"Good Architecture should not be a plaything": New Zealand Architecture in the 1920s

Abstract

When Frank Eggar Greenish (c1887-1962) criticised the Reform Government's architectural policies he boldly stated that: "Good architecture should not be a plaything - a luxury - for a spirited nation. It should be a very real part of national character." The statement embodied sentiments which were uncontested among New Zealand architects of the period. Instead they were frustrated by their seeming inability to convey the necessity of architecture to the public and to the government, and to determine, within the New Zealand context, the appropriate standing of the architectural profession.