Studio: international art (38.1906)

Recent Designs in Domestic Architecture

A HOUSE IN THE MIDLANDS : HALL AND DINING ROOM

M. H. BAILLIE SCOTT, ARCHITECT

for this experiment in bricks and mortar. It
seemed at once apparent that here was no place
for the importation of the artificialities of the town.
It would not be well to place here a modern
mansion to moulder in these meadows. The
superficial smartness of such a dwelling must
always be at variance with
Nature and with Nature’s
gradual colouring. The
verticality of the villa must
give place to a simplicity
of mass and outline and
proportions broad and low.

“ As soon as the plan
of the building has been
settled the important ques-
tion of the choice of ma-
terials presents itself, and
in such choice the country
builder must take long
views. In the town it is
well perhaps to dream only
of the fagade, as it appears
clean and fresh from the
builder’s hands, and to shut
one’s eyes to the later dis-
mal sootiness of aspect
which is inevitable—but in
the country the real country
44

house grows in grace with the years if built of the
right kind of materials. The bricks and tiles in
which the modern manufacturer delights, even in
colour, regular in shape, and impervious in sub-
stance, will never yield to natural influences their
harsh and glaring redness.

A HOUSE IN THE MIDLANDS : GROUND PLAN M. H. BAILLIE SCOTT, ARCHITECT