A joint lecture given by Charles Brett, President of the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, and the Chairman of the Housing Executive, Charles Brett, as part of the Belfast Festival at Queen's University, on 19th November, 1981
[Extract from lecture published by the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society in 1981.]
To suffer from a split personality is to suffer from a dangerous
and disagreeable disease. It lays the patient open to accusations
of double-talk, double-think, and double-dealing, not to mention
the perils of double-entendre. All these allegations have been
made against me by kind friends, or former friends, who find it
incomprehensible that I should try to combine in one persona the
attributes on the one hand, of a very much committed conservationist;
on the other hand, of an equally committed housing boss. I have
accepted the challenging invitation to give this lecture in order
to defend myself, if I can, against the charge of duplicity.
The fundamental question is this: is there in truth an inherent
conflict between the considerations which motivate a conservationist
- respect for the past; concern for amenity and the environment;
a passionate interest in appearance, aesthetics, and architectural
merit - and those other more workaday considerations which must
motivate the provider and administrator of publicly-provided housing
- practicality, efficiency and above all, economy?
The question would not need to be asked if the theory of functionalism
had not been conclusively exploded over the past half-century:
I mean the half-baked theory of the early twentieth-century puritans
that whatever was strictly functional was bound to be beautiful
too. The two may coincide, as for example in simple works of engineering
like bridges; more often, as alas in so many office blocks or
blocks of flats, the utilitarian is not merely not beautiful,
it is egregiously unbeautiful...
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