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ARCHITECTURE


surviving; the Memorial Gateway at Radley College by Sir T. G. Jackson; the Lifford Memorial Hall at Broadway, the Marlborough College Memorial Hall by Ernest Newton & Sons and the Kitchener Memorial Chapel in St. Paul's cathedral may be instanced as good examples of other types.

Mural tablets do not call for much remark; the chief things to be aimed at in these are good lettering and judicious spacing, many of these tablets being far too crowded. An ornate example of these in cast bronze enriched with precious stones is the Regimental War Memorial to the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry in York minster by Voysey.

Architectural Education. A generation ago no systematized scheme of architectural training existed in England. In Paris an Academy of Architecture was established as long ago as 1671, and there can be little doubt that the excellence of the public build- ings all over France in the iSth century was largely due to the supervision which that academy exercised over the training of young architects. The foundation of the Ecole des Beaux Arts in the beginning of the igth century carried on the work of the academy, and the institution of the Grand Prix de Rome the blue ribbon of the architectural student, the training for which is spread over from ten to fourteen years and the gaining of which ensured official recognition offered an incentive to hard work and study which had most beneficial results. In Great Britain until the establishment by the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1887 under Royal Charter of a compulsory exam- ination for all who wished to become members of that body, archi- tectural education was of the most haphazard kind. The new charter empowered the institute to grant certificates and diplo- mas to those who passed its examinations, and although this pol- icy met with some opposition at first, there can be no doubt that it laid the foundation for systematized architectural education, the full effect of which has only been realized during the last decade. This has been brought about by the increase in the numbers of provincial universities unhampered by old traditions. These bodies, following the lead of similar institutions in the United States, have all recognized the fact that architecture, which is both an art and a science, may fitly be included in the subjects of study for a university degree. In addition to the universities several technical colleges have instituted courses of study in architecture, and there were in 1921 ; n the United King- dom ten schools of architecture which were recognized by the Royal Institute and whose certificates exempt those students who gain them from its examinations. These schools are the Architectural Association, London; the universities of London, Liverpool, Sheffield, and Manchester; the Robert Gordon Tech- nical College, Aberdeen; the Technical College, Cardiff; the Heriot Watt College, Edinburgh; and the Glasgow School of Architecture. The university of Cambridge has established a school of architectural studies, but the examination in the sub- jects comprised in the school curriculum is not associated at present with any diploma; the R.I.B.A., however, exempts certificated students from a certain part of its' obligatory examinations.

In Liverpool a special degree in architecture (B. Arch.) has been instituted, but the other universities named include architecture as one of the subjects for an Arts degree. The Liverpool course which may be taken as a typical one extends over five years and comprises design in accordance with the methods of the Ecole des Beaux Arts; the history of architecture; physics; geology; sanitation and hygiene; building construction and strength of materials as demonstrated in laboratory tests; specifications, etc. Similar courses slightly varying in detail are given at the other schools. In the university of London (Univer- sity College) a separate professorship of town planning has been instituted. The Architectural Association, London which was really the pioneer in architectural education in this country has a very comprehensive course under a complete staff of lecturers, and the studios and class-rooms in its new premises in Bedford Square are admirably equipped.

All these courses enable the young architect to acquire not only facility in design, but also the special technical knowledge now

required in consequence of the development of steel construction, and the fact that so many engineering problems are involved in the erection of any large building; and as all the degree courses involve the passing of a matriculation examination which en- sures that the student has first obtained a good general educa- tion, one may confidently hope that the reproach so often levelled against architects of a lack of scholarly training is in a fair way of being removed.

Architectural Research. No record of recent architectural developments would be complete without reference to the researches of Mr. Jay Hambidge of New York on the scale of proportion adopted by the Greeks in the design of their most celebrated temples. These must have been designed on some plan, but hitherto all attempts to discover any relation between length and breadth or between the size of the Cella and the whole temple had failed. Mr. Hambidge claims to have established the fact that whereas down to the first quarter of the 6th century B.C. Greek craftsmen used a unit of measurement in which commensurability of line was an essential feature; subsequently a new proportion came into use based on commensurability of area; and this he calls " dynamic " symmetry as opposed to static; in other words geometric and not arithmetic proportion. There is always a danger of a pet theory becoming a sort of Procrustes bed to which facts have to be strained to fit, but Mr. Hambidge has certainly taken great pains to avoid this by having numerous measurements taken independently and checked.

Mr. Hambidgo's theory may be described briefly as follows: The diagonal of a right-angled triangle of which one side is unity and the other 2 is Vs, or 2-236.

d FIG. i

FIG. 2

In fig. I a b = l, and b c 2, so that a c Vs; if we make a d = a c and af=l and complete the rectangle a d e /, this will be a V5 rectangle made up of a square d g, and two rectangles g k and kj,

each of which is V =0-618. Mr. Hambidge maintains that

in the Temple of Apollo at Bassae designed by Ictinus the propor- tions are based on this rectangle and its multiples and submulti- plcs. In the case of the Parthenon a more elaborate basis is adopted ; in fig. 2 abed is a V 5 rectangle and if its long side be taken as unity the short side will be 0-447. If to a (i the long side of this rec- tangle we apply a square the side of which is I we get a rectangle e b cf of which one side = I and the other 1-447. The reciprocal

of this latter figure is

1-447

= 0-691 ; and if we apply to e/a rec-

tangle f eh g the area of which is 0-691 we shall obtain a large rectangle h b c g the area of which is 2-138, which comprises a rec- tangle e b cf whose area is 1-447 and a smaller one e f g h of area 0-691. This last rectangle is in all respects similar to e b c f and if g PSf then / g p q will be a square and h e p q a Vs rectangle. Now whatever we may think of this somewhat elaborate basis of measurement it is remarkable in how many cases the ratios con- nected with the figures 2-138, 1-447 and 0-691 fit within very small fractions actual measurements of the Parthenon, which, as well as the temple at Bassae, was designed by Ictinus. For example the actual breadth over all of the base of the Parthenon according to Penrose is 111,341 ft. and this figure multiplied by 2-1382 gives 238-069 as the length, the actual measurement so far as can now be ascertained being 238-154, a variation of less than one inch.

Mr. Hambidge has applied this theory to Greek statues and vases with as he claims the same results. Those who are inter- ested in the subject may be referred to two papers read before the Royal Institute of British Architects on March 30 1920 and March 5 1921.

The prospect for architectural development in the immediate future was not altogether a bright one in 1921. Although many building schemes both in London and the Provinces were ripe for carrying out, they were kept in abeyance owing to the enormous cost of building and uncertainty as to the action of Labour. Also official architecture was spreading. Large Govern-