Page:The Building News and Engineering Journal, Volume 22, 1872.djvu/307

 Aprit 12, 1872. THE BUILDING NEWS. 289 THE BUILDING NEWS. i LONDON, FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 1872. PLANNING. pp eee cannot be a more opportune moment than the present for directing the attention of readers of the BumLpine News to the important subject of planning. The decision of the judges in a competition instituted by the editor of this journal, where excellence of plan was to be the main recom- mendation for the prize, has just been given. This circumstance recalls the fact that a number of designs, unprecedentedly large, con- sidering the money value of the prizes offered, has testified to the importance justly assigned by English architects and architectural students to the credit of producing a good plan. The report of these judges brings into prominence the fact that certain defects were foundin many of the designs sent in. Even the premiated designs cannot be pointed to by them as model plans perfectly free from defects and full of nothing but excellencies ; and questions suggest themselves, rising out of all this, which it is wiser to face than to ignore, and which bear upon modern practice in the most forcible manner. We cannot forbear asking, Ts planning properly understood? Are its difficulties properly appreciated ? Are its prin- ciples properly studied ? and is it sufficiently practised as an exercise by students? We are even tempted to inquire whether archi- tects themselves know in what a good plan consists, and how closely it is allied to the very essence of their profession ; and we are doubtful whether the reply, if fairly given, would be quite satisfactory. A plan is to the intended building what the skeleton is to the whole animal—it is the basis of everything. Its preparation is in some respects the most architectural part of an architect's work. In designing elevations, and in working out details, the artist may easily forget his building and concentrate his whole attention on a drawing, and perhaps the result may not be very much the worse in consequence. But in designing a plan the architect who forgets that he is at work on a building loses himself entirely, and produces work which at best is on a level with the patterns for a floor-cloth or the arrangement of a Chinese puzzle. In performing this work, the principal considerations are to make a fit provision for the purposes of the intended structure, wisely to divide the space at command, and to provide at once for useful occupation, for sound construction, and for artistic effect. This done, a tyro can make elevations and sections which will be at least respectable, and a genius has a foundation upon which to design a superstructure that shall be a true work of art. We have said that a principal consideration in planning is to make a fit provision for the purposes of the structure — that is to say, the plan-maker has to provide rooms, or a room, or galleries, or halls, or whatever else is wanted for the private or public uses of the proposed building, and to provide good access, good communications, good lighting. Now, where requirements are multifarious, this is a difficult matter. Ina large build- ing —such, for example, as a hospital or courts of justice—the very varied uses of the different parts of the structure; the very strictly-defined and often conflicting require- ments of each portion, and the necessity for good communications, and for oneness in this multiform structure as a whole, render the plan a perfect study, and the preparation of it a work of great labour, requiring the highest practical skill. The just distribution of space is a second and very essential point to attend to. In small buildings it is especially important not to make one portion usurp too much of the narrow frontage-or small plot which has to be dealt with; and in larger ones the need for watchfulness is nearly as great; while through the whole work the building, as a solid, must ever be present to the mind. The true architect, as he draws his lines, can imagine a wall standing upon them; as he puts in his windows can appreciate the pro- portion of voids to solids, the possibility of grouping or of regular repetition, and the degree in which his rooms will be lighted. Each room will have a well-proportioned shape, not merely because a rectangle of (say) 15 by 20 looks pleasanter on paper than one of 18 or 19 by 20, but because the little rectangle of this shapeis to be reproduced in large on the floor, and on the ceiling of the completed room, and will govern, too, and that in a subtle manner, the proportions which the wall space at the sides will bear to that at the ends of the apartments. Perhaps there is no branch of an archi- tect’s work on which he will do more wisely to avail himself of the work of those who have gone before him as far as he can; though it must be confessed that in the majority of instances that work is only an approximate guide. If a structure (say, for example, a house) is to be built, and one of the same size and style can be found thoroughly conyenient, there is more wisdom in starting with the plan of the existing house and making small improvements, than in beginning from the commencement to contrive a new one. ‘This is what specula- tive builders constantly do, and it is a matter of notoriety that their plans are frequently found to be compact and convenient; in short, it is the one merit which causes their houses to be bought or rented. Now, if a body of men, not trained to design plans, but depending solely upon their own shrewd- ness, and the hints they pick up from one another’s mistakes, and from what the pub- lic ask for, can so far advance the art of house-planning by this method as to produce very compact