House and Garden 
OUR FOREIGN EXCHANGES 
r I r HE younger architects of Germany, with 
some of theirelder brethren, are making 
a determined stand against the dry rot of 
pedantic classicalism which, for several gen¬ 
erations, has sapped the vitality of their 
native art. Some of them, in desperation, 
have cast in their lot with the extremest 
school of /’ art nouveau. Others less des¬ 
perate or more discerning have sought in the 
quality of picturesqueness the desired anti¬ 
dote. An excellent example of this latter 
type is shown in the accompanying illustra¬ 
tion of a recent Berlin residence to which 
additional interest is lent by its somewhat 
unusual site and the skilful adaptation of 
the garden plan to the house. 
The front of the house is about 200 feet 
back from the street and the long approach 
is separated from an adjoining property by a 
decorative wooden fence masked to some 
extent by shrubbery, with a grass border on 
either side of the gravelled pathway. As may 
he seen from the plan of the site, the property 
is really a back lot of a long and irregular 
shape. The house is approached from the 
north and the principal living-rooms have 
been developed on the opposite side; the 
north being reserved for the kitchen and 
minor service rooms. To gain the greatest 
appearance of seclusion the house has been 
placed as close to the northern boundary as 
possible, and the large entrance hall or music- 
room with its piano, and a north bay window 
giving a through draft, confronts one imme¬ 
diately on entering. Adjoining, but not 
directly communicating, are the kitchen and 
pantry, and these look out solely upon the 
kitchen yard or hof. This latter is very 
cleverly placed with reference to the house 
itself, the entrance, and the lot as a whole, 
since while convenient as to location it is 
absolutely suppressed in the general scheme 
of the garden, and remains effective but 
invisible. 
Beside the reception hall there are but two 
principal familv rooms on the ground floor— 
the dining-room and the living-room—the 
latter of irregular shape and nicely differ¬ 
entiated to the daily needs of both Herr and 
Frau. All three of the more important 
rooms on this floor have an ample outlook 
southward over the garden, whose extremest 
boundary lies about 300 feet distant. The 
irregularity of the boundaries has been taken 
advantage of in the disposition of the general 
part of the garden—the flower beds, the play- 
PLAN OF THE 
GARDEN SHOW¬ 
ING THE RELA¬ 
TION OF THE 
HOUSE TO THE 
FRONT BUILD¬ 
ING AND THE 
STREET 
92 
