Vol. CXVIII — 3056
The ARCHITECT & BUILDING NEWS
July 15, 1927
... Gilbert Wood & Co., Ltd.
Manaqinq Director: William L. Wood
Editorial, Publishing and Advertisement Offices:
Rolls House, 2 Breams Buildings, London, E. C. 4. Tel.: Holborn 5708 Registered Office: Imperial Buildings, Ludgate Circus, London, E. C. 4
Principal Contents
Factors. That Make for Bad Building......................................... 89, 90 Notes and Comments.................................................................. 90 The Repair of Rural Cottages — III. (Illustrations)................... 91 Professional Societies.................................................................. 92 Competition Notes...................................................................... 92 Book Reviews............................................................................. 92 The Industrial Planning of Trafford Park (Illustrations) 93-99 New Ways and Means (Illustrations).......................................... 100 Some Golf Buildings on the Cote D’Azur (Illustrations)...... 101-103
The Cambridge University School of Architecture (Illus
trations)....................................................................... 104, 106 Architects’ Registration Bill...................................... 108, 110, 122 London Building Notes............................................................ 112 The Week’s Building News................................................. 114, 116 Building Contracts Open.......................................................... 118 Current Market Prices.......................................................... 120, 122 Current Measured Rates....................................................... 124, 126
FACTORS THAT MAKE FOR BAD BUILDING
The Conference held at Reading last week to consider the preservation of the beauties of the Thames Valley included representatives of the County Councils of Oxford, Berks and Bucks, local authorities, regional and town planning committees, the Thames Conservancy, the Ministries of Health, Agriculture and Transport, the Universities of Oxford and Reading, together with riparian owners and others interested in the amenities of the river-side. That such a large gathering could have been convened by the Council for the Preservation of Rural England is symptomatic of the alarm which is rapidly spreading among people of artistic taste and feeling on account of the increasing havoc that is being wrought in the English countryside by bad and unsuitable building. The conviction that some steps must be taken to stem the tide of what has been termed “the bungalow menace” brought the C. P. R. E. into existence; and the Reading Conference is one of the first notable efforts of the new Society in organising public opinion to combat a very real and threatening danger. The Thames Valley is a national possession; it has often been spoken of as a national pleasure resort, and on that account, if for no better reason, its amenities must be preserved. It would be difficult to assign any one cause as responsible for the evils that here, as in other rural districts, are causing so much trepidation. The motor-car is usually blamed for most of the present distressing developments; and it often happens that “the acquisitive faculty” which
provides the means for a car is not tempered by that artistic perception and sense of fitness which would dictate in its owner a right attitude towards the country which the vehicle enables him to reach. His decision to ˮlive out’’ may, therefore, be taken more
for considerations of health than from appreciation of rural beauty, which he frequently sullies by erecting a dwelling that is merely expressive of his own vulgarity and self-assertiveness. This is only one facet of the rural trouble, however. There is little doubt that heavy taxation and the incidence of the death duties have forced many large estates into the market; and the “broad acres” which once gave delight to the eye have been promptly cut up into little plots on which new owners have wreaked their individual fancies. A noble lord recently stated that the gentleman often advertised as anxious to buy a large estate of not less than 5, 000 or 10, 000 acres does not exist outside the imagination of the land agents or speculators who drew up the advertisement in the hope of securing some large property on which they can make a handsome profit by cutting it up into
little bits. And, in many cases, no doubt, through pressure of increasing outgoings and agricultural depression, such properties gravitate into their hands. More houses are needed to house the population, of course, and consequently more land must be cut up to provide the necessary sites, but there is no good reason why a whole district should be made squalid in the process. But the object of the land speculator is to sell freeholds quickly and take his profit; he has no interest, like a ground landlord, in preserving the amenities for the benefit of all. And one of his ready customers is the man of small means, with a young family, whose difficulty in finding suitable accommodation forces him to take up a plot, on which he erects, largely by his own labour or with the aid of a local odd man, a dwelling of sorts. This is the real explanation of so many of the unlovely shacks, half-barn, half army hut, with lean-to sheds, tumble-down poultry houses and unkempt gardens that form such a depressing picture all over the rural England of to-day.
Indeed, it is the village odd-job man that Mr. R. G. Spiller, the well-known Taunton builder, blames for much of the present country-side trouble. As a builder esteemed by architects, and one, moreover, with the benefit of an initial architectural training, who has carried out work for architects, and also speculative work on his own account from architects’ designs, he was a welcome guest at the Architecture Club dinner on Tuesday last. He had, moreover, one or two interesting suggestions to make for securing better design in speculative built houses, which formed the special topic of discussion at this dinner.
In his opinion the speculative builder errs more often through ignorance than intention, and he proposed that architects should prepare suitable plans for small houses which the speculative builder could obtain or make use of for a reasonable or moderate fee. This idea follows the line of a scheme which has been in operation for some time in parts of the United States, but recent report does not suggest that the architects are altogether satisfied with it. One difficulty is that the builders vary the designs and destroy their merit; another that they use inferior or unsuitable material with equally disastrous effect, and a third is the absence of proper supervision, resulting very often in bad construction. But one wellknown practitioner here has truly said, that as architects are never employed on or get anything out of this class of work now, they would be benefited rather than prejudiced by getting a small fee for the use of their designs; in addition to which they would be
The ARCHITECT & BUILDING NEWS
July 15, 1927
... Gilbert Wood & Co., Ltd.
