DOI issue:
No.233 (August 1912)
DOI article:The designs of country cottages
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21157#0232
Country Cottages
elevational character. It gives, moreover, the
opportunity of adapting the building to the de-
mands laid down by the owner, and should tell a
tale of his needs satisfied and his individuality
expressed.
A well-known architect once said that the merest
glance at the corridors on a plan showed him at
once if its author were a good planner or not. In
no class of building perhaps does this canon hold
good more than in the planning of cottages, where
access from room to room should be attained at
the least possible expenditure of space, and where
the corridor cannot, as in larger houses, be effectively
utilised as a feature. In many of the designs which
have come under notice with those now illustrated
the corridor space was wasteful and out of due pro-
portion, and in more than one instance was left in-
differently lighted, but in most of those we reproduce
the point has been well met.
Those who show on their
first-floor plans the posi-
tions of the beds are to be
commended for realising
that if a room be planned
for the main purpose of
holding a bed it is as well
to show where and how the
latter has been arranged for.
A further need for care and
thought asserts itself with
regard to the door of the
bedroom. This can occupy
a wrong position, as where
it opens directly on to the
bed, or may be hung on
the wrong side, in which
case it fails when open to
screen the room. But even
when the bed is in the place
assigned to it on plan, and
it and its occupant are not
baked by the fire, nor the
latter undergoing the cer-
tainty of pneumonia from
an indifferently fitting win-
dow close at hand, or per-
haps open window, how
many architects think out,
as they should, the position
of the washhand-stand, the
dressing-table, and the all-
important wardrobe?
Fewer still there are who
contrive an inexpensive but
pleasantly designed hanging
cupboard in deal, painted
simply, in place of the “ in-
laid mahogany wardrobe to
match, Sheraton style,” that
costs quite twice as much.
It seems to be forgotten,
over and over again, that in
designing a room—any
THREE ELEVATIONS OF COUNTRY COTTAGE DESIGNED BY H. CODLINGS
2 10
elevational character. It gives, moreover, the
opportunity of adapting the building to the de-
mands laid down by the owner, and should tell a
tale of his needs satisfied and his individuality
expressed.
A well-known architect once said that the merest
glance at the corridors on a plan showed him at
once if its author were a good planner or not. In
no class of building perhaps does this canon hold
good more than in the planning of cottages, where
access from room to room should be attained at
the least possible expenditure of space, and where
the corridor cannot, as in larger houses, be effectively
utilised as a feature. In many of the designs which
have come under notice with those now illustrated
the corridor space was wasteful and out of due pro-
portion, and in more than one instance was left in-
differently lighted, but in most of those we reproduce
the point has been well met.
Those who show on their
first-floor plans the posi-
tions of the beds are to be
commended for realising
that if a room be planned
for the main purpose of
holding a bed it is as well
to show where and how the
latter has been arranged for.
A further need for care and
thought asserts itself with
regard to the door of the
bedroom. This can occupy
a wrong position, as where
it opens directly on to the
bed, or may be hung on
the wrong side, in which
case it fails when open to
screen the room. But even
when the bed is in the place
assigned to it on plan, and
it and its occupant are not
baked by the fire, nor the
latter undergoing the cer-
tainty of pneumonia from
an indifferently fitting win-
dow close at hand, or per-
haps open window, how
many architects think out,
as they should, the position
of the washhand-stand, the
dressing-table, and the all-
important wardrobe?
Fewer still there are who
contrive an inexpensive but
pleasantly designed hanging
cupboard in deal, painted
simply, in place of the “ in-
laid mahogany wardrobe to
match, Sheraton style,” that
costs quite twice as much.
It seems to be forgotten,
over and over again, that in
designing a room—any
THREE ELEVATIONS OF COUNTRY COTTAGE DESIGNED BY H. CODLINGS
2 10