DOI Heft:
No.233 (August 1912)
DOI Artikel:The designs of country cottages
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21157#0227
Country Cottages
HE DESIGNING OF COUNTRY
COTTAGES.
“ When,” says Swift, “ I have a kingdom of
my own I will look out for a cottage in it,” and so
many people nowadays dream his dream and, what
is more, make it take actual shape and realisation,
that the Home Counties and the districts surround-
ing our large cities are dotted with the small home
—the cottage—of the professional or middle-class
man. Here, escaped from the crowded life of
town, he lives his own life in his own house,
arranged, if he be fortunate, in such a way as to
speak his own needs.
It is with such a dwelling as this, neither, on the
one hand, a villa—to use a somewhat Victorian
word for which there is no equivalent—nor, on the
other, the home of the farm-labourer or estate-
workman, which also can
claim a right to define itself
as a cottage, that the present
article proposes to deal.
And although some of the
considerations to be ad-
vanced may be obvious, yet
examination of a batch of
designs recently submitted
to us for adjudication brings
home the fact that this by no
means guarantees them from
neglect or infraction.
First and foremost
amongst these points to be
considered is the question
of the limit laid down as the
ultimate cost of the building,
and the need—for the archi-
tect, who as regards this
particular class of house has
to deal with men of moderate
means and capital—to bear
this factor in mind from the
moment that the pencil is
first laid to paper to the very
close of the work. For carry-
ing out the designs with
which we are now dealing
the sum of ^1200 was stipu-
lated as the maximum limit
of cost, exclusive of site—a
fair and even generous
allowance.
Climatic conditions must
of course be reckoned with
as having weight and bearing on the design. A
cottage built on the edge of the Yorkshire Moors
has different needs and requirements from that
sheltered in a valley of the warmer south. The
one must withstand the driving wind and wet,
the other be framed with verandas and shelters
from the sun. A point intimately connected with
this consideration is that of aspect, or the so
placing of the house on the site as to obtain for its
various rooms the light most fitted for their special
use. As a broad principle, windows should admit
of the sun entering each living room at some period
of the day, while the kitchen offices—the scullery,
pantry, and larder—may well face north. For the
drawing-room there is the range of choice between
south, south-east, and south-west, while north-east
is a desirable aspect for the dining-room of a small
house or cottage, introducing as it would the
5 ELEVATIO*^ TOCADDF.M
DESIGN FOR COUNTRY COTTAGE
HE DESIGNING OF COUNTRY
COTTAGES.
“ When,” says Swift, “ I have a kingdom of
my own I will look out for a cottage in it,” and so
many people nowadays dream his dream and, what
is more, make it take actual shape and realisation,
that the Home Counties and the districts surround-
ing our large cities are dotted with the small home
—the cottage—of the professional or middle-class
man. Here, escaped from the crowded life of
town, he lives his own life in his own house,
arranged, if he be fortunate, in such a way as to
speak his own needs.
It is with such a dwelling as this, neither, on the
one hand, a villa—to use a somewhat Victorian
word for which there is no equivalent—nor, on the
other, the home of the farm-labourer or estate-
workman, which also can
claim a right to define itself
as a cottage, that the present
article proposes to deal.
And although some of the
considerations to be ad-
vanced may be obvious, yet
examination of a batch of
designs recently submitted
to us for adjudication brings
home the fact that this by no
means guarantees them from
neglect or infraction.
First and foremost
amongst these points to be
considered is the question
of the limit laid down as the
ultimate cost of the building,
and the need—for the archi-
tect, who as regards this
particular class of house has
to deal with men of moderate
means and capital—to bear
this factor in mind from the
moment that the pencil is
first laid to paper to the very
close of the work. For carry-
ing out the designs with
which we are now dealing
the sum of ^1200 was stipu-
lated as the maximum limit
of cost, exclusive of site—a
fair and even generous
allowance.
Climatic conditions must
of course be reckoned with
as having weight and bearing on the design. A
cottage built on the edge of the Yorkshire Moors
has different needs and requirements from that
sheltered in a valley of the warmer south. The
one must withstand the driving wind and wet,
the other be framed with verandas and shelters
from the sun. A point intimately connected with
this consideration is that of aspect, or the so
placing of the house on the site as to obtain for its
various rooms the light most fitted for their special
use. As a broad principle, windows should admit
of the sun entering each living room at some period
of the day, while the kitchen offices—the scullery,
pantry, and larder—may well face north. For the
drawing-room there is the range of choice between
south, south-east, and south-west, while north-east
is a desirable aspect for the dining-room of a small
house or cottage, introducing as it would the
5 ELEVATIO*^ TOCADDF.M
DESIGN FOR COUNTRY COTTAGE