BUILDING AND THE FUTURE

By CLOUGH WILLIAMS-ELLIS

" How very little since things were made

Things have altered in the building trade," wrote Kipling, and Sir Ernest Simon has pointed out that com- pared even with a Council house, a Rolls-Royce is " a mass-produced article,"—though not when compared with a Ford V8, which, giving comparable service, sells in America at something under Ltoo as against a £1,000 or so here for the Rolls, despite the fact that American wage-rates are about three times our own.

The reason is, of course, that for every Rolls turned out there are a hundred or more Fords, meaning mass-production on the really grand scale, so that the initial cost of the prototype and all the special tools, jigs, plant and equipment generally, bears an ever- decreasing ratio to the value of their output. Without such mass- production to exploit it, there is no sovereign magic in standardisa- tion or pre-fabrication, which indeed are merely means to that end. We are apt to say " But look what they can do in America," whereas, if we really did look attentively, the very first thing we should notice was that these American " pre-fabs " are almost entirely built of timber, the one material that we here shall most certainly lack and have to eke out by every shift and substitution that ingenuity can suggest. The Portal house has its merits as a temporary emergency stop-gap, as well as certain defects, such as a somewhat drum-like resonance, but to have devised something that can be more the con- cern of great rhythmically-operating steel-presses in a factory than of individual bricklayers out in a muddy field is certainly a techno- logical advance along the right general lines. Other try-outs, already in the prototype stage, may well soon take us forward a further stage. Not that we shall not need the bricklayers ; we shall for long want many more of them, as well as more bricks than we have any prospect of getting. In England, at any rate, nothing is likely for a long time to supersede the brick house—when we can get it. So the much- abused bricklayer will still be a key man, for all that his output is often but a fraction of what it should be. What is the matter with him? What is wrong with the conditions of his employment and with the building trade generally? I have ruefully recorded an average output of 200 bricks laid per man per day by bricklayers employed by a municipality to build A.R.P. shelters for their own

families and neighbours in their own street in their heavily bombed city. I also had to note that these same men, transferred to an urgent job where they were paid on a bonus basis and not by the day, easily managed to mend their pace to a tune of a round thousand bricks a day. And what goes for bricklayers goes-for other trades too, though output cannot often be quite so precisely checked. A partial explana- tion is, no doubt, resentful dissatisfaction with, and a suspicion of, the trade set-up as it is—or was—and that is one of the things that must be changed if we are ever going to get on with the actual job of building as we should.

But the Building Trade no more consists only of workmen than the Army does of other ranks, and any reform in the former must necessarily begin at the top, where cluster architects, engineers, surveyors and- trade union leaders as well as directors and managers, and in so far as the organisation is ineffective, as judged by results, it .s much more their fault than the operatives'. True, part of the

blame might be passed on to " the Government ", mostly for nc -

having done a number of sensible things which seemed obvioush necessary to ensure a properly serviceable and vital industry, thoug:-.

to be sure there were probably always vested interests ready to C111,L it for meddling far more loudly than anyone else would have praisec it for its helpful intervention. Which suggests (close Government control and collaboration having, I think, become henceforth essen- tial) that the industry should still be somehow insulated from

Parliament and party politics as far as may be, through the agency of a permanent National Building Commission. A levy on the industry adequate for the support of this semi-autonomous body

would- be recouped many times over not merely through the immense economies of effective centralised control, but also from the result, of the research, which, now miserably inadequate, could quite cer- tainly and impressively increase productive efficiency if vigoroush exploited.

In our present emergency elimination of waste has been stressed rather than experimentation—concentration on a few selected " utility " standards to the exclusion of the needless variety of former proprietary patterns individually produced in little lots by hundreds of separate firms at quite indefensible cost. Thus the choice of metal windows—a prefabricated product already " standardised " by agreement amongst manufacturers—has been further cut down by 8o per cent., whilst the makers of baths have now concentrated on turning out only five sorts instead of forty.