results, what might not edu- cated and experienced men accomplish, fol- lowing the same method ? Perhaps the distinguishing point of a good plat is that it has a leading idea to start with. The architect may, possibly, com- mence by designing his principal apartments ; he may have to begin by settling his main communications ; or it may be a question of aspect, or of site, which is the keynote of his arrangement; but until some one idea has been started little progress can be made. The first scheme roughed out upon the basis suggested by this leading idea, the next step isto get good forms and good sizes for all the rooms, staircases, corridors, &c. No unshapely form should be allowed to remain on a plan, and no disproportionately small or large rooms ; nor should ill-placed or un- suitable openings be tolerated. The last step, and one that often tasks the ingenuity of the artist, is to compress what he has de- signed with the necessary compactness, and yet to preserve roominess. No loss of space is ever tolerated by a good planner, but no unduly cramped spaces are to be ever found in his buildings, and a dark passage or a cramped staircase will cause him to rub half his work out and begin again. Tn all buildings of more than one story it is the plan of the principal floor—whichever that may happen to be—which should govern the rest and should be first designed. Next in importance to this, and, in fact, sometimes hardly second to it, is the plan of the roofs. The shape of a building is as much defined by its roofs, and the effect of it made or marred by the skyline, as by anything else, and no architect should go far in the design- ing of a ground plan without, at least, an idea of how it can be roofed Of the method recommended for producing successful plans, the use of squares is one of the best known. Ona paper set out in squares it is often possible to design a plan of which the walls and spaces shall largely correspond to the lines and centres ofthe rectangles, and it is needless to add that a vast amount of regularity is the result. The same end is often attained in buildings where vaulting occurs, by the necessity for providing points of support for regularly divided vaults, and even in less solid structures, by the positions of roof-trusses, girders, and other such sub- dividers of space. Most clever planners are fond of prolonging some of their lines of walls; and all of ranging the centres of their openings on lines of as great extent as pos- sible ; the first method helps to provide for simple roofing ; the second for good internal effects and good communications. There are many expedients by the use of which an ar- chitectural character can be given to parts of a plan which threaten to be unruly, such as, for example, the introduction of circles, hectagons, and octagons; and those who wish to know to what an extent these expedients can be carried, had better examine a volume of engraved plans of Paris dwelling-houses, or of those at Vienna. Tf it be understood, as it ought to be, that designing the plan is really designing the building, we can readily see that no detail is too small to become of importance in this work. Anything forgotten in the plan is forgotten in the building; anything carelessly or ignorantly planned will tell its story, when built, by failing to answer its purpose ; and, on the other hand, a plan, fully studied and thought out in its every detail, cannot fail to result in asuccess. In no respect is this more true than in the disposition of light. If an arrangement in every other way con- venient be hit upon, but involving a dark passage or portion of a room, and be not found out till built, no remedy will be possible short of an outlay which, measured in money, will be considerable, and in vexation, trouble, and disappointment, incalculable. Perhaps an hour’s thoughtful study, and the free use of the indiarubber, would haye prevented the whole trouble, had the architect only looked carefully enough to his planning of his windows. Again, in construction, a little thought and care will enable him to carry the principal part of his walls one over another, and to avoid ‘ false bearings” and all those unhappy expedients of slight structure, which so often lead, if not to failure, at least to discomfort and to unsightly cracks. We are not about to conclude these remarks on a subject which lies at the root of an archi- tect’s success by pointing out a royal road to planning, for the best of all reasons—namely, that no such road exists. Nothing but down- right hard work, with some basis of ingenuity, experience, and observation to start from, will enable any man to arrange a complicated, or eyen a simple plan satisfactorily ; but much of the practice of an architect's earlier days, especially if he addict himself to competitions, is of the sort to improve this part of his practice ; and through his whole career he will find an ample reward for any special attention he pays to the plans of his work in his immunity from many of the constructional and artistic failures, as well as mistakes in arrangement, to which those who are more careless, or less skilful, are found to be liable. ————— en IMPROVING WORKMEN’S INGS OFF THE FACE OF EARTH. V E have heard a great deal of late about building improved dwellings for the mass of the people ‘in London, but we hear very little about the destruction of workmen’s dwellings which already exist. When a new block of buildings calculated to afford ac- commodation for 200 or 300 peopleis finished and ready for habitation, the company that may have erected the said block call together a meeting of philanthropists and others, with a noble lord in the chair, to celebrate the event. But when many blocks of buildings calculated to accommodate as many thousand DWELL- THE