Studio: international art (9.1897)

An Artisfs House

which conventionality has decreed to be essential,
and compress the plan till all the rooms are
reduced to the smallest possible dimensions. Then
augment these cramped conditions by filling these
rooms with heavy furniture, and finally having
covered every available inch of floor space, bewail
the lack of means which results in such discomfort
and endeavour to discover what degree of pleasure
may be conveyed by a lofty ceiling under these con-
ditions. For it is an article of faith that however
small the rooms not one single inch shall be abated
from the ceiling. The final results of this scheme
of house planning will probably be that the family
having acquired their three or more lofty " recep-
tion " rooms, will inhabit, perhaps, only one of
these and keep the others damp and musty for a
special occasion which never comes. It is thus
suburban villas are formed, and so the very name
of villa has become to suggest a genteel discomfort.

A small house is not, however, necessarily
uncomfortable, and there are still cottages and
farmhouses left in the country to prove the fact.
To build one, however, it is necessary in the first
place to clear our minds from conventional ideas
and to base the plan on our own actual habit of
life. There is probably, for instance, one room

which almost inevitably becomes the general family
sitting-room, especially in the evenings, and in a
small house this room is very often the dining-
room. For where economy of firing becomes
necessary, the warmth and comfort of the dining-
room on a winter evening will often make an
adjournment to the drawing-room undesired where
the fire, perhaps, has not been lighted till late and
a general chilliness prevails.

The dining-room thus becomes a place not
severely set apart for meals, but to some extent a
living-room for the family, and so in planning it
due consideration must be paid to this fact.

The first drawback which strikes one in the
ordinary dining-room is the general clearance of
the table which becomes necessary before a meal
and the general disturbance so caused ; and another
very serious one, especially in a small room, is the
atmosphere of food, which is both unpleasant and
insanitary.

Under these circumstances the problem which
presents itself for solution is the formation of a
dining-room in which the above disadvantages may
be obviated. With this object, in the house which
is here illustrated, a cosy recess, fitted with seating,
has been planned, and in this recess the dining-

DRAWING-ROOM IN AN ARTIST S HOUSE

M. H. BAILLIE SCOTT, ARCHITECT