HOUSES AND GARDENS 



to those in their rear, but gradually as these are pushed and hustled forward 

 they reach the same standpoint and recognise the truth of the picture. 

 Architecture as expressed in house building and adornment is like all human 

 affairs, necessarily in a state of flux to live is to advance ; and so, while holding 

 fast that which is good, let us still hope for that which is better, and not let 

 our admiration for past glories blind us to the undreamed possibilities of the 

 future. 



CHAPTER TWO 



SOME FORMS OF PLAN 



N making the plan for a house it will be necessary to banish 

 from one's mind the conception of its interior as a mere 

 group of isolated compartments, and to think of it rather as 

 a central room surrounded by subordinated ones, some of 

 which may in many cases form either recesses in the central 

 apartment or communicate with it either by folding or sliding doors. In a 

 house of average size it has been suggested that this central room may 

 often be made two storeys in height, thus giving a large central air space 

 and counteracting any feeling of confinement which might be experienced 

 in a house where all the rooms should be as low as possible. 



In economic building it will be wise to make the house itself of simple 

 rectangular form, covered with a single span of hipped roof. A plain house 

 is not necessarily an ugly house, and thus simplicity of form coupled with 

 good proportions and unbroken eaves lines will often be more telling in its 

 effect than unsuccessful attempts to achieve the picturesque. The site when 

 this is much restricted will determine to a great extent the 

 form of the house plan, but in cases where the conditions 

 are fairly liberal it may be a question as to whether the 

 plan should be square or long and narrow. The square 

 house is warmer, as there is not so large a proportion 

 of outside walls. It also covers more space with an equal 

 amount of walling than the longer type of plan. 



But it does not admit of a long south front, and so its 

 rooms are not so sunny. Generally speaking, it is best 

 to follow a middle course and to make the house long 

 enough to secure a south aspect for the principal 

 rooms, and wide enough across to keep the rooms with not too much 

 exterior wall, and so to secure as far as possible the advantages of both types 

 of plan. 



In order to get that low snug effect which is so characteristic of the old 

 English house, and which always seems desirable and appropriate in the 

 H 



