity with a town-planning scheme committed an offence and was liable to a fine. The 1948 amendment Act adds to these provisions by giving local authorities power to require the demolition, alteration, or removal of a building or work done in contravention of an approved scheme. If the owner does not carry out the demolition or removal, the local authority can obtain a Supreme Court Order authorizing it to do the work itself, at the owner's expense.
In the case of a local authority not producing a town-planning scheme, the Minister of Works may, by notice, require it to do so, within a specified time. In default of such action, the Minister is empowered to undertake the preparation of such a scheme himself at the expense of the local authority. This power is important in a locality such as a Metropolitan Area where there are several local authorities exercising jurisdiction over various portions of the area. In such a case the wrong action by any one of these local authorities might prejudice the joint efforts of the others towards co-ordinated development of the Metro-politan Area as a whole.
One of the major difficulties faced by the local authorities under the town-planning legislation has been the problem of ensuring that areas zoned for particular purposes are, in fact, made available for those purposes. Until the amendment Act was passed last year, a local authority had no means of ensuring this proper utilization of land, but it is now empowered, where the planning scheme has been finally approved and acting with prior approval of the Minister of Works, to purchase or take land for any of the purposes of the scheme. The local authority can now carry out the development of land acquired by it, and may erect buildings for leasing for industrial or commercial purposes. Finance can be arranged by means of a special loan without a poll of ratepayers. Land or buildings acquired under this provision can be leased by private contract or by public tender, and the local authority can sell any land which is required for a private residence of the purchaser.
One of the most important features of the amendment Act is a clarification of the exemptions from payment of compensation under town-planning schemes. The amendment Act now makes it clear that no compensation is payable in respect of any provision regulsting the ‘height, design, or external appearance of buildings, or regulating the use of buildings or land by prescribing areas to be used exclusively or principally for specific purposes or classes of purposes’. These latter words, of course, refer to the zoning which is an integral part of every planning scheme, and their effect is that, as in other British countries, the zoning of areas of land for particular defined uses does not give rise to claims for compensation.
The amendment Act has been fully supported by the Municipal and counties Associations and should go far towards ensuring the early preparation and implementation of planning schemes in the urban areas throughout the Dominion. Local authorities now have all the powers necessary to ensure healthy and economic development of the areas under their control.
Mr.
Mr.
During the war he was head of the Ministry of Information, Exhibitions Branch, which he was responsible for starting. He was chief designer of the Design at Work exhibition at the Royal Academy. London, 1948.
In many countries throughout the world the system of architectural training whereby pupils were articled for a given period to a particular architect or firm has been largely abandoned over the past twenty or thirty years. In its place the trend has been towards a thorough school training with a maximum amount of practical office work during the course. This principle has now become firmly established.
In this country, as the pupilage system fell into disuse, the responsibility for architectural education passed from the individual architects to the University, and while this responsibility has been and si being fulfilled towards a group of students through the Auckland University School of Architecture, established in 1926, provision made for those students who are obliged to carry on their studies away from Auckland is inadequate. There are considerable numbers of such ‘professional’ students in centres throughout New Zealand and there are many reasons why it is not practicable that they spend their training period at the Auckland School—not least among them being the necessity for assistants in architects' offices all over the country.
At present these students are required to submit Testimonies of Study to the examiners in Auckland but these are merely intended to provide a standard of entry into the N.Z.I.A., and are no substitute for the tuition in design and construction formerly provided by the individual architect, and latterly (in other countries) by numerous and well-distributed Schools of Architecture. Under this present system the onus is on the student to educate himself up to the bare standard required.
At its best, and applied to certain subjects of limited scope, this system may function sufficiently well to maintain a fair standard, but applied to such a specialized and individual study as architectural design, the results can never be satisfactory. The designs submitted by the students are intended literally to be ‘testimonies of study’, but this complementary study is not supervised or directed along the most effective lines, and indeed the design problems are not directly related to any clearly defined course of study.
The prime necessity to gain a pass hampers initiative and enterprise and leads to mediocrity in design. Because the examiners are unknown to the student, and because he is given no reason for his failures, he usually blames the jury's verdict rather than the quality of his own design.
Apart from the fact that a tremendous amount of time is wasted by students doing testimonies that are failed, the lack of intelligent approach to each design problem together with poor facilities for working and a lack of enthusiasm through consequent overwork leads to the employment of an excessive amount of time. As the work is not planned the rush heightens with the approach of the closing date. Students come to work tired, and their thoughts during the day are on testimonies. Efficiency and speed of work suffers. So does their health. One-half to two-thirds of the time spent by many students on Testimonies would be sufficient for a full year's design work in a full-time School of Architecture.
Until 1946 students in Wellington got along as best they could and the standard of work was generally very low. Failures were more frequent than passes. With a small degree of organized assistance given by the Architectural Centre in 1947 the standard in Wellington improved and the percentage of passes increased. In 1948 when fully organized assistance was given to all students there was a noticeable improvement, but results have not been completely satisfactory. As set design problems should derive logically from a course of studio study, it has been found practically impossible to evolve a course of study around design problems set externally. Again, the approach to contemporary design adopted by the school staff has not necessarily been that followed by the examiners and in some cases the students are left in a confused state of mind. Even though, for the first time students had organized assistance from competent instructors, compromises were made to suit what were thought to be the personal predelictions of the jury in Auckland. This development is much to be deplored as unifying influences in design, so necessary in the establishment of a stable and satisfying contemporary architecture in this country, are absent from the students' training.
