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equation of the human being plus his environment. We vary according to our 

 hereditary and in our individual inclinations; and our environment furthermore 

 varies our opportunities. But there is much common ground, and much that is 

 tangible and definable. It is hoped that at least in these physical and tangible 

 aspects, design may be somewhat explained and defined. 



For the sake of convenience in discussion, some classification of the various 

 kinds of estates, according to their size and situation, will be arbitrarily made. 

 Although one should realize that almost every property is in a class by itself and 

 is therefore also a law unto itself, there is sufficient similarity in most of the 

 narrow city lots, for example, to permit of their being regarded and discussed as a 

 group. Another group would include those of wider frontage. A classification 

 will therefore be made, as follows: first, narrow city lots with houses of like 

 widths, solid blocks, semi-detached houses (double houses), and detached 

 houses with some side-yard space but insufficient for a side-yard court or garden; 

 second, average suburban lots with frontage two or three times that of the house 

 front and therefore sufficient for some side-yard feature; third, country cottages, 

 whose lots are apt to have a frontage greater than their depth; fourth, some 

 type of farmstead. 



A comparatively level area of ground will be assumed in order that the problem 

 may be simple and the explanation not unnecessarily complicated. Fundamental 

 principles of the arrangement clearly suitable for flat ground will, in a later 

 chapter, be discussed in their relation to more varied topography. If, from the 

 simple examples used at the beginning of this study, the underlying principles 

 may be clearly understood, it may later be possible to adapt them and to vary 

 them intelligently in the modelling of rough or irregular land. 