Manaqinq Director: William L. Wood
Editorial, Publishing and Advertisement Offices:
Rolls House, 2 Breams Buildings, London, E. C. 4. Tel.: Holborn 5708 Registered Office: Imperial Buildings, Ludgate Circus, London, E. C. 4
Principal Contents
Factors. That Make for Bad Building......................................... 89, 90 Notes and Comments.................................................................. 90 The Repair of Rural Cottages — III. (Illustrations)................... 91 Professional Societies.................................................................. 92 Competition Notes...................................................................... 92 Book Reviews............................................................................. 92 The Industrial Planning of Trafford Park (Illustrations) 93-99 New Ways and Means (Illustrations).......................................... 100 Some Golf Buildings on the Cote D’Azur (Illustrations)...... 101-103
The Cambridge University School of Architecture (Illus
trations)....................................................................... 104, 106 Architects’ Registration Bill...................................... 108, 110, 122 London Building Notes............................................................ 112 The Week’s Building News................................................. 114, 116 Building Contracts Open.......................................................... 118 Current Market Prices.......................................................... 120, 122 Current Measured Rates....................................................... 124, 126
FACTORS THAT MAKE FOR BAD BUILDING
The Conference held at Reading last week to consider the preservation of the beauties of the Thames Valley included representatives of the County Councils of Oxford, Berks and Bucks, local authorities, regional and town planning committees, the Thames Conservancy, the Ministries of Health, Agriculture and Transport, the Universities of Oxford and Reading, together with riparian owners and others interested in the amenities of the river-side. That such a large gathering could have been convened by the Council for the Preservation of Rural England is symptomatic of the alarm which is rapidly spreading among people of artistic taste and feeling on account of the increasing havoc that is being wrought in the English countryside by bad and unsuitable building. The conviction that some steps must be taken to stem the tide of what has been termed “the bungalow menace” brought the C. P. R. E. into existence; and the Reading Conference is one of the first notable efforts of the new Society in organising public opinion to combat a very real and threatening danger. The Thames Valley is a national possession; it has often been spoken of as a national pleasure resort, and on that account, if for no better reason, its amenities must be preserved. It would be difficult to assign any one cause as responsible for the evils that here, as in other rural districts, are causing so much trepidation. The motor-car is usually blamed for most of the present distressing developments; and it often happens that “the acquisitive faculty” which
provides the means for a car is not tempered by that artistic perception and sense of fitness which would dictate in its owner a right attitude towards the country which the vehicle enables him to reach. His decision to ˮlive out’’ may, therefore, be taken more
for considerations of health than from appreciation of rural beauty, which he frequently sullies by erecting a dwelling that is merely expressive of his own vulgarity and self-assertiveness. This is only one facet of the rural trouble, however. There is little doubt that heavy taxation and the incidence of the death duties have forced many large estates into the market; and the “broad acres” which once gave delight to the eye have been promptly cut up into little plots on which new owners have wreaked their individual fancies. A noble lord recently stated that the gentleman often advertised as anxious to buy a large estate of not less than 5, 000 or 10, 000 acres does not exist outside the imagination of the land agents or speculators who drew up the advertisement in the hope of securing some large property on which they can make a handsome profit by cutting it up into
little bits. And, in many cases, no doubt, through pressure of increasing outgoings and agricultural depression, such properties gravitate into their hands. More houses are needed to house the population, of course, and consequently more land must be cut up to provide the necessary sites, but there is no good reason why a whole district should be made squalid in the process. But the object of the land speculator is to sell freeholds quickly and take his profit; he has no interest, like a ground landlord, in preserving the amenities for the benefit of all. And one of his ready customers is the man of small means, with a young family, whose difficulty in finding suitable accommodation forces him to take up a plot, on which he erects, largely by his own labour or with the aid of a local odd man, a dwelling of sorts. This is the real explanation of so many of the unlovely shacks, half-barn, half army hut, with lean-to sheds, tumble-down poultry houses and unkempt gardens that form such a depressing picture all over the rural England of to-day.
Indeed, it is the village odd-job man that Mr. R. G. Spiller, the well-known Taunton builder, blames for much of the present country-side trouble. As a builder esteemed by architects, and one, moreover, with the benefit of an initial architectural training, who has carried out work for architects, and also speculative work on his own account from architects’ designs, he was a welcome guest at the Architecture Club dinner on Tuesday last. He had, moreover, one or two interesting suggestions to make for securing better design in speculative built houses, which formed the special topic of discussion at this dinner.
In his opinion the speculative builder errs more often through ignorance than intention, and he proposed that architects should prepare suitable plans for small houses which the speculative builder could obtain or make use of for a reasonable or moderate fee. This idea follows the line of a scheme which has been in operation for some time in parts of the United States, but recent report does not suggest that the architects are altogether satisfied with it. One difficulty is that the builders vary the designs and destroy their merit; another that they use inferior or unsuitable material with equally disastrous effect, and a third is the absence of proper supervision, resulting very often in bad construction. But one wellknown practitioner here has truly said, that as architects are never employed on or get anything out of this class of work now, they would be benefited rather than prejudiced by getting a small fee for the use of their designs; in addition to which they would be