DOI issue:
No. 197 (August, 1909)
DOI article:Recent designs in domestic architecture
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20967#0230
Recent Designs in Domestic Architecture
THE ARCHITECTS’ STUDIO HOUSE: RUNGE & SCOTLAND, ARCHITECTS
A CORNER OF THE DRAWING-ROOM IN THE ABOVE
At the same time the architect of the modern
school holds that it is altogether inconsistent with
the conditions of life at the present day to build
houses in the style of these peasant dwellings for
the strenuous city worker in need of relaxation.
These may answer very well for a temporary
abode during the summer, but the country house
which the townsman wants nowadays differs both
from this peasant house and from the pseudo-
castle which the wealthy merchant used not so
long ago to be fond of erecting in emulation
of the landed aristocracy. The tendency is to
place considerations of utility in the foreground
and to ignore, or at all events to assign a sub-
ordinate place to, the picturesque character of
the elevation.
Messrs. Runge and
Scotland have from the
first pursued a middle
course. While they have
in the planning of the
houses designed by them
sought to satisfy the crav-
ing of the hard-worked
city man for rest, light
and air, they were led by
their own predilection for
the creations of peasant
art which the dwellings
of Lower Saxony offered
them in rich abundance,
to turn to account such
useful and attractive
features as they could
discover therein. The
elongated ground - plan,
permitting of a favour-
able arrangement of the
rooms in regard to sun-
shine, the picturesque
sloping roof, the large
windows made up of
numerous small panes,
are elements derived from
the architecture of Lower
Saxony, and the houses
in which they are intro-
duced have the appear-
ance of springing from
the soil and consequently
accord well with the sur-
rounding landscape.
The inhabitants of
Bremen have, through the
close commercial intercourse which the town has
long enjoyed with England, learned to appreciate
the advantages of separate dwellings, and in fact
preference has for centuries been shown here for
this mode of living. Messrs. Runge and Scotland
therefore found in this locality a favourable field
for their activity. The numerous commissions
which were entrusted to them in the course of a
comparatively brief period, brought them face to
face with a succession of novel problems, the solu-
tion of which afforded them an opportunity of
displaying their skill by reconciling the practical
needs of daily life with the ideal requirements of
the present age. Amongst their more recent
achievements, the house which they themselves
occupy as a private residence and atelier (two
200
THE ARCHITECTS’ STUDIO HOUSE: RUNGE & SCOTLAND, ARCHITECTS
A CORNER OF THE DRAWING-ROOM IN THE ABOVE
At the same time the architect of the modern
school holds that it is altogether inconsistent with
the conditions of life at the present day to build
houses in the style of these peasant dwellings for
the strenuous city worker in need of relaxation.
These may answer very well for a temporary
abode during the summer, but the country house
which the townsman wants nowadays differs both
from this peasant house and from the pseudo-
castle which the wealthy merchant used not so
long ago to be fond of erecting in emulation
of the landed aristocracy. The tendency is to
place considerations of utility in the foreground
and to ignore, or at all events to assign a sub-
ordinate place to, the picturesque character of
the elevation.
Messrs. Runge and
Scotland have from the
first pursued a middle
course. While they have
in the planning of the
houses designed by them
sought to satisfy the crav-
ing of the hard-worked
city man for rest, light
and air, they were led by
their own predilection for
the creations of peasant
art which the dwellings
of Lower Saxony offered
them in rich abundance,
to turn to account such
useful and attractive
features as they could
discover therein. The
elongated ground - plan,
permitting of a favour-
able arrangement of the
rooms in regard to sun-
shine, the picturesque
sloping roof, the large
windows made up of
numerous small panes,
are elements derived from
the architecture of Lower
Saxony, and the houses
in which they are intro-
duced have the appear-
ance of springing from
the soil and consequently
accord well with the sur-
rounding landscape.
The inhabitants of
Bremen have, through the
close commercial intercourse which the town has
long enjoyed with England, learned to appreciate
the advantages of separate dwellings, and in fact
preference has for centuries been shown here for
this mode of living. Messrs. Runge and Scotland
therefore found in this locality a favourable field
for their activity. The numerous commissions
which were entrusted to them in the course of a
comparatively brief period, brought them face to
face with a succession of novel problems, the solu-
tion of which afforded them an opportunity of
displaying their skill by reconciling the practical
needs of daily life with the ideal requirements of
the present age. Amongst their more recent
achievements, the house which they themselves
occupy as a private residence and atelier (two
200