DOI issue:
Domestic architecture
DOI article:Scott, Mackay H. Baillie: A country cottage
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41871#0022
A COUNTRY COTTAGE
at, but because it is economically
sound. It gives us the most possible
space for our money and is based on
rational and simple ideas. Nothing
has been done for the mere purpose
of producing a picturesque effect,
but every detail of the plan has an
aim and purpose fundamentally ra-
tional. For instance, a certain pic-
turesque quality is gained by carry-
ing down a roof at some points
nearly to the ground and so, as it
were, anchoring the building to the
earth. Here this feature arrives naturally as the outcome of a desire to get
some space for the coal-store, this being the only part of the house where it
is not necessary to have the head room.
It is the heating of the house in which the claims of the old tradition have
been admitted to an extent which may be questioned by some. For a cottage
the usual modern method of central heating by means of a furnace in a base-
ment with radiators would be too expensive. An effective substitute is used
in the form of an anthracite stove recessed in the outer hall, connected to
which are radiators in study and living-room. This stove will heat a small
house like this quite effectively without open fires at all. And yet the open
fires are retained as an indispensable luxury. More especially in the living-
room the open fire takes its traditional form of the cottage ingle, with its
wide open hearth and fire of wood, which has this in common with the an-
thracite stove that with proper management it keeps continuously alight
night and day. In the country, especially where wood is to be obtained
locally, a fire of this kind is especially appropriate and no radiators, however
scientifically efficient, will gain the same place in our affections as an old-
fashioned wood-fire—a “ bonfire ” as it may justly be called in every sense of
the term. Another centre of heat will be the anthracite cooking range in the
kitchen which will ensure a constant
supply of hot water night and day.
For summer cooking a perfection oil
stove, in default of gas, may be used,
and the supply of hot water for the
baths may then be connected to an
independent boiler in the scullery.
In a cottage of this size it will not be
necessary to go to the expense of
fixed basins in the bedrooms. The
two shown on the plans, one in the
dressing-room and the other in the
at, but because it is economically
sound. It gives us the most possible
space for our money and is based on
rational and simple ideas. Nothing
has been done for the mere purpose
of producing a picturesque effect,
but every detail of the plan has an
aim and purpose fundamentally ra-
tional. For instance, a certain pic-
turesque quality is gained by carry-
ing down a roof at some points
nearly to the ground and so, as it
were, anchoring the building to the
earth. Here this feature arrives naturally as the outcome of a desire to get
some space for the coal-store, this being the only part of the house where it
is not necessary to have the head room.
It is the heating of the house in which the claims of the old tradition have
been admitted to an extent which may be questioned by some. For a cottage
the usual modern method of central heating by means of a furnace in a base-
ment with radiators would be too expensive. An effective substitute is used
in the form of an anthracite stove recessed in the outer hall, connected to
which are radiators in study and living-room. This stove will heat a small
house like this quite effectively without open fires at all. And yet the open
fires are retained as an indispensable luxury. More especially in the living-
room the open fire takes its traditional form of the cottage ingle, with its
wide open hearth and fire of wood, which has this in common with the an-
thracite stove that with proper management it keeps continuously alight
night and day. In the country, especially where wood is to be obtained
locally, a fire of this kind is especially appropriate and no radiators, however
scientifically efficient, will gain the same place in our affections as an old-
fashioned wood-fire—a “ bonfire ” as it may justly be called in every sense of
the term. Another centre of heat will be the anthracite cooking range in the
kitchen which will ensure a constant
supply of hot water night and day.
For summer cooking a perfection oil
stove, in default of gas, may be used,
and the supply of hot water for the
baths may then be connected to an
independent boiler in the scullery.
In a cottage of this size it will not be
necessary to go to the expense of
fixed basins in the bedrooms. The
two shown on the plans, one in the
dressing-room and the other in the