Las respuestas desde la ONU y la OCDE a la reemergencia de la CSS

As he was later to repudiate the 'slushy sentimentality' of the American bungalow it is apparent that studying with I.C.S. did not automatically confer upon students a blind appreciation of all

things American.31 Nevertheless Chapman-Taylor's association with The Craftsman magazine

reveals that the architect was sympathetic to, and undoubtedly aware of, Arts and Crafts architecture in America and that he was also recognised in the United States as being a kindred spirit in regard to his own domestic production.32 In the text which accompanied photographs of 'Plas Mawr', a house designed and built by Chapman-Taylor in New Plymouth in

1 9 1 3

reproduced in the June

1 9 1 4

The affinity between Chapman-Taylor's designs and those published in The Craftsman had been apparent at least

1 0

1 9 1 4

1 904

°

31 _{J.W. Chapman-Taylor, Gilbert Housebook [1933], cited by P. Shaw, 'The Good Cottage', Art New Zealand, 36,}

Spring 1985, p. 63. See also, M. White, 'Chapman-Taylor Builds', B.Arch. research report, Victoria University of Wellington, 1978, p. 40.

32 _{'A New Zealand Bungalow that Shows the True Craftsman's Art' Qune 1914), A. Weissman, introduction,} Craftsman Bungalows - 59 Homes from The Creftsmau, Dover Publications Inc., New York, 1988, pp. 1 16-20. See Chapter Three.

33 _{Gustav Stickley identified five characteristics of 'Plas Mawr' which si}

gnalled the influence of Craftsman designs: the post-and-panel construction between the rooms, the 'frank treatment of each structural feature', the solid proportions and simple lines of the furniture, the elimination of unnecessary ornament, and the Craftsman-style fireplace in the living-room inglenook. The ground floor plan of the Snell house 'Restormel', desi_gned by Chapman­ Taylor in 1928 and erected in Chatsworth Road, Silverstream, reveals the way in which the architect used an open, informal plan for the main living areas, in keeping with the Craftsman bungalow style, by substituting a dining recess for a separate dining room and linking that space with the kitchen via a server)'· 'A New Zealand Bungalow that

of The Craftsman, bore a strong resemblance to the cottage designs of the New Zealand architect in their simple hipped-roof forms, solid walls inset with multi-paned casement windows sheltering beneath low eaves and the partially enclosed courtyard on to which the principal rooms open.34 Houses reproduced in R.R. Phillips's The Book

of B11ngalows,

new home-building spirit, with its yearning for comfort, for simplicity and beauty, for sincere and earnest craftsmanship, is by no means limited to America and the countries of the Old World, but is stretching out into other continents and colonies and inspiring pioneers beyond other seas.36

J.W. Chapman-Taylor firmly believed that 'to study from [New Zealand] is not enough, one must see the REAL THING [in England]', and he made his own pilgrimages to Britain in 1909 and 1 9 1 4.37 _{In his concern for experimental construction techniques using concrete and petrol tins} and the free plan form of many of his houses, however, it is possible to see that contact with America may well have been equally important in shaping his approach to domestic architecture and the craftsman house.38 Chapman-Taylor's Arts and Crafts philosophy, which is evident in his writings and embodied in the design and construction of his houses, places him firmly within a movement that had adherents in both Britain and the United States. So too does his educational Shows the True Craftsman's Art', pp. 1 16, 120. House plans, 53 Chatsworth Road, Silverstream, Wellington Branch Committee Files, New Zealand Historic Places Trust, Wellington.

34 _{See for example 'Inverness', Allan Street, Dannevirke (1914) and the Wilkinson House, Pukearuhe, North} Taranaki (1929-30). Siers, p. 13.

