ARCHITECTURE 



323 



ARCHITECTURE 



Surely, then, there is no greater field for archi- 

 tecture than in home-building, and yet it is 

 only within the last generation that the art 

 and science of home planning has developed. 

 In earlier years kings had their palaces de- 

 signed by architects, and rich men imitated 

 them; but splendor and magnificence were 

 commonly sought rather than true charm. 



To build a home in this age without the 

 aid of an architect is only a little wiser than 

 to attempt to make one's own automobile. 

 This does not mean that the architect is to 

 be given an order for a house and the owners 

 must accept whatever he chooses to give them. 

 A home, to be enjoyed to the utmost, should 

 be an expression of its owners' thought. Per- 

 haps the master of the house would like* his 

 library arranged in just such a way, and the 

 mistress is longing for a certain kind of kitchen 

 and many closets for clothes and linen, and 

 both have definite ideas about a porch, a fire- 

 place or a sun parlor, and many other details; 

 but if they attempt unaided to combine their 

 ideas in one structure they find the task most 

 difficult. Or, perhaps they have admired cer- 

 tain houses which they have seen, but have no 

 very exact notion of their wants. In either 

 case a good architect can soon find the way, 

 if there is any, to embody the dreams of his 

 clients, besides adding many conveniences 

 which they never would have suggested, thus 

 making the whole structure quite unlike any 

 other, a "thing of beauty," which, says Keats 

 in Endymion 



"Is a joy forever; 



Its loveliness increases ; it will never 

 Pass into nothingness." 



The services of an architect are not beyond 

 the purse of anyone who is building. Usually 

 lee for designing is only six per cent of tin 

 cost, and for supervising construction an addi- 

 tional four per cent. Thus one who plans to 

 spend $2,000 on a little home may have expert 

 hi lp for $200, and if the architect is competent 

 he will save more th.m this amount in con- 

 urn costs. 



Architecture Old and New. Most of us know, 



u we see a buildmu. \\!n tli- r it pleases or 



displeases us, but few of us can t. II irfcy, To 



-> and i 

 a knowledge < renders a struciun 



ikea it ofiYnd tin- \, . we must 

 study the story of architecture. When we 

 learn how men have gradually approached a 

 knowledge of true beauty we shall gain ; 



,,it knowledge for ourselves. In so doing 



we shall add greatly to our enjoyment of good 

 architecture, for our eyes will be opened to 

 many beautiful things which we have never 

 before noticed. 



Early Efforts. It is in the cradles of civiliza- 

 tion, Egypt, Assyria and Babylonia, that we 

 find the first successful attempts to give beauty 

 to the work of the builder. The tombs and 

 temples of ancient Egypt, some carved out of 



EGYPTIAN TYPE OF ARCHITECTURE 

 The temple of Edfu, begrun 237 B. c., by one of 

 the Ptolemies. 



the solid rock, others formed of massive blocks 

 of stones, are silent testimonies to the aspira- 

 tions of a race which believed in the endless 

 life of the human body as well as of the soul. 

 They have a dignity and an air of eternity 

 unequalled by any other works of man. Both 

 carving and color added to their charm, but 

 the heavy walls and close grouping of columns, 

 the flat roofs and the predominance of straight 

 lines give them a depressing solemnity. All 

 of these features will be appreciated after a 

 study of the pictures of the ruins of Karnak 

 which appear in the article EGYPT, and of the 

 illustration here shown of the temple of Edfu. 



Many centuries before civilization in tin* 

 Nile valley reached its height, the Babylonians 

 and Assyrians developed an architecture which 

 resembled the Egyptian only in its straight 

 lines and flat roofs and massive walls. The 

 Assyrians had little stone, the Babylonians 

 none at all, and neither had timber. Sun-di > 1 

 brick was th. u building material; with it they 

 erected huge palaces with walls often thirty 

 feet thick and usually no farther apart, roofed 

 with primitive vaults. The rooms were hinh- 

 ceiled, long and narrow. Windows were im- 

 possible in walls of such depth, so there could 

 be no second story to shut off light from 

 above. Decoration was gained with glased 

 til--, painting and carving. 



"The Glory That Was Greece." Of the many 

 debts which architects of the last two thousand 

 years owe to their fellows of ancient Hellas, 