Architectural education in New Zealand, like so many other activities, is hardly out of the pioneering stage. Much has, of course, been done, but there still remains much more. It is little more than thirty years since the New Zealand Institute of Architects set up the first system of examinations and only twenty since properly organized teaching could be had. The original N.Z.I.A. examinations, modeled on those of the R.I.B.A. and the system adopted by the School of Architecture at Auckland University College, both followed closely on English precedent. This was no doubt right and proper in the early stages, but it is now evident that further developments to meet the special needs of this country are required.
Whatever may have been the position in past times, it can no longer be logically claimed that learning to be an architect is properly a part-time occupation. The results obtained by those taking the Professional Course prove that it is only those with exceptional ability and tenacity that make even reasonable progress. Further, it is questionable whether without expert direction during the course they benefit from it as they should.
The School of Architecture and Town Planning in Wellington was set up and is directly controlled by the Architectural Centre. During the past two and a half years a full course of instruction has been given for the professional examinations in Architecture leading to membership of the New Zealand Institute of Architects. The scope of the School has been widened this year to include a course in Town Planning for students seeking professional qualification through the examinations of the Town Planning Institute, London.
These courses, which are designed for part-time students, are also open to students not wishing to qualify. In addition a supplementary design course is held during the year and is open to all students.
Most important contribution made by the Architectural Centre to students' education is not so much in the routine lectures of the School as in the opportunity it gives to students to broaden their outlook and gain an understanding of the other arts and sciences related to architecture. It is the intention to bring the best out of each student rather than to pour facts into him. This is a continual process achieved through talks, discussions and projects and by constant contact with the corporate members of the Centre, who include many of the recognized experts in art, architecture, and town planning in Wellington.
Largest single contribution to students education is the annual Summer School of Design. In these projects, carried out during the long vacation, students learn to work together for an aim in which they have a common interest and where any chance of personal gain or aggrandizement is excluded. The scheme for the replanning of Te Aro Flat and the subsequent exhibition was not only a successful experiment in team work, but also taught students and tutors alike more about practical town planning than they would learn by months of academic study. The building of the Demonstration House at Karori has similar objects.
The Architectural Centre is welding the students together by providing them with a set of common objectives. Through the work of the School their study has been organized and they have been taught methodically the required syllabus. The proportion of examination passes has risen steadily, and in most cases of failure reasons can be traced. The unaccountable failure of a good student still occurs too often, but compared with the old days spirits are high. In many subjects a higher proportion of Centre students has passed than of Auckland degree students.
The School offers a five-year course of instruction for the professional examinations of the New Zealand Institute of Architects. The written examinations are the same as those for the degree course at the Auckland University College and are conducted by the University of New Zealand. In addition, students are required to submit each year several solutions of design and construction problems, known as ‘Testimonies of Study’.
Lectures and tuition for the examinations of the Town Monday, 7th March. The year is divided into three terms, the dates, other than the commencing date, being the same as those for the Auckland University. This allows degree students, in Wellington for the vacations, to take part in the talks, discussion, and other activities of the Centre during this period.
The subjects for the professional examinations are as follows:
Testimonies of Study. History of Architecture—I. Architectural Construction—I. Freehand Drawing.First Professional Examination:
Testimonies of Study. History of Architecture—II. Architectural Construction—II. Practical Mathematics. Descriptive Geometry and Sciagraphy.Second Professional Examination:
Testimonies of Study. History of Decoration. Theory of Architectural Design—I. Structural Mechanics. Perspective Drawing.Third Professional Examination:
Testimonies of Study. Theory of Architectural Design—II. Sanitation, Hygiene, and Electrical Installation. Reinforced Concrete Construction.Fourth Professional Examination:
Testimonies of Study.. Professional Practice and Building Law. Structural Steel Construction. Specifications, Measurement, and Valuation of Materials. Test Subject in Architectural Design. Oral.Final Examination:
A sheet of the elements of Architecture, together with appropriate notes. A composition based on a well-known building. Construction details of trades covered by Architectural Construction—I.First Professional:
A sheet of carefully-drawn measured work, together with the survey notes taken by the candidate. An elementary design problem. Construction details of trades covered by Architectural Construction—II.Second Professional:
Two design projects. One sheet of working drawings.Third Professional:
Two design projects. Moderate-sized buildings to show clearly the design. An interior design.Fourth Professional:
An advanced design project. A set of working drawings of a small building. A specification for the above working drawings.Final Examination:
Before students are permitted to take the professional course they must have passed the Entrance Examination of the University of New Zealand, or its equivalent as required by the University. In addition, candidates must pass a test in ‘drawing from the round’ to be submitted with the Matriculation Certificate to the Chairman of the Education Committee, N.Z.I.A., by the 14th March preceding the professional examination.
