04 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[March, 



the iiualifications of an architect are neither few nor trivial ; and that when 

 acmiircci, thcv place him as much beyond the mere artist, as the artist is 

 beyond the artisan. Architecture and architects sufler together, from their 

 association in the public mind with the imitative arts, and with mere artists : 



the practice of arclutectnre is thought to consist in maliing drawings, and 



the architect to be at best but a drawer of plans '. Hence the responsible 

 duties that devolve upon the architect are quite lost sight of; the careful 

 study required to fulfil the conditions necessary to building well— the labour 

 of pre-arranging and specifying everything for useful service, and as to labour 

 and materials, their proportion, composition, and combination, in detail, so 

 that the cost of execution may be minutely estimated beforehand— the 

 anxious care in supervising, that the work be properly executed, preparing 

 and supplfuig in the meanwhile perfect delineations of tlic constructions and 

 decorations in detail, and tlie eventual investigation of accounts;— all these 

 things are unknown, overlooked, or unheeded, and the architect is considered 

 as an overpaid artist— artists being Unked in the same category with 

 plavers, fiddlers, and dancers ! , , , 



But whv, it may be asked, is this so ? Why are men who must have 

 extensive scientific and artistic qualifications— who must, moreover, be good 

 men of business, when they arc properly qualified to practise as architects— 

 and who must, withal, be in a certain condition of life, to be trusted with 

 directing the expenditure of large sums of money- wliy is it that this class 

 of men is so lightly esteemed ? I have already said, that it is in a great 

 measure because architects have sunk into mere artists : as such they are 

 considered, and they submit tbereuiion to be treated in a manner that would 

 he resented as iusulting liv anv well-regulated profession. An architectural 

 design is looked upon as an artist's sketch— a work of nought,— and every 

 man how ignorant soever, deems himself competent to judge of us merits ; 

 and the unworthy practice of architects is to sulimit to have their productions 

 so considered and so adjudged. Consequently architecture, as at present 

 practised, is not a profession for a gentlemau ; but it is in tlie bands of 

 architects themselves to amend the practice, and if every young man entering 



the profession would determine for himself that it should be amended in liis 

 cpse— as it has for a long time been in mine— a very few years would suffice 

 to render the profession of architecture as honourable as it is useful. 



I shall have been understood to refer to the existing practice of making 

 designs by what is termed competition. Now competition, properly con- 

 ducted.'isthe sure way to obtain excellence; but there are many conditions to 

 the proper conduct of a competition. There must l)e perfect explicitness in the 

 terms —careful investigation to determine that the terms are complied with,— 

 perfect competence in the judges to select,— and perfect honour in making the 

 selection. But to be what they ought to be, the terms of a competition 

 should go to the extremest degree of minuteness, and amount to an iinap. 

 plied specification ; every design should be accompanied by a specification of 

 the terms applied by the author to his particular design ; and every design, 

 with its specification, should be tried by competent and trustworthy investi- 

 -ators,'upon the specified terms. Such of the designs presented in a com- 

 petition as should pass such an examination might be then examined as to 

 their fulfilment of the conditions in building veil, and with special reference 

 to the existing case, and the selection made accordingly. 



But where are the parties requiring designs for works of architecture who 

 will incur the expense, and take the trouble to propose terms as they ought 

 to be proposed, while architects will speculate upon the chances of interest, 

 or upon tlie effect of a clap-trap drawing or model ? where the architect who 

 would take pains to act up to the terms— if the conditions were as I have 

 supposed— for a mere lottery-like chance of being either re-irabursed bis 

 expenses, or paid for his labours ? and where the tribunal to which designs 

 for works of architecture could be submitted, with the remotest probability 

 of their being examined, understood, and appreciated, in such a manner as to 

 insure the selection of the best design ? Such a tribunal is not to be found, 

 and such an one cannot exist under the present system ; and all the schemes 

 hitherto propounded, as far as my knowledge goes— and I have not been a 

 blind observer— are utterly inadequate to answer the true end of competition 

 — the production of excellence. 



Some would form a jury of architects, to investigate the merits of designs 

 submitted in competitions ; but the favourite project is to exhibit competition 

 designs, that the imtlic may judge of their merits. Exhibit Greek odes, and 

 hieroglyphic inscriptions, and ask the public to judge of the merits of the 

 one, and to give translations of the other ! for there are as many of the 

 pulilic as competent to cither of these things, as to judge of the comparative 

 merits of a series of different architectural designs for the same tiling:— I 

 mean, of course, with reference to all and everything that a design should 

 include. It seems strange, too, upon reflection, to find that in every propo- 

 sition it is the architects who are to bear the expense of any proposed 

 investigation ! But who are the parties to be benefited by a competition ? 

 Surely, not the architects ! Only one can have the commission contended for, 

 and the most likely man, if there were to be no competition, is the most certain 

 when there is one; neither is the amount of business for tlie profession, nor 

 the remuneration of the successful competitor increased, by the establish- 

 ment of a general concurrence. How then is it to be managed, that the 

 public shall have the advantage of competition to obtain pre-eminent designs, 

 whilst architects mav not lie degraded by submission to insult and injury .' 

