DOI Artikel:
Scott, Mackay H. Baillie: The cheap cottage
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43455#0149
The Cheap Cottage
A PAIR OF THATCHED
COTTAGES. M. II. BAILLIE
SCOTT, ARCHITECT
this varied beauty in the
building of old cottages was
obtained by simple and un-
lettered folk building in
natural and unaffected
country village to disprove this fallacy. And if
art in the construction of cottages has no definite
relation to cost it is likewise necessary to insist that
it has no definite relation to hygienic conditions.
We all know that many charming old cottages fall
short of modern demands in this respect, and we
must not therefore hastily assume that a cottage
which is charming to the eye is necessarily defective
in practical advantages. The old cottages when
they fail in this respect do so not because they are
beautiful but because their designers did not
recognise the importance of such matters.
If we consider the cottages of our old villages,
we are impressed at once by their aspect of natural
and unaffected grace, and while we recognise in
each an individuality they are each and all in
harmony with each other and with their surroundings.
They seem to explain and make articulate the
appeal of nature. We can imagine nothing more
appropriate to Sussex than the Sussex cottage in
all its variants, and if we leave the kindly sheltered
places of the South for the bleak and rugged uplands
of the North, we shall find the cottage there has
become no less austere than the landscape. All
ways. And we who bring
to the problem all the knowledge and skill which
our modern civilisation boasts, have so far failed
utterly to produce cottages worthy to be set by the
side of the old work. We have lost the art of
producing beauty in simple building. It is some-
what unfortunate then that at such a time we should
be threatened with an extensive development of
cottage building, for our previous experience pre-
cludes the hope that these cottages will be designed
or built by those who still retain some appreciation
for the artistic aspect of the problem. We have
observed with dismay the uncompromising and
brutal ugliness of recent official cottage building in
Ireland, and protest against a like disfigurement of
our country villages and rural lanes with work of
this kind. And if we consider the cottages which
have recently been built in England, there seems
small encouragement for the hope that we have yet
learnt the secret of cottage building. We have seen
of late years the development of the garden suburb,
and much as we dislike the frank and brutal
ugliness of the official cottage, it is at least honest
and unaffected and makes no pretence to artistic
claims. But in the garden suburb we find ourselves
A PAIR OF THATCHED
COTTAGES. M. II. BAILLIE
SCOTT, ARCHITECT
this varied beauty in the
building of old cottages was
obtained by simple and un-
lettered folk building in
natural and unaffected
country village to disprove this fallacy. And if
art in the construction of cottages has no definite
relation to cost it is likewise necessary to insist that
it has no definite relation to hygienic conditions.
We all know that many charming old cottages fall
short of modern demands in this respect, and we
must not therefore hastily assume that a cottage
which is charming to the eye is necessarily defective
in practical advantages. The old cottages when
they fail in this respect do so not because they are
beautiful but because their designers did not
recognise the importance of such matters.
If we consider the cottages of our old villages,
we are impressed at once by their aspect of natural
and unaffected grace, and while we recognise in
each an individuality they are each and all in
harmony with each other and with their surroundings.
They seem to explain and make articulate the
appeal of nature. We can imagine nothing more
appropriate to Sussex than the Sussex cottage in
all its variants, and if we leave the kindly sheltered
places of the South for the bleak and rugged uplands
of the North, we shall find the cottage there has
become no less austere than the landscape. All
ways. And we who bring
to the problem all the knowledge and skill which
our modern civilisation boasts, have so far failed
utterly to produce cottages worthy to be set by the
side of the old work. We have lost the art of
producing beauty in simple building. It is some-
what unfortunate then that at such a time we should
be threatened with an extensive development of
cottage building, for our previous experience pre-
cludes the hope that these cottages will be designed
or built by those who still retain some appreciation
for the artistic aspect of the problem. We have
observed with dismay the uncompromising and
brutal ugliness of recent official cottage building in
Ireland, and protest against a like disfigurement of
our country villages and rural lanes with work of
this kind. And if we consider the cottages which
have recently been built in England, there seems
small encouragement for the hope that we have yet
learnt the secret of cottage building. We have seen
of late years the development of the garden suburb,
and much as we dislike the frank and brutal
ugliness of the official cottage, it is at least honest
and unaffected and makes no pretence to artistic
claims. But in the garden suburb we find ourselves