Lectures and tuition for the examinations of the Town-Planning Institute, London, are being inaugurated this year and commenced on 1st February.
Examinations are held during the first week of July and will be the last to be held under the present syllabus. The new syllabus commences next year but no examinations under it will be held until 1951. Lectures will probably commence during March of next year for the new syllabus. During the latter part of this year and the early part of next year, town planning students may carry out their measured drawings and set pieces.
The present course in town planning covers a period of three years. The first year a qualifying examination is held consisting of a measured drawing and set piece with report. In the second year the Intermediate examinations are held as follows:
A measured drawing of the main lines of a well-designed building or structure and of the surroundings appertaining to it.
Design for a simple subject in Town and Site Planning.
Elementary Construction of Building and Roads.
Surveying and Levelling.
Elementary History of Town and Garden Planning in Great Britain and of Architecture in relation thereto.
The Principles of Design.
The Town and Country Planning Acts and Regulations.
Outlines of Town and Regional Planning.
Outlines of Local Government in England and Wales.
Oral.
In the final year there is a Set Piece to be completed in two months. In addition to an oral examination the following written examinations are held:
The History of Town Planning.
Town Planning in Practice.
Town Planning in Relation to Architecture and Amenities—Parts I and II.
Town Planning in its Relation to Engineering—Parts I and II.
Town Planning in its Relation to Surveying—Part I and II.
The Law Relating to Town and Country Planning.
Candidates who have passed the Final Examination of the Royal Institute of British Architects or of the Institution of Civil Engineers, or of the Institution of Municipal Engineers, or of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, or any equivalent overseas examination, may receive exemption from the Intermediate Examination.
Applications to sit the examinations in New Zealand are required to be presented on 30th January of the year prior to that in which it is intended to sit. Recent applications submitted after this date have been granted permission to sit.
Lecture fees are £2 2s. per subject per year.
Studio instruction fees are £4 4s. per year for full instruction and £2 2s. for part-time instruction.
A rebate of 5s. per subject and 8s. for full studio instruction will be made for early payment of fees.
Ex-servicemen may receive full reimbursement of their fees on application to the Wellington District Office of the Rehabilitation Department.
Students wishing to enrol for any of the subjects or courses should apply to the Secretary. Architectural Centre. 3rd Floor, Dominion building, Wellington, for an interview with the Director. Inquiries should be made to Box 1628 or by ringing 46–124.
The Architectural Centre has no permanent accommodation other than a good clubroom and library in 39 Johnston Street. Lectures are carried out in the Draughting Rooms of the Housing Division of the Ministry of Works and studio space has been made available from the Government Architect's Office adjoining. Efforts are being made provide permanent accommodation.
Autumn Term Opens.
Opening date for Testimony of Study, First Period.
Testimony of Study Fee (£1 10s.) to be sent to Registrar, N.Z.U.
Good Friday, Easter Recess beings.
Easter Recess ends.
Autpmn Term Closes.
Closing date for Testimony of Study, First Period.
Opening date for Testimony of Study, Second Period.
Winter Term Opens.
Professional Examination Fees must be in by this date.
Closing date for Testimony of Study, Second Period.
Winter Term Closes.
Spring Term Opens.
Spring Term Closes.
Examinations begin.
A. Graham Kofoed, B.Arch., a.n.z.i.a.
W. M. Bradshaw, A.C.I.S.(Eng.).
l.a.m.t.p.j.
R. Sissons, Dip. T.P., a.m.p.p.i., m.s.i.n.z.
a.r.i.b.a., a.n.z.i.a., Dip. T.P., Dip. Civ. Des. (Lvpl.).
F. C. Basire, m.s.i.n.z., a.m.t.p.i.
a.m.t.p.i.
a.r.i.b.a., a.m.t.p.i.
D. a.r.j.b.a., a.n.z.i.a., a.m.t.p.i.
F. J. F. Sheppard, a.n.z.i.a.
F. H. Newman, Ing. Arch. (Vienna), Beaux Arts (Paris), a.r.j.b.a., a.n.z.i.a.
Elizabeth Taylor, a.n.z.i.a.
G. Ferris, a.n.z.i.a.
I. F. Calder, a.r.i.b.a., a.n.z.i.a.
I. V. Clarkson, a.n.z.i.a.
a.n.z.i.a.
a.n.z.i.a.
V. Styles, a.n.z.i.a.
J. W. Bertinshaw, a.n.z.i.a.
L. K. Arnold, a.n.z.i.a.
S.
D. a.r.i.b.a., a.n.z.i.a., a.m.t.p.i.
J. F. Wight, B.Arch., a.r.i.b.a., a.n.z.i.a.
J. I. King, a.r.i.b.a., f.n.z.i.a., a.m.i.struc.e.
C. R. Honey, B.Arch., a.n.z.i.a.
A. J. Scars, m.r.san.i.
R. Abel, Dip.Arch.
A. G. Kofoed, B.Arch., a.n.z.i.a.
a.r.i.b.a., a.n.z.i.a.
a.r.i.b.a., a.n.z.i.a., a.m.t.p.i.