II. Some Forms of Plan

In making the plan for a house it will be necessary to banish from one’s mind the conception of its interior as a mere group of isolated compartments, and to think of it rather as a central room surrounded by subordinated ones, some of which may in many cases form either recesses in the central apartment or communicate with it either by folding or sliding doors. In a house of average size it has been suggested that this central room may often be made two storeys in height, thus giving a large central air space and counteracting any feeling of confinement which might be experienced in a house where all the rooms should be as low as possible.

In economic building it will be wise to make the house itself of simple rectangular form, covered with a single span of hipped roof. A plain house is not necessarily an ugly house, and thus simplicity of form coupled with good proportions and unbroken eaves lines will often be more telling in its effect than unsuccessful attempts to achieve the picturesque. The site when this is much restricted will determine to a great extent the form of the house plan, but in cases where the conditions are fairly liberal it may be a question as to whether the plan should be square or long and narrow. The square J house is warmer, as there is not so large a proportion —’ of outside walls. It also covers more space with an equal amount of walling than the longer type of plan.

But it does not admit of a long south front, and so its rooms are not so sunny. Generally speaking, it is best to follow a middle course and to make the house long enough to secure a south aspect for the principal rooms, and wide enough across to keep the rooms with