October, 1910 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
23 1 
the advocate of the Italian 
villa type. He says in effect 
that we for various good rea¬ 
sons should build houses hav¬ 
ing broad, simple wall sur¬ 
faces, penetrated by openings 
which balance well, but need 
not of necessity be obviously 
symmetrical, and that for the 
sake of unity we should have 
broad, overhanging eaves and 
simple, low-sloping roofs. He 
then proceeds to show that for 
reasons of economy such wall 
surfaces can be easily and 
beautifully made in plaster. 
His deduction is that we 
should therefore employ the 
Italian style which makes use 
of all these things. If we 
grant that these things are 
desirable and that they pro¬ 
duce “style,” a logical deduc¬ 
tion would be that we should 
have them ; not necessarily that we should have “Italian” build¬ 
ings. If the result, after we have employed them in our design 
prove similar to the Italian villas, well and good, but it is im¬ 
portant that the horse be kept in front of the cart and that we 
strive for style in the abstract, not for English or Dutch or 
Italian style, not even for American style — consciously. 
The real question is “What is Style?”—not “What Style?” 
If we are successful in determining what this elusive quality is, 
then the way to get it will be the next object of our search and 
will be, perhaps, not difficult to find. 
All arts are alike in that the common end and aim of each 
is the weaving of a pattern. The pattern to be woven in the 
designing of a house is one of forms, lines, colors and textures; 
relating, repeating and contrasting one with the other, creating 
rhythms, directions and accents. Without these rhythms and 
accents, without 
the pattern, the 
w ork remains 
m ere building. 
Style is the rela¬ 
tion of these rhy¬ 
thms and accents, 
one to the other, 
to create a pat¬ 
tern ; the relation 
of form to form, 
color to color, 
texture to tex¬ 
ture and each to 
all creating one 
definite expres¬ 
sion. 
Style is syn¬ 
thetic, and the 
architect, taking 
rooms, halls and 
staircases, ar¬ 
ranges them in 
sequence accord¬ 
ing to their use 
and importance; 
and in the rearing 
of their walls, floors and roofs, 
relates planes, solids, voids, 
lights, shadows, textures and 
colors so that each gives to 
each an added and enriched 
meaning and expression. A 
window designed essentially as 
a device for letting light and 
air into a room becomes, by 
reason of its proportion and 
placing, a shadow in contrast 
to a plane of light, an accent 
or a note in a rhythmic scale, 
a line of direction or a spot of 
decoration according to its ar¬ 
rangement. The delicate ad¬ 
justment of part to part, each 
comely in itself, the intricate 
interweaving of texture, form 
and color to produce a web or 
pattern at once logical and in¬ 
teresting : that is style in archi¬ 
tecture. Simplicity of style is 
desirable if we have a right 
understanding of the word. The simplicity of the side of a 
grain elevator is not in itself admirable, but the simplicity of 
a flower is lovely; that simplicity which attains the highest degree 
of elegant and pregnant meaning without obtrusion. Let us say 
an interesting simplicity. In architecture there is a fatal tend¬ 
ency to consider style an affair of columns, cornices, doorways, 
etc., of low roofs and high roofs, of brick walls or plaster. A 
much more intelligent view-point is necessary if we are ever to 
outgrow the hit-and-miss results that now make our streets a 
hodge-podge of incongruities, each swearing at each. It is 
doubtful if we shall ever again have any great uniformity of 
type such as has in given places and times produced marked 
and recognized styles. Altered conditions have altered our ar¬ 
tistic ideals and expression. The development and growing 
independence of the individual call for a more various expres¬ 
sion, but it is not 
inconsistent to as¬ 
sume that a 
growing intelli¬ 
gence on the part 
of the individual 
will ultimately re¬ 
sult in an artistic 
expression richer 
in variety and 
still possessing 
unity commensu¬ 
rate with an even 
development of 
the individual 
unit. Such a style 
will be the out¬ 
growth of democ¬ 
racy. 
To apply these 
definitions and 
principles to 
house building, 
let us consider an 
entire property as 
the home, part 
under roof and 
A bedroom in one of Mr. Griffen’s houses showing the effective use 
of leaded glass in the windows 
The garden front of one of Mr. Frank Lloyd Wright’s houses, where the window-boxes have 
been made an important architectural feature 
