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Meet the Architect

By KENNETH J. ROBINSON WHAT is an architect? When eager young Brian Cooper asks that ques- tion in Brian Decides on Building (a Chatto and Windus Career Book for Boys) he gets a surprising answer. 'The Architect, says Torn Preston, a builder with weather- beaten face, crinkly hair and very white teeth, `has the eye for what looks

right. and the flair for design and layout.' That tatenient doesn't ring true. House-builders don't t,kuallY say such nice things about architects Of tneY did they might use one more often). Nor would they be wise to make such a generalisation. D°zens of architects who are good husbands, conscientious fathers and competent hi-ii opera- tors

, ought never to be trusted with the siting and uesign of anything larger than a dog kennel.

I mention this only because you need to be on Uur guard against the hard-selling techniques c't .the Royal Institute of British Architects, hich is shortly to organise an Architecture Week ‘ith the object of telling you about the virtues l'r a neglected profession. Among the proposed 14013aganda gimmicks there will be an exhibition, IVallable to local authorities, amenity societies so on, entitled 'Meet the Architect in Your lfe.' (By a happy coincidence this follows closely • 5n a Lever Brothers strip-cartoon campaign to Ttroduce personal daintiness to the architect.) e exhibition is designed specifically for the 'IN-masses and includes snappy, informative 'tuff about Unborn Generations Living Within Framework of the Architect's Vision. Words 'ke Integrity'' and `honesty' will be bandied out a good deal and the general effect will be 'tIiilar to that of a boy-meets-girl movie. `Every- .1ng's gonna be all right from now on,' you ry`111. drool to yourself as you visualise the layman 4111oll happily into the architect's clutches. Von might well be wrong. The man who 'LT1.1010Ys an architect has every right to hope that 5 troubles are over. But they may be just begin- IN. You see, there is nothing magic about being architect. No school of architecture guaran- 11e, es to produce a man of taste. The country is l!ttered with people who have studied architecture ,`).r five years and practised for four times as long 7Ithout ever being troubled by a lively imagina- l", a feeling for good proportions or a know- kedge of new materials and building methods. So hen You are advised by the architects' Institute use one of its members. don't forget that though it is probably better to employ a bad `cchitect than no architect, there are far too many )4€1 architects to choose from. If you want to

build a house or an office block you have to be pretty smart if you're going to find the right man. There are plenty of good architects about, but the country will not be saved from its creeping growth of squalid new buildings unless it has more good clients—men who can spot the good architects.

To be a good client you need to know about a handful of popular misconceptions. These are as follows: I. That (4 knighthood inhibits an architect and prevents him front ever designing a building with- out a neo-Georgian façade.

This is nonsense. Knighthoods are only given (with one or two notable exceptions) to men who are already inhibited. And these men are equally capable of, doing you a nice building in neo- Egyptian, neo-Elizabethan or neo-Modern style-- in fact anything that could be seen. without offence being taken, from Buckingham Palace or Westminster Abbey.

2. That a past president of the Royal Institute of British Architects is almost inevitably a fuddy- thuldy.

This has often been an understatement. But watch carefully because it is shortly to be untrue.

3. That you will find it useful One-Upmanship to employ someone like Mr. Archibald Kreepe, noted top peoples architect and popular figure in the glossies, to design your new abattoir or single-storey residence.,

This won't impress anybody. Everyone will know that he slipped the job to assistant No. 63 in his seventeenth design group.

4. That the architect you employ will bully the builder into providing windows that fit, doors that don't have to be leaned on till they click into place and plumbing that doesn't behave like a soap-and-water opera by the late Gerard Hoff- hung.

No architect has this power, especially if he is dealing with the really well-established builders, who allow their men a certain freedom of expres- sion (e.g., amusing doodles in the plaster work; interesting paint patterns on the outside of the least get-attable windows; a fashionably brutal effect caused by cutting out the odd coat of paint; a cheerful asymmetry in the tile-laying; and a Kim's game of discarded cheese sandwiches, beer tins and cigarette packets behind the bath panel where you will never detect it). If your house has good finishes it is better not to thank the architect, but to take the more cynical view that the builder is a small one, new to the job, and is doing. it properly in the hope of surviving.

5. That an architect who has been hung (at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition) deserves' to be drawn and quartered as well.

This is no longer true. The current Exhibition

includes enough good modern work inthe. Archi- tecture Room to spoil the musty chestnut flavour of what was once the best art joke of the year.

6. That an architect will make you spend inure on building a house than you meant to spend.

This, of course, is nonsense. You will always spend more on a house than you meant to spend --whether you employ an architect or not. But by employing an architect—provided he is a good one—you will get better value for the extra money you spend. Some builders refuse to use architects on housing work because they say that by doing so they reduce their profits. This doesn't surprise me. The good architect is on the side of the user. He is more interested in giving the client value for money than in helping the builder to be a rogue. I was interested to hear the other day of a spec. building firm which finds it is able to add hundreds of pounds to the cost of its houses if it instals dishwashers and puts out publicity about 'labour-saving living.' A really good professional man wouldn't have anything to do with this sort of sharkitecture.

So you see, at his least a good architect can save you from being swindled. At his most he will give you value for money plus a touch of genius. But its up to you to find the good archi- tect among the dreary ranks of duds. This is difficult. As Mr. Henry Brooke said when asked what he thought, as Minister of Housing, of a collection of small houses designed by thirty architects: 'All of us will like some of these more than others: It's just a question of making sure that the some you like are better than the others the others like. But don't let me confuse you.