Evening star., 1938-07-16
ARCHITECT URGES
MODERN HOUSING
Asks Planning For Our Own
Time'-Hits Design of
Federal Buildings.

uccessful 1ow-cost housing will
My grow out of planning and design
ing the dwelling units in terms of the
people which they are intended to
serve, rather than constructing them
as smaller-size limitations of struc-
lures already standing. William Les
Gaze, New York "skyscraper" archi-
tect. said in lecture on contemporary
architecture at the Columbia Univer-
sity summer session.
"Prefabrication as a solution to the
housing problem is too far away" Mr..
Lescaze said. "It Is 20 years distant
and the answer must be found before
then. 1t should also be remembered
that the cost Of construction amounts
to a small percentage of the total
housing bill. Financing, land cost,
and taxes must all be considered, and
prefabrication would have little effect
on them. Moreover, as it is, the
greatest number of items used in con-
struction are prefabricated now"
1t is true that the automobile is a
good example of rapid, economic as
sembly, but the construction of a
house represents different problem,
Mr.. Lescaze continued When the
car Is finished you put it on the road
and it will go anywhere" he ex-
planned But in building a house
you have to consider location, sewage,
plumbing lighting, roads and other
difficulties standing in the way of the
completed job.
Savings to Result From Planning.
I'VE must remember that the prob
lem of bW-cost housing is very new.
There can be no single, immediate
road to solution, but it does seem
reasonable now that the saving that
will result in making slum clearance
economically sound is to be made in
planning and designing"
Architecture should be designed for
people, and for people living today,
Mr.. Lescaze declared. This principle
holds true in all building, not Just in
carrying out rehousing programs, he
pointed out.
The Government buildings in Wash
ington are designed from the outside
with little relation of design to func-
tion, Mr.. Lescaze asserted. AN en-
lightened government should by now
realize that new modes of thinking
end living. new materials and new
methods Of construction-all make
architecture" he went on America
has outgrown imitation Greek or Ital-
ian architecture. Modern architecture
takes the requirements of life today
into consideration.
Federal Money a Challenge.
Recently announced expenditure of
large sums of money by the Federal
Government is challenge to archi-
tects. Is it to be wasted on mean
iagless buildings. or will we be able
10 make use of it to express our time
and our civilization?
AN architecture of our time should
be created and developed. Not every
one agrees on how to proceed. Let
us examine the major characteristics
of great rchitectures-classic, rem
Eaissance, gothic and others. We find
that every great architecture has been
first Of all essentially of its time,
growing out Of the life of its time.
fully aware of the requirements of
that time, making use of the materials
available at that time, of the methods
CT construction known at that time,
erecting forms with those materials
according to these methods-forms
beautifully appropriate to the require
ments Of that time.
Truth to Continue.
This has been true in the past.
and will remain true, regardless Of
the time, 18th century or goth CEN
tury, regardless of the materials, re-
gardless of the requirements.
That is what architecture should
always have remained-'of its own
tme'-but didn't This is what mod
ern architects are trying to do today.
10 one will pretend that our require
ments resemble at all the require
ments of 100 years ago. Materials
have also changed somewhat and so
have methods of construction. 1t is
little wonder, then, that the forms
most appropriate to the requirements
of our time will most likely not re-
aemble those of the past and yet, In
spite OF their visual dissimilarity, they
will be in the real tradition of all
great architecture if they are appro-
pirate to the requirements of our
tme."