International studio (24.1904/1905(1905))

Swiss Architecture


soul attuned to stately imaginings, and endowed
with a manipulative and technical ability which
enabled him to realise his conceptions to the full.
In that his works are comparatively few we who
delight in them have cause for regret; in that they
are very perfect we are fortunate. He was an old
man when he passed from among us; his work was
done and well done; but nevertheless we are indeed
the poorer by the death of such an one, losing
from the arena of art one of its mightiest figures,
one of the giants of our day and generation.
Percy Bate.

WISS ARCHITECTURE AND
THE WORK OF EDMOND
FATIO. BY ROBERT MOBBS.

Those who, in spite of the ever-growing

m. roussy’s chalet

cosmopolitanism of our age, still cherish a taste
for what is national and native to the soil, cannot
contemplate, without a certain bitterness of soul,
the way in which some of the fairest and most
characteristic landscapes in Europe are being
spoilt to meet the exigencies of mere material
interests.
Much is being said and written just now about
the devastations of war, and rightly so, but what
of those other devastations which are being
wrought in a state of peace ? War, terrible in its
destructive force, sweeps over a land, but soon the
wounds of Nature heal and flowers spring and
bloom on the battle-field. But when a landscape
falls into the possession of those to whom it
represents nothing more than prospective money-
bags, its fate is sealed. The fact is that nothing
can stand before man’s rapacity. A country is
invaded by people
who do not care a
fig for its history,
customs, tradition,
architecture, whose
ruling passion is the
love of gain, people
with long purses
and inartistic souls.
With the glitter of
gold they corrupt
the natives, and
then the ugly work
of deformation be-
gins. The best
minds in the coun-
try protest, but they
are in the minority,
and their voice is
like that of John
the Baptist crying
in the wilderness.
Take the case of
Switzerland. Here
in the very centre
of Europe we have
a country incom-
parable for itsvaried
natural beauty, a
country which more
than any other
seems fashioned by
Nature to minister
i to the sense of the
sublime and beau-
tiful in the soul of

E. FATIO, ARCHITECT