3 5 _{R.R. Phillips, The Book of Bmrgalows, 3}rd _{ed., Country Life, London, 1926, pp. 4, 168-169.} 36 _{'A New Zealand Bungalow that Shows the True Craftsman's Art', p. 1 16.}

37 _{J.W. Chapman-Taylor, Bradshaw Ho11sebook (1953), cited by Shaw, p.60.}

38 _{Chapman-Taylor's use of petrol tins and concrete to create a honeycomb cavity-wall structure for houses such as} 'Sunbourne' in Havelock North (1920) brings to mind the experiments in tilt-slab concrete construction carried out by Irving Gill in Southern California in the 1910s. Gill's work was also published by Stickley in The Crajts1J1a11. Siers, p.19. R. Hatheway & J. Chase, 'Irving Gill and the Aiken System', Co11crete i11 California, Carpenters/Contractors Cooperation Committee of Southern California & the School of Architecture, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 1990, pp. 20-9.

197 back_ground provide an indication of the synthetic Anglo-American nature of New Zealand architectural education as it evolved in the early twentieth century.

William Thomas's domestic architecture in the mid-Canterbury town of Ashburton is more overtly American in appearance than are Chapman-Taylor's craftsman houses. Nevertheless Thomas's use of the American Colonial Revival style during the late 1920s and 1930s is equally representative of the simultaneous popularity of a domestic style in New Zealand, England and the United States.39 _{In 1 909 Thomas began working for Tucker's Limited, a local Ashburton} firm of timber and coal merchants, with whom he subsequently became foreman of the company's joinery division. Outside working hours he undertook the correspondence lessons which would eventually allow

him

Weatherboard structures with shuttered windows, symmetrical facades and dormer windows,

the houses Thomas desi_gned are very similar to Colonial Revival dwellings reproduced in

contemporary American house pattern books and mail-order catalogues.41 _{American architectural}

publications, both educational and plan books, therefore seem to have enabled 'Billy' Thomas to

advance his career and offer his provincial clients house designs in most up-to-date style.42 In

addition to a large number of domestic commissions, Thomas desi_gned a variety of other building

types, becoming the town's foremost resident-architect and practising until his retirement in

39 _{D. Gebhard, 'The American Colonial Revival in the 1930s', Wi11terlh11r Portfolio, Vol. 22, 1 987, pp. 109-48.}

40 _{'Obituary of Mr. William Thomas', Ashb11rto11 G11ardia11, 1 1 March 1 967, p. 4. See also, Ashb11rto11 G11ardia11, 2 1} February 1987, p . 10.

41 _{See, for example, S111all Ho111es of Architectural Disti11ctio11: A Book of Suggested Plans Designed i?J The Architects' S111all} House Service Bureau, Inc. , originally published in New York and London in 1 929 and republished by Dover Publications, Inc., in 1 987.

1963.43

The third architect who is known to have used an American correspondence school course to make the transition from the building trades to the practice of architecture was Wellington architect, Joseph Dawson. The son of a Christchurch builder, his formal knowledge of architecture was entirely based upon his study with I.C.S.44 _{After making an extended tour of}

South Africa, England and Australia, Dawson established his practice in Wellington in 1906, gaining his client base predominantly from the motor vehicle industry.45 _{He was subsequently}

joined in partnership by Jack King (1900-72), who had studied architecture at University College in London ( 1927-9).46 Dawson and King's different pathways to the practice of architecture illustrate the way in which patterns of architectural education changed from one generation to the next in the early part of this century.

Dawson and King's partnership - between a university-trained architect and one whose background was in the building industry - also offers an echo of the kind of alliances American architects were making in the late nineteenth-century as the process of designing and constructing buildings became more complicated and more demanding.47 _{Dawson's I.C .S.} education, in conjunction with six years of overseas travel and work experience, enabled him to establish a successful practice. His presidency of the N.Z.I.A . between 1938-40 suggests that such a background was no hindrance to achieving prominence within the profession at that 42 _{Thomas's use of the Colonial Revival style may be compared with contemporary work by William Gray Young in}

Wellington, for example. See Chapter Two.

43 _{Ashb11rto11 G11ardia11, 21 February 1987, p. 10. Some of the architect's plans are now held in the Ashburton} District Museum.

44 _{N. Kemp, 'King & Dawson: An Historical Study, 1906-1981', B.Arch. Research Report, Victoria University of} Wellington, 1982, p. 35-6.

45 _{Kemp, pp. 51, 108. See Chapter Two.} 46 _{Ibid., p. 26.}