SECTION H. 
ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE. 
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 
By Percy Oaxpen, A.R.I.B.A., President of the Royal 
Victorian Institute of Architects. 
THE RELATION OF ARCHITECTURE TO 
ENGINEERING. 
’ 
Many writers have essayed definitions of architecture and 
engineering, and some have attempted to draw very definite 
distinctions between the two professions. One author— 
Fergusson—goes so far as to publish parallel illustrations 
of a building in different stages of ornateness, professing 
to discriminate where engineering ends and architecture 
begins. But neither architects nor engineers, I think, 
would care to subscribe to his limitations. 
Without wearying you with quotations, I would here like 
to read an extract from Gwilt which, I think, gives the 
key to the discovery of the purpose and origin of both pro- 
fessions.—‘‘ Protection from the inclemency of the seasons 
was the mother of architecture. Of little account at its 
birth, it rose into light and life with the civilisation of man- 
kind; and, proportionately as security, peace, and good 
order were established, it became not less than its sisters, 
painting and sculpture, one method of transmitting to pos- 
terity the degree of importance to which a nation had 
attained, and the moral value of that nation amongst the 
kingdoms of the earth.” This idea has been more tersely 
put by another great writer.—‘ All architecture is but a 
glorified roof,’ and I would here expand that idea by 
saying that practically both architecture and engineering 
take their use from the desire of mankind to dwell, or to 
assemble for various purposes, under a roof—a glorified 
roof. If there is a distinction between _us, it would be that 
the emphasis with you; my brethren of the engineering 
professions, would be on the word “roof’’; with us archi- 
tects, on the word “ glorified.” 
Taking, then, this as our starting point, that the gre- 
garious instincts of our race demand opportunities for 
