DOI Artikel:
Introduction with especial reference to domestic architecture
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19987#0051
INTRODUCTION
“Hollington House,” Newbury, by Mr. Arthur Blomfield, is a
large and imposing house, based upon the English style of the late
sixteenth or earlier part of the seventeenth century, while avoid-
ing the imported pedantry of quasi-classic columns, porticoes and
pediments. It should be noted how much of dignity and repose
the design of the broad terrace front (page 15) derives from the
two string courses running continuously all round, and a third
one (not in the nature of things continuous) through the gables
immediately above the second storey windows.
Of “ The Hill House,” Helensburgh, a work by Mr. Charles
Mackintosh, two drawings and one photograph are reproduced
on pages 32 and 3 3 ; by comparison of which together it may be
judged how much works of this kind owe of attractiveness or the
reverse to elaborately mannered drawings. The elevation is very
simply treated, with studied irregularity of grouping in the masses
of plain wall-spaces, relieved by prominent chimneys, almost
buttress-like in effect, and an outside stair turret, a characteristic
feature, which, introduced centuries ago from France, has grown
so familiar as to be almost indispensable in Scottish exteriors. It
is well for all houses, wheresoever built, not to be exotic and
bizarre, but to conform as far as maybe to the traditional type
of the district ; for such a type is sure to have been evolved as
the expression of local needs, and as embodying a practical and
suitable use of local building materials. Imported materials, no
matter how rich and beautiful they may be in themselves, being
strange to the district, never seem to harmonise so well with local
atmosphere and surroundings as do those which are indigenous
and have therefore become habituated by long usage to the service
of the folk that dwell there.
In contrast to the last-named, a house called “ Springfield,”
at Dukes, Essex, designed by Mr. Needham Wilson (page 44), is
more typically southern and belongs to a class of domestic buildings
on a moderate scale ; while a group of cottages at Checkenden,
Oxfordshire, by Messrs. Simpson and Ayrton, of which a coloured
reproduction is given, present a delightful, old-fashioned appearance.
They reproduce, in fact, very closely the homely, rural architecture
for which England is justly dear to artists all the world over.
7
“Hollington House,” Newbury, by Mr. Arthur Blomfield, is a
large and imposing house, based upon the English style of the late
sixteenth or earlier part of the seventeenth century, while avoid-
ing the imported pedantry of quasi-classic columns, porticoes and
pediments. It should be noted how much of dignity and repose
the design of the broad terrace front (page 15) derives from the
two string courses running continuously all round, and a third
one (not in the nature of things continuous) through the gables
immediately above the second storey windows.
Of “ The Hill House,” Helensburgh, a work by Mr. Charles
Mackintosh, two drawings and one photograph are reproduced
on pages 32 and 3 3 ; by comparison of which together it may be
judged how much works of this kind owe of attractiveness or the
reverse to elaborately mannered drawings. The elevation is very
simply treated, with studied irregularity of grouping in the masses
of plain wall-spaces, relieved by prominent chimneys, almost
buttress-like in effect, and an outside stair turret, a characteristic
feature, which, introduced centuries ago from France, has grown
so familiar as to be almost indispensable in Scottish exteriors. It
is well for all houses, wheresoever built, not to be exotic and
bizarre, but to conform as far as maybe to the traditional type
of the district ; for such a type is sure to have been evolved as
the expression of local needs, and as embodying a practical and
suitable use of local building materials. Imported materials, no
matter how rich and beautiful they may be in themselves, being
strange to the district, never seem to harmonise so well with local
atmosphere and surroundings as do those which are indigenous
and have therefore become habituated by long usage to the service
of the folk that dwell there.
In contrast to the last-named, a house called “ Springfield,”
at Dukes, Essex, designed by Mr. Needham Wilson (page 44), is
more typically southern and belongs to a class of domestic buildings
on a moderate scale ; while a group of cottages at Checkenden,
Oxfordshire, by Messrs. Simpson and Ayrton, of which a coloured
reproduction is given, present a delightful, old-fashioned appearance.
They reproduce, in fact, very closely the homely, rural architecture
for which England is justly dear to artists all the world over.
7