SINGAPORE & THE FEDERATION OF MALAYA
"MISREPRESENTATION"
by P. M. BARNES, A.R.LBA.
If a man be judged by his works and if the character of a person is the sum total of his outward expression, then by what tokens may the character of an architect be assessed? The shibboleths of society do not easily apply to the Architect, for the man and his works are not easily understood.
A great art like a great science is immortalized by man and in turn immortalizes him. Our "cities of dreaming spires" are no more accidental than the exuberant domes of the Byzantine era. The synthetic mountains of Manhattan are not less romantic than stars in purpling dusk whether they repose in the Armament or are merely parking lights. The aesthetic impulse is never lost, and the proud Olympians who gave authorship to Architecture have not lived in vain.
To the thinkers and those who think they think, the Architect proposes an inexhaustive fount of information: Historians, Philosophers, Artists, Scientists; all seek reference to the Architect and his achievements; Every political, social and technical advance is recorded in Architecture. National aspirations, victories, defeats, the emancipation of the cave dwellers, the collapse of the manorial system, the triumph of joint stock companies, every milestone of progress and retro- gression is woven into the fabric of our building.
With such a background the introduction of the Architect as a character within the pages of history or fiction is not entirely unexpected. Few writers and novelists are impervious to his aesthetic appeal and have readily bestowed upon him the wisdom of the esoteric and the mystic mantle of the adept.
From King Solomon's temple to Battersea power station, the architects ability to combine high art with utility or to translate an abstract idea into factual reality, has rendered him an excellent prey for the writer of imagination.
Rarely does he become a full blooded quick action hero with a Sydney Horler punch, yet the writer in his scheme of things has not been ungenerous in reserving to the Architect roles representative of the placid and more civilized aspects of society. No reasonable objection could be sustained had the novelist enabled the Architect to maintain his fictional status of the past. Unfortunately, with the assault of cheap editions, pocket size tomes and the increase of crime series, the novelist in his search for characters has found for him employment upon the staff of the thriller expert.
It is not easy to view with calm and equanimity the latest portrayal of an Architect as a leader in a gang of international jewel thieves engaged in smuggling stolen gems to the Con- tinent under the pretext of attending architectural conferences and the slaying helpless women en passant. Neither does it add to our professional contentment to see him as a machinat- ing agent in white slave traffic hiding his nefarious trade under the cloak of professional respectability. There may be an amplitude of reasons for an architect to indulge in such profitable hobbies, but, normally speaking, he is one of our most law abiding citizens and a model of rectitude.
Aside from the criminal representation of our profession a modern writer's description of an architect may vary from a dreamy eyed sentimentalist to a hard bitten Business Baron with only the vaguest concern in Architecture. Furthermore, it is no uncommon event to find a writers ignorance so pro- found that the Architect is attributed with an entirely different profession.
Despite their limitations in the technical knowledge of our profession, the older writers offer a refreshing contrast to the modern high-pressure hacks. The works of Thomas Hardy are full of good architectural simile and are only too well known to describe. Charles Dickens is not unkind to Architects; his sly jabs at the then existing system of articled pupillage is not offensive and could have elicited many a throaty chuckle from our grandfathers. Our pre-Raphaelite savants were generous in their opinions and in their frequently misguided conclusions, nevertheless, the profession lost little dignity in their hands.
John Ruskin has enriched the world of literature to a surprising degree and his essays still remain masterpieces in plausibility forming an irreplaceable part of English writings. Ruskin's convictions were such that practising architects of his time were influenced by his poesy and though his architectural Nepotism may have been valueless as a guide to Rationality. the Architect as an individual gained more than Architecture lost.
The supernal vapourings of writers, journalists and play- wrights easily becloud popular vision. Lay values are fre- quently determined by the relative popularity of the pro- pagandist. A writer of talent needs nothing beyond his name and a few rehashed cliches in order to bedeck any of his characters in glorious or sombre raiment. Accuracy is unimportant. A criticism of the work of Gauguin by Oscar Wilde is perhaps accepted with more avidity than by a painter who must depend upon his art in order to live and whose artistic experience is essentially more exact.