A strong Building Commission with an adequate mandate, having once imposed its carefully chosen standards, could insist on these utility goods being used in all work receiving State subsidies, thereby ensuring a nation-wide market reckoned in millions. This would permit of orders being placed on a scale that in some cases would slash the costs in half, besides eliminating in addition all the irrelevant expenditure on advertising, com- mercial travelling and general " Sales Promotion" that often

amounts to as much again as the actual cost of manufacture. And, of course, there are manufacturers' " rings " to maintain prices, as unhelpful (and as natural) as the bricklayers' dismal determination to lay few bricks for much money.

. It is necessary, of course, for the building trade to be a contented trade. It has certainly not been that hitherto. How could it be?

Its grievances—the demoralising uncertainty of employment, no pay

for " wet time," unsympathetic handling of men by management, and dilution, are genuine. As Professor Sir Charles Reilly once put it, " If a Professor of Architecture is engaged by the year and then pensioned for life, why should a bricklayer be employed only from hour to hour? " Actually, a new deal for building operatives does now seem assured, partly through their high rarity-value in a world hungry for their product, but partly from a saner appreciation of the effect of such imponderables as good human relationships, pride and interest in what is produced, the appreciation of work well done, opportunities for learning as well as working, and a general atmosphere of mutual trust and fair-dealing in an intelli- gently organised partnership. If these reforms are, in the beginning, only prompted by common sense and an enlightened self-interest, no matter ; they will of themselves soon generate the new and better atmosphere in which alone a great industry can really acquit itself with credit and success.

Every building technician already in the industry, officially badged as fully proficient (preferably after a national standard trade-test), could now be guaranteed full and continuous employment until his retiring age. This pledge would be given by the National Building Commission, for only with some such guarantee could the trade be expected to welcome the large recruitment that will be needed, new entries being given like guarantees, though of a lower priority. The men, all of them, should be given every chance of knowing just what they were building, why, how, and for whom. The sequence, dove- tailing in, and general interdependence of, the various trades and professions involved should be explained, and the operative drawings and those showing the job completed should be displayed on the works, with a diagram showing how responsibilities are shared, what stages must be reached when, and so on The interested co-operation of all concerned should be stimulated, there being too an understanding that all helpful suggestions or con- trivance will be considered and their adoption recognised by promotion or other reward. There might be generally recognised grades, as, for example, ordinary, skilled, and master bricklayers, joiners, plasterers, slaters and the rest, with corresponding rates of pay. If conspicuously good and rapid work can be counted on to earn promotion up the ladder, perhaps to the responsible job of general foreman or even beyond, there should be no need for piece- work or bonuses or the unhealthful forced draught of " Beclauxism." What of probable post-war costs? That is indeed a haunting question that only the. event can answer, all we know now being that present prices are at a level that thoroughly frightens all those attempting to build during the war emergency even if they are given licence to do so.

Much of the increase is due to temporary handicaps which should disappear soon after the war—all the most active men away, round pegs in square holes, zoning, transport at inflated costs in unsuitable vehicles owing to commandeering, general wear-and-tear of plant and personnel, the breaking up of trained teams and family working- parties, loss of accustomed leaders (foremen), purchase-tax on items of equipment and so forth. The rise in the price of coal is, of course, reflected in the cost of many building components besides bricks, and if it is stabilised at the present level, that rise, perhaps inevitable, of course means so much permanently added on to our building costs.

In so far as wliat may be called the " permanent " increase in all building costs can be countered at all (amounting perhaps to some 5o per cent. on pre-war) it will, I think, be far more through better organisation and working conditions and improved technique than through the invention or use of any novel materials and components ; though the prefabricated kitchen-bathroom unit will no doubt become a standard in hundreds of thousands of homes, giving—where applic- able—far better service at a lower cost than did any of the old individual "rigged-on-the-job" combinations.