Small Country Houses Of To Day

Excerpt from Small Country Houses of to-Day While there is no lack of books which illustrate various types of small modern country houses, both by photographs and plans, they are, as a class, singularly devoid of critical explanation, whether from the practical or the æsthetic point of view. House-building is, moreover, a primitive instinct, and the story of its development takes an important part in the larger history of social growth. Monographs on representative Small Country Houses of To-day designed by architects of established reputation serve, therefore, a double purpose. They explain the buildings themselves, setting out the conditions which determined their plan and treatment, and they estimate their place in relation to English culture and habits. Since the end of the eighteenth century, architecture has been struggling with many vicious influences, and not least, with the lack of tradition, both in design and construction. The battle of the styles has been fought, not without fierceness, but with no good result. Now, after the lapse of a century devoted to groping experiments and detached eclecticisms, there are definite signs of the renewing of sleeping traditions, not on merely imitative lines, but in the spirit of the old work. This happy renaissance cannot march to success, unless the public at large concerns itself with architecture and becomes informed as to the problems to be faced and the ends to be attained. Building needs, in fact, to be brought back into the normal current of intelligent thought, instead of being relegated to the limbo of technical mysteries. That is not to say that the layman is wise to fill his mind with the details of construction, or attempt to master what is the absorbing study of an architect's lifetime. There are, however, certain qualities of architecture which lie open to the cultivated eye: mass, proportion, scale, and texture, and these become visible with observation to anyone with artistic perceptions. The time has come when educated people should shake off the shackles of the speculative builder and turn their backs finally on the desirable villa residence. Fifty years ago the architects who were doing honourable service in house-building were a small but brilliant band. One need name only the giants; Philip Webb, Eden Nesfield, George Devey, and Norman Shaw. To-day there are scores of young and brilliant men who have carried the pioneer work of their elders to its natural conclusion, and gone far to re-establish English architecture on a logical and national basis. Much remains to be done, especially in the larger field of town-planning and civic architecture, where this country lags behind the Continent; but the driving power must come from an enlightened public opinion. The present need seems therefore to spread, as widely as may be. the knowledge of what is being done to-day. In the long last, every movement which has a claim to endure must have a sound economic basis. It is idle to ignore the fact that there still prevails in some minds the idea that "an architect's house" is necessarily a more costly matter than "a builder's house." In every case therefore where the information was available, not only the total cost of the house has been given in the following pages, but also the price per cubic foot. The latter method of calculation has not been adopted with any idea of instituting comparisons between the work of one architect and another, and, indeed, any such comparison would be futile and mischievous. It may be well to set out here how a cubic-foot price is calculated. The usual way is to take the height from the top of the foundations to halfway up the roof slope where there are no rooms in the roof, and to two-thirds the way up where the attic is utilised. This dimension multiplied by the length and breadth of the building gives its cubic content. Assuming, say, fifty thousand cubic feet, and a total expenditure of one thousand two hundred and fif...

Excerpt from Small Country Houses of to-Day, Vol. 2 My present subjects are grouped with reference to the traditions which inspired them. The simpler vernacular work comes first, and the changefulness of modern eclecticism is seen through various types and roughly in the historical sequence of their anti-types until the presentation of the later classical tradition is reached. It is the manner of some books on domestic architecture to discuss qualities of design and to illustrate them by buildings which yield apt examples of the writer's theses. I have taken a house rather than an abstract quality as the basis of each chapter, and let its main characteristic suggest a line of thought. The method is discursive, even disjointed, but at least it has the advantage that the reader may skip a chapter without breaking the thread of any argument. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

“Gardens for Small Country Houses” is a wonderful guide to English country gardens by Gertrude Jekyll and Lawrence Weaver. It offers useful information and guidance on designing and creating beautiful country gardens with reference to real examples, complete with descriptions, photographs, ground plans, and diagrams. This volume will appeal to those with an interest in traditional English country gardening, and it would make for a fantastic addition to collections of related literature. Contents include: “Millmead, Bramley, Surrey”, “Two Gardens in Forest Clearings”, “A Garden in Berkshire”, “Westbrook, Godalming”, “A Garden in West Surrey”, “Highmount, Guildford”, “The Treatment of Small Sites”, “On Hillside Garden”, “Steps and Stairways”, “Balustrades and Walls”, “Climbing and Other Plants”, etc. Gertrude Jekyll (1843 – 1932) was a British garden designer, horticulturist, photographer, craftswoman, artist, and writer. She is responsible for designing and creating over 400 gardens in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States, as well as writing more than 1,000 articles for related magazines. She is credited with having had a significant influence on gardening by both British and American enthusiasts. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new introduction on the history of gardening.