DOI Artikel:
Scott, Mackay H. Baillie: The cheap cottage
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43455#0150
The Cheap Cottage
surrounded by a bewildering multitude of little
cockney villas posing as cottages amongst which we
look in vain for the unaffected and earnest qualities
of the old work. Art is underlined everywhere, and
each of these miniature bijou residences seems to
pose and smirk in the conscious appreciation of its
own artistic qualities. And then again we are
threatened with the standard cottage, which captures
our imagination with the happy prospect of a future
where all the characteristic variety of local character
in our old villages will be superseded, whether in
the mountains of Wales or on the Sussex Downs or
on the broad levels of the Midlands, by the
continuous reiteration of the same standard cottage
officially approved. Or again we have the efforts
of the Ideal cottage builder, -who has nailed the
standard of economy to the mast. With ruthless
disregard to the comfort of occupants, he constructs
a cottage which at first sight appears to be a hen-
house with a chimney-stack, and which even if it
cost ^150 may be said to be dear at any price, or
again the outcome of implacable conditions as to
cost has led to the evolution of a cottage in which
the principal living room has dwindled to impossible
dimensions. The various experiments that have
been made in cheap cottage building show clearly
the futility of taking a fixed price as the basis to
work from. The proper basis is the minimum
cubic sp'ace which must be allowed for the well-
being of the occupants, and this space must be
gained in the cheapest possible way, consistent
with good building, which in the long run is always
the most economical. The cost will necessarily
vary considerably according to locality. No doubt
the ideal method of building a cottage is that it
should be designed by the occupants. A man
should make his own dwelling as the birds of the
air their nests. But if under modern conditions
COTTAGE NEAR BEDFORD
DESIGNED BY A. P. STARKEY
135
surrounded by a bewildering multitude of little
cockney villas posing as cottages amongst which we
look in vain for the unaffected and earnest qualities
of the old work. Art is underlined everywhere, and
each of these miniature bijou residences seems to
pose and smirk in the conscious appreciation of its
own artistic qualities. And then again we are
threatened with the standard cottage, which captures
our imagination with the happy prospect of a future
where all the characteristic variety of local character
in our old villages will be superseded, whether in
the mountains of Wales or on the Sussex Downs or
on the broad levels of the Midlands, by the
continuous reiteration of the same standard cottage
officially approved. Or again we have the efforts
of the Ideal cottage builder, -who has nailed the
standard of economy to the mast. With ruthless
disregard to the comfort of occupants, he constructs
a cottage which at first sight appears to be a hen-
house with a chimney-stack, and which even if it
cost ^150 may be said to be dear at any price, or
again the outcome of implacable conditions as to
cost has led to the evolution of a cottage in which
the principal living room has dwindled to impossible
dimensions. The various experiments that have
been made in cheap cottage building show clearly
the futility of taking a fixed price as the basis to
work from. The proper basis is the minimum
cubic sp'ace which must be allowed for the well-
being of the occupants, and this space must be
gained in the cheapest possible way, consistent
with good building, which in the long run is always
the most economical. The cost will necessarily
vary considerably according to locality. No doubt
the ideal method of building a cottage is that it
should be designed by the occupants. A man
should make his own dwelling as the birds of the
air their nests. But if under modern conditions
COTTAGE NEAR BEDFORD
DESIGNED BY A. P. STARKEY
135