HOUSE AND GARDEN 
August, 1912 
venture and fresh design of our 
times. Hand-made brick has an 
interesting uneven surface and a 
happy color quality caused by the 
way it deflects the light, which 
make it eminently satisfactory even 
in the common bond and give it 
richness in the various combina¬ 
tions of its headers and stretchers, 
de Basel, one of the best of the 
modern architects and a man with a 
fine genius for original design, has 
made bricklaying, as it used to be 
in the great Dutch past, an intricate 
and exquisite art. Not that a de 
Basel house calls aloud for atten¬ 
tion. His walls are so quiet that 
their beauty of detail only reveals 
itself upon close inspection and 
otherwise blends into a 
harmonious and homoge¬ 
neous whole. For the 
most part, our develop¬ 
ment of detail such as this 
has not kept pace with 
our general progress in 
domestic architecture. We 
are too much given to 
conventional ornamenta¬ 
tion and to the copying of 
detail. We have much to 
learn from an enthusiasm 
for original design like 
de Basel’s. 
The tendency of our 
American house plans 
with their realization of a 
large living room and 
their growing unity of 
composition has been ex¬ 
cellent, but it is much to 
be hoped that it will not 
too early crystalize itself 
into a few set forms. 
Take, for instance, the 
house with the hall in the 
center, a large oblong 
living-room on one side, a 
dining-room on the other, 
and all connected bv large 
openings. Good as this 
plan may be for the needs 
of some families, it be¬ 
comes conventional as 
soon as it is generally and 
unthinkingly adopted as 
the fashion of the mo¬ 
ment. For the very ex¬ 
cellency and charm of a 
floor plan depends upon a 
recognition of the individ¬ 
ual needs and habits of a 
family and upon the 
architectural imagination 
fittingly and beautifully 
to interpret them within 
the usually necessary lim¬ 
itations of a purse- or lot-bound 
number of square feet. With all 
the differences between our domes¬ 
tic customs and those of Holland, 
the new Holland homes have so 
much individuality and so much 
variety that they can well be stimu¬ 
lating to us. In the homes we 
visited even the conception of the 
functions of a living-room was so 
various that not only in their fur¬ 
nishings but in their very shape and 
position referred to the rest of the 
house, no two living-rooms seemed 
alike. In the Roland-Holst house, 
for instance, the living-room with 
its sunny walls and white wood¬ 
work, with its arched window nook, 
its settle window seat, its double 
doors upon a vine-clad 
veranda, owed a great 
part of its charm to the 
way it added the pleasure 
of dining to the other less 
specialized uses of a liv¬ 
ing-room. In many small 
homes, a large living- 
room is possible only by a 
combination of this kind, 
but it is also a happy so¬ 
lution where the owners 
are people who want to 
combine a delightful in¬ 
timacy of home life with 
varied public interests 
that bring a host of 
callers to discuss matters, 
or where professional 
careers need a separate 
working study. In the 
Roland-Holst house, for 
instance, there is a large 
study with an interesting 
window looking out upon 
the back garden, and near 
the front entrance a re¬ 
ception room for callers, 
called the conversation 
room. Such a room is, of 
course, not to be con¬ 
founded with the recep¬ 
tion room we still see, that 
is a survival of gilt and 
parlor ornament, a kind 
of lingering tribute to the 
false gods of social ambb 
tion ; but it is a practical 
little room with a hospit¬ 
able air and gracious ar¬ 
rangements. a charming 
little place that is fur¬ 
nished with as- much gen¬ 
uineness and sincerity and 
with as full a measure of 
utility as the rest of the 
house. 
Of course, the Dutch 
The simplicity of this sitting-room fireplace and mantel 
harmonizes with the plain pine wainscoting 
The woodwork of the living-room in the Roland-Holst house is white and the 
double doors open directly on the veranda 
The charm of the living-room shown just above is enhanced by the adaptation 
of a well-lighted nook to dining purposes 
