German Houses and Gardens 
A WALL AND GARDEN HOUSE IN AN 
UNAFFECTED STYLE 
perhaps a trip to some watering-place in the 
summer. The question comes to us, when 
we look at these two houses side by side, 
how it is possible that there are people 
who prefer this artificial, dishonest Swiss (?) 
cottage to the former, simple and yet so 
poetic houses without any aimed-at style. 
One asks oneself, how it is possible that 
the good old houses disappear and in their 
place we build such horrors ? Again and 
again we are led to demand in the most 
energetic way an education for art, whereby 
an education for art does not 
mean anything else than educa¬ 
tion to see. The worst evil is to 
be found in the fact that people 
who have grown prosperous try 
now, as in olden times, to build 
houses for themselves, where they 
can enjoy their riches ; they feel 
a longing for artistic beauty but 
do not know how to satisfy it. 
They feel as if they ought to 
escape from the monotony of their 
existence and the emptiness of 
their every-day life into such a 
house. And still there does not 
seem to be any other way for them 
and their bad advisers, — which 
are in Europe the operative build¬ 
ers, — than to dig into the styles 
of past times instead of looking 
for the need of the present. 
They believe that their lives will 
become artistic if they live in a 
house with a gothic tower or 
Roman columns supporting the 
windows or Doric columns carry¬ 
ing a balcony upon which they 
may take their afternoon coffee. 
But these people forget that all 
beauty in a house consists in the 
harmony of the outside and in¬ 
side, and that there is no absolute¬ 
ly beautiful building in existence 
which does not conform to its 
own true purpose. The Par¬ 
thenon of ancient times were no 
longer beautiful if it were built 
for the merchants of a small town 
to use as a bourse The modern 
locomotive, moreover, which 
simply answers practical require¬ 
ments and has no ornament whatever, repre¬ 
sents a high conception of beauty. just 
because this inner beauty, this harmony, was 
present in old buildings, we contemplate 
with real enjoyment the simplest and most 
unpretentious little houses of the past. 
Another illustration is of little village 
houses consisting of only a ground floor and 
an attic. In the center of each is the door, 
on the right and left windows, without orna¬ 
mentation and with white shutters. The roof 
is covered with shingles, which by the winds 
AN ATTEMPT AT A “NATURAL EFFECT” 
IN STONEWORK 
I36 