 Simply thus ; that architects should do as,— or rather, should not do other- 

 wise than,— lawyers and physicians do. AVhat barrister takes a brief, or what 

 physician visits a patient, without an konorarimn .' Wlio ever saw an adver- 



tisement from a town council or a corporation committee, addressed " To 

 Barristers," asking an opinion upon a legal case in which they might happen 

 to be interested, intimating that a copy of the case would be supplied to 

 competitors Ijy the town-clerk, on payment of a guinea, and that the party 

 whose opinion the aldermen or the committeemen might think the best 

 should have a premium of ten guineas, and perhaps be employed to con- 

 duct the case ? Or who ever heard of a sick man sending for half a dozen 

 physicians, with an offer of a guinea to that one of them whose advice he— the 

 patient— might think the best ? And why should it l)e otherwise with archi- 

 tects than with barristers and physicians ?— The only way to estal^lish and 

 maintain " respectability and uniformity of practice" in ungoverncd profess- 

 ions is, (bv mutual consent, which a minority in standing and reputation 

 must yield,' if a majorit^• require it.) to hold no brief,— to give no advice,- to 

 furnisii no design,— without a competent fee. it is the parties seeking designs, 

 and who desire to derive advantage from the application of many minds to 

 the same subject, that are to be benefited ; and they who seek a lieneat must 

 be content to pay for it. Moreover, it can never happen, but that in several 

 designs for the same thing there will be some points or parts in some or 

 other of the designs, than that which may be generally the best, better than 

 the same parts in the best design. When all are paid for, aU may be used; 

 and the best design in a concurrence may be greatly improved by the incor- 

 poration of the excellencies of the others. 



Had the course I recommend been pursued in the case of the Houses Ot 

 Parliament Designs, the eminent architect who was most deservedly success- 

 ful in that competition must have been included iii any number called upon, 

 however bmited, because of his already attained eminence, and the country 

 would thus have had the advantage of sucli improvements in the preferred 

 design as the other concurring designs miglit have suggested ; and this with- 

 out submitting the architect himself to the insults he received in being 

 charged with pirating un-premiated designs. Reference to this calls to my 

 recollection an instance in connexion with it of the disadvantages architects 

 suffer, from the habit the public, and with the public the pubUc authorities, 

 have acquired of considering architects as mere artists. The architect of the 

 palace of the Legislature was put into leading-strings during the formation 

 of the foundations of his work ; and the construction of the river-wall, winch 

 forms the effective liasement of its main front, was taken entirely out of his 



bands ! , , , ^ i • • 



\gain, it is essential to the proper understanding of an elaborate design in 

 arcliitecturc, that the architect should explain his intentions, with the draw- 

 ings before them, to tlie parties who may have the selection. 'Ihis lieing 

 do°ue by the four, six or eight architects who may have lieen called upon, — 

 for where fees are to be paid to all concurring, there would be no advertise- 

 ment, such as I have often seen, giving permission to, rather than inviting a 

 concurrence of, " masons, builders, survei/ars. and architects /'— unpractised 

 persons would be able to determine, without great risk of error, upon the 

 design best adapted for what they may want. Favour may determine the 

 selection, certainly, but that is the case now, and to a much greater extent 

 than could be when the more intelligent man was seen in connexion with the 

 better design; and besides this, the uncommissioned competitors would, 

 accordinn- to my proposition, be paid for their trouble, and would receive no 

 substantive injury bv the wrong the parties might thus do themselves, or 

 those for whom they act, in selecting by favour rather than l)y merit. 



The general com'petition system has liecn defended upon the plea that it 

 gives young men opportunities, or cliances rather, of obtaining employment 

 that they could not otherwise hope for; but I believe that the moral iiijury done 

 by the system to young men, in leading them to bow and cringe in seeking 

 favour, and from the unworthy too, and the expenses they may be drawn 

 into, are evils liut poorlv compensated by the advantages, such as they are. 

 Young men have been ruined for life by success in a general competition; 

 some have been cheated out of the prizes they were declared to have won ; 

 and many have been driven to despair by failure, who might in due time have 

 succeeded in obtaining business, had they worked duly, and had they not been 

 tempted out of t!ie beaten path of industry by these ignes fatm. .Vnother 

 plea is, that competition designs give architects employment for their pupils. 

 This must, of course, be in the absence of practice ; and 1 introduce this sub- 

 ject here, to take from it the opportunity it affords, of warning students 

 against offices where the usual occupation of pupils is in making speoulation 

 designs. You mav do such things, if they ought to be done, without paying 

 hi»h premiums fur the privilege of doing tliem in an architect's office. 



To make the profession of architecture worthy of a gentleman, you must 

 determine, each man for himself, thiit it shall be so; and to this eftect 

 decbne to render jirofessional services in any form, without that species of 

 acknowledgment wliich it is essential you should obtain, to secure respect 

 for either your services or yourselves. 



The Artesian Well at Grenelle.—h new tube is now making for tbe ued of 

 Grenelle in iron, of such a thickness that it will bear the pressure ot oO to m 

 atmosi-heres. Experiments have lieen tried on two tubes placed one within 

 the other, as the tubes were in the bore of the well, to ascertain wliat degree 

 (,f pressure would be necessary to force them in ; but though the hydraulic 

 ram was employed, it required a pressure of from 12 to lo atmospheres to 

 produce any eftect on the tubes. The water still llo«s as copiously as ever, 

 moderately warm, and alternately limpid and black as the sewers ot 1 aris.— 

 GalisnanVs Messenger^ 



