May, 19 2 3 
51 
TERRACES FOR OUTDOOR LIVING 
The Livable Possibilities of the Terrace Make It More 'Than 
a Mere Link Between the House and Its Immediate Garden 
MATLACK PRICE 
sounding one than “back” or “rear”.) To 
a lover of gardens, the real “front” of the 
house is the one overlooking the garden— 
the entrance front doesn’t matter. In the 
case of the large house the terrace is almost 
a necessity in effecting an easy relationship 
of the great mass of the building with its 
site. The terrace is like a setting—it elim¬ 
inates any awkward joining which might 
exist between the house and its garden. This 
is a function of the terrace, however, which 
is no less to be reckoned with in the small 
house, or the house of moderate size. 
There is another point about 
a terrace which should at once 
explode the old connotation 
that it is a thing belonging 
only to the great estate. The 
smaller the house, the more 
real need it has of a terrace, 
for the terrace adds usable 
floor area, usable area for 
living and entertaining. And 
descending to business termi¬ 
nology, and even to the danger 
of being accused of a weak 
pun, it can be said that this 
increased underfoot area is 
a d d e d without increased 
“overhead”. For the terrace 
has neither w r alls nor roof, and 
if it is built properly, it adds 
no maintenance cost to the 
house. Its cost, varying with 
its material, lies mostly in its 
foundation, but even this cost 
is not comparable with its 
manifold addition to the coun¬ 
try house in terms of pleasant 
living. The smaller the house, 
the more reason to have an 
added room which is as big as 
A terrace that opens di¬ 
rectly off the house has 
the. advantage of an archi¬ 
tectural background, as for 
instance, where the iron- 
railed balcony helps create 
the setting for willow fur¬ 
niture and formal benches 
F OR some reason, too obscure to fath¬ 
om, the terrace seems always to come 
into the plan, if at all, after every¬ 
thing else has been provided for. It is 
as though it were somehow in the ornamen¬ 
tal luxury class with garden pavilions, 
fountains or swimming pools, although its 
addition to living in the country should 
place it among the first considerations. 
Not a great deal needs to be said about 
its architectural aid to a house and garden 
plan, for it is the obvious link between 
indoors and outdoors. It is connected with 
the house by its foundations, 
and it is connected with the 
garden by the sky and by 
flowers to both. Consequently 
the terrace is at its best when it 
partakes somewhat of the char¬ 
acter of both, being less formal 
than the house but more for¬ 
mal than the garden. 
and Maxfield Parrish stairways—and you 
decide to have a porch. 
But the terrace is no such formidable 
affair: it can be domesticated more easily 
than some other features of spacious plans, 
and can be made to more than justify itself 
as a practical addition to the grounds, as 
well as an almost essential element of de¬ 
sign. 
It is true that most large houses with 
gardens have a terrace on the “garden 
front”, or rear of the house. (The English 
term of “garden front” is a more pleasant 
With a terrace you do not 
step abruptly from the house 
into the garden, but make the 
transition more comfortably 
and easily. From the house 
you step outdoors, yet do not 
seem to entirely leave the 
house, and from the vantage 
of the terrace you look out up¬ 
on the garden, and, if the 
weather and the ground under¬ 
foot are propitious, you step 
down among the paths and 
grass plots and flower beds. 
Some elusive connotation in 
the word “terrace” conveys a 
quite fictitious and unfounded 
idea of grandeur and this idea 
may have banished the terrace 
from many a modest plan. 
The word “terrace” often as¬ 
sumes, in the mind, a magnif¬ 
icent imaginary plural in 
“terraces”, immediately con¬ 
juring up a vision of vast es¬ 
tates, with terraces leading to 
more terraces, marble-walled, 
Perretr 