A shavian slight upon specialised knowledge may be taken as the whole truth even though it might contain the merest smattering of fact.
Possibly more devastating than any novelist is the merciless interpretation of our beloved calling by the Film producers. The architect may be revealed to vulgar_vision as a struggling artist cooking his frugal fare in a Sardine saver over a flickering flame. Ör again, as a cigar and gum chewing executive ostentatiously ensconced at a desk equipped with as many gadgets as an organ console whilst blonde angels float in and around an office somewhat reminiscent of the ante room to heaven,
Signal characteristics are clever repartee, smartish philander and an aggressive attitude upon the part of the chief executive towards the junior Draughtsman with progressive ideas, especially concerning the wife of the principal himself.
The architect has been depicted upon the silver screen as an enthusiastic but impoverished youth fresh from College. He is armed with a portfolio of attractive plans of Church, school or skyscraper. He fails to sell his drawings and the frequency of lifes rebuffs drive him ever nearer to the agonizing experience of having to work for a living or alter- natively to enter his uncle's hardware business.
It sometimes comes as a shock to find a producer entirely unaware of the existence of an architect. Those films of the Deep South are all too familiar wherein the Horny handed son of toll raises the family mansion stick by stick with his own bare hands to bask later beneath its majestic portico or receive his aristocratic Virginian friends within the vastnesses of a classic interior guaranteed to turn the Adams brothers bottle green with envy.
There are many sources of propaganda which may cause public misconception upon Architects and Architecture and the few examples already illustrated are possibly the most prominent; however, it is still problematical whether or not the Architect himself may render a disservice to his own profession.
The successful architect who has not elicited adverse criticism from one or more of his clients is not yet born neither is the dissatisfied owner who has kept his grievance to himself.
In many cases of public misconception the Architect him- self is largely to blame. The ruthless application of drawing technique, colour and slick perspective serve a variety pur- pose. It may mean a quick selling point or a third dimensional explanation. In the days of the multi storey luxury flats, many owners lavishly illustrated their brochures with Architects perspectives in preference to the nude photograph. as a means of enticing prospective tenants.
Whatever may be the purpose of the mechanical art of perspective it is quite certain that anything more than the most austere representation can succeed only in leading away from the real issues.
Every architect is conversant with that highly exaggerated version of the clients dream home lying smug and serene amid rural solitudes, and still more familiar are the uncomplimen- tary remarks made by the client as aboreal fantasies and bucolic ambitions fade with the progress of the works.
To a large extent the degree of misrepresentation at the inception of a project is dependent upon the self discipline of the Architect, the amount of time at his disposal and the personal qualities of his assistants. In a busy office the client must take much on faith and a little less flattery to his pre- judices. Conversely, in an office with a moderate influx of work, the Architect tends to dramatize his project in his eagerness to "sell".
The phoneyness of trick presentation becomes more apparent upon noting the draughtsmanship depicting a post- war building and comparing it with similar slick pre-war presentation. In both cases the respective qualities of materials appears to be on a par, yet in the former instance the building may be entirely composed of inferior substitutes.
Perhaps exaggeration, misleading statement and inaccurate propaganda is the spirit of the age? At any rate newspapers and magazines leave us in no doubt regarding their intentions towards Mr. & Mrs. Everyman. See the Snob appeal in that "Horrid Eight" casually parked beneath the portico of the Goliath Golf Club. We are aware that commercial, social and athletic success, await us with the dawn after taking "gusto tonic." No one ever really lived a full life before the purchase of that all shouting, half singing "Super Duper Radio" lending perfect reception to Joe Egg and his Slumber Slayers.
The foundations of society appear to rest upon propaganda and it may be an excuse, though no condonation, that Architects have been affected.
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