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Here and There

I have often thought that I should like to meet the man who designs the balustrades which adorn the more recent road bridges throughout the country. Good and solid they undoubtedly are, but how irritating they can be during a journey by road. One's interest is usually aroused at a distant view of a tree-lined stream after a particularly dreary stretch of road, and as one approaches one idly wonders whether the stream is ‘deep and wide’ like the Weser at Hamelin, or shallow and sparkling like Tennyson's Brook; whether it promises a likely stretch for an hour or so's fly-casting; or whether it contains a pool attractive enough for a quick swim. On nearing the bridge one is encouraged by the sight of a rippling, soft-sounding Maori name. And then, suddenly, one is clamped on either side by a solid wall of concrete which looks massive enough to restrain a runaway traction engine, and one is off the bridge again without so much as a glimpse of the water.

If I ever meet the designer I must ask him why something a little less ponderous and rather more transparent could not be devised to keep the traffic from running off the bridge. I'm sure that it could be done, and if he will bear with me I may even be so bold as to offer one or two suggestions on the back of an envelope.

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We are prepared to tolerate shortages while there is a prospect of their being overcome. But we have been short of steel and cement for building for twelve years, and now, instead of the long hoped for improvement, rearmament has meant that steel is again to be used for war production. Our building programme was already several years behind at the start of the Second World War, and there are few who are not feeling the pinch of the fifteen years lag.

What we must now realize is that we should build permanent non-residential buildings in materials other than reinforced concrete. In the cities we should allow four storey commercial buildings and flats in timber framing set well apart for fire protection. In setting the buildings apart, space for light, air and parking would be gained. Difficulties such as the small size of most city sections would be overcome if owners knew the new standards of layout required. We are already seeing a foretaste of the only alternative — the conversion of boarding, rooming houses and other living accommodation around the present business centres into factories, offices and warehouses, and the building of one-storey wood and asbestos ‘temporary’ buildings and Nissen huts on vacant land. This trend is transferring the areas of our cities between the business centres and suburbs into great junk yards where fire, health and traffic dangers are growing daily. The old wooden Government Buildings, now 76 years old, can set a new pattern of urban development.

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Because of earthquakes we use more steel in our reinforced concrete buildings in New Zealand than is necessary in other countries. I understand from some of our more knowledgable structural engineers that our by-laws for earthquake-proof construction are partly arbitrary and that a big saving could be made if they were based on a scientific study of the peculiar and individual habits of quakes. This is a matter for building research.

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