DOI Heft:
No. 165 (December, 1906)
DOI Artikel:Recent designs in domestic architecture
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20716#0256
Recent Designs in Domestic Architecture
traditions of workmanship—an aspect of tradition
practically ignored in the early Victorian era,
and quite a different thing from the literal
copying of old forms. Their attitude was much
the same as that held to-day by Mr. Charles
Spooner and the increasing number of artists who
think with him. ' An artist,' says Mr. Spooner in
a paper read before the Architectural Association,
' cannot copy other people's work in form or
colour; he may unconsciously reproduce forms
and so forth, but however strong the resemblance
between his work and that which he most admires
it will not be a copy or reproduction, but his own
expression of the beautiful.'
" Following upon this sane and reasonable point
of view came the critical study and fervid apprecia-
tion of the localness of country architecture. The
unity of the very stuff of the house with its site and
locality became the keynote of beauty. It was felt
that in the best English traditions of cottage and
country house building, the most satisfactory results
were obtained when the builders had recognised
and preserved most faithfully this natural tie
between the building and the soil.
"Another principle involved a marked change of
attitude towards the treatment of material. It
became a rule to discountenance the practice of
making one material look like another, and instead
to give due regard to the intrinsic beauty of each
kind of material. It is true that many abomina-
tions have been committed in the name of artistic
sincerity. Craftsmanship has here and there
assumed pedantic airs, peculiar virtue being
attached to seams and raw edges, baldness and
crudity looked upon as signs of grace, and it
has even been regarded as a point of artistic
honour to insist that every piece of wood construc-
tion should show the joints. This deliberate ex-
aggeration of points of practical detail is neither
beautiful nor original. Beauty is relative and
orderly, and has no concern with affectation and
pose. But notwithstanding these aberrations, the
influence of this principle in the main has been a
good one, and a most potent factor in contributing
to the charm of the modern house.
" These, then, are the ideas forming the ground-
work of Mr. Charles Spooner's work. He seeks
beauty which relies on no mere finery, no use-
HOUSE AT BURY, SUSSEX, FROM SOUTH-EAST
236
CHARLES ,SPOONER, ARCHITECT
traditions of workmanship—an aspect of tradition
practically ignored in the early Victorian era,
and quite a different thing from the literal
copying of old forms. Their attitude was much
the same as that held to-day by Mr. Charles
Spooner and the increasing number of artists who
think with him. ' An artist,' says Mr. Spooner in
a paper read before the Architectural Association,
' cannot copy other people's work in form or
colour; he may unconsciously reproduce forms
and so forth, but however strong the resemblance
between his work and that which he most admires
it will not be a copy or reproduction, but his own
expression of the beautiful.'
" Following upon this sane and reasonable point
of view came the critical study and fervid apprecia-
tion of the localness of country architecture. The
unity of the very stuff of the house with its site and
locality became the keynote of beauty. It was felt
that in the best English traditions of cottage and
country house building, the most satisfactory results
were obtained when the builders had recognised
and preserved most faithfully this natural tie
between the building and the soil.
"Another principle involved a marked change of
attitude towards the treatment of material. It
became a rule to discountenance the practice of
making one material look like another, and instead
to give due regard to the intrinsic beauty of each
kind of material. It is true that many abomina-
tions have been committed in the name of artistic
sincerity. Craftsmanship has here and there
assumed pedantic airs, peculiar virtue being
attached to seams and raw edges, baldness and
crudity looked upon as signs of grace, and it
has even been regarded as a point of artistic
honour to insist that every piece of wood construc-
tion should show the joints. This deliberate ex-
aggeration of points of practical detail is neither
beautiful nor original. Beauty is relative and
orderly, and has no concern with affectation and
pose. But notwithstanding these aberrations, the
influence of this principle in the main has been a
good one, and a most potent factor in contributing
to the charm of the modern house.
" These, then, are the ideas forming the ground-
work of Mr. Charles Spooner's work. He seeks
beauty which relies on no mere finery, no use-
HOUSE AT BURY, SUSSEX, FROM SOUTH-EAST
236
CHARLES ,SPOONER, ARCHITECT