DOI Artikel:
The designing of country cottages
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43450#0225
Country Cottages
PLANS OF COTTAGE DESIGNED BY J. ALLAN SPEIR
its arrangement and contriving, form one of the
most fascinating parts of the architect’s work.
Many of the plans we have examined show that
this has proved one of the most difficult problems,
and the number of staircases with impossible head-
room and with treads too narrow and risers too
high was curiously large. A separate staircase for
the servants’ use need not occupy much space, nor
involve much additional cost, and where the hall
is really used as a sitting-room it is desirable to
arrange one. Its provision avoids the unpleasant-
ness of the maid-servants when “ doing the bed-
rooms,” or, later on, when going up at night to their
own rooms, having to pass through the family circle.
Mr. Collings has arranged this feature well and
simply, and has also contrived that the maids’ bed-
room should be well shut off from the family rooms
on the first floor. This is always advisable, and
especially is it so with regard to the bat hroom, the
central and convenient position of which is of im-
portance. It is, by-the-by, always as well to plan
this room as large as possible. It may be, indeed,
of more size than one would at first think was in
proportion to a small house, seeing that in t he
generality of cases it has to serve also as a dressing-
room, which is otherwise ruled out on the score of
cost. It is possible to arrange that, if the heating-
boiler referred to above is introduced, it shall be
used—and not the kitchen-range—for a hot-water
supply, which would have the great advantage of
being constant. For it should be remembered that
the kitchen of a cottage serves as the sitting-room
for the maid-servants, and that such a fire as is
needed to heat the boiler efficiently could in that
case be dispensed with at times, and thus allow of
their sitting in a not overheated kitchen.
A veranda is almost a necessity for a country
cottage, and should be of sufficient width to allow
of meals being served in it, as in the designs of
Mr. Collings (who, indeed, calls it a garden-house),
Mr. Kay, and Mr. Urquhart (p. 217).
Balconies are difficult to arrange satisfactorily, if
only from the fact that their position should be
such that only the window from one bedroom gives
on to them, for obvious reasons.
The bicycle-room—a quite necessary adjunct of
every cottage—should be so placed that its door
gives into a yard, or is otherwise commanded by
the house. It has been known that a bicycle-
house (too easy of access from the garden and the
road) has been found in the morning with its door
open and its contents gone.
Amongst the first considerations in commencing
a design is one following closely upon two points
already referred to, namely, climatic conditions and
cost, and that is the nature of the material of which
the cottage is to be built. Climate and the con-
ditions of the particular part of the country in which
the building is to be placed have in every case
DETAIL OF COUNTRY COTTAGE DESIGNED
BY J. ALLAN SPEIR
213
PLANS OF COTTAGE DESIGNED BY J. ALLAN SPEIR
its arrangement and contriving, form one of the
most fascinating parts of the architect’s work.
Many of the plans we have examined show that
this has proved one of the most difficult problems,
and the number of staircases with impossible head-
room and with treads too narrow and risers too
high was curiously large. A separate staircase for
the servants’ use need not occupy much space, nor
involve much additional cost, and where the hall
is really used as a sitting-room it is desirable to
arrange one. Its provision avoids the unpleasant-
ness of the maid-servants when “ doing the bed-
rooms,” or, later on, when going up at night to their
own rooms, having to pass through the family circle.
Mr. Collings has arranged this feature well and
simply, and has also contrived that the maids’ bed-
room should be well shut off from the family rooms
on the first floor. This is always advisable, and
especially is it so with regard to the bat hroom, the
central and convenient position of which is of im-
portance. It is, by-the-by, always as well to plan
this room as large as possible. It may be, indeed,
of more size than one would at first think was in
proportion to a small house, seeing that in t he
generality of cases it has to serve also as a dressing-
room, which is otherwise ruled out on the score of
cost. It is possible to arrange that, if the heating-
boiler referred to above is introduced, it shall be
used—and not the kitchen-range—for a hot-water
supply, which would have the great advantage of
being constant. For it should be remembered that
the kitchen of a cottage serves as the sitting-room
for the maid-servants, and that such a fire as is
needed to heat the boiler efficiently could in that
case be dispensed with at times, and thus allow of
their sitting in a not overheated kitchen.
A veranda is almost a necessity for a country
cottage, and should be of sufficient width to allow
of meals being served in it, as in the designs of
Mr. Collings (who, indeed, calls it a garden-house),
Mr. Kay, and Mr. Urquhart (p. 217).
Balconies are difficult to arrange satisfactorily, if
only from the fact that their position should be
such that only the window from one bedroom gives
on to them, for obvious reasons.
The bicycle-room—a quite necessary adjunct of
every cottage—should be so placed that its door
gives into a yard, or is otherwise commanded by
the house. It has been known that a bicycle-
house (too easy of access from the garden and the
road) has been found in the morning with its door
open and its contents gone.
Amongst the first considerations in commencing
a design is one following closely upon two points
already referred to, namely, climatic conditions and
cost, and that is the nature of the material of which
the cottage is to be built. Climate and the con-
ditions of the particular part of the country in which
the building is to be placed have in every case
DETAIL OF COUNTRY COTTAGE DESIGNED
BY J. ALLAN SPEIR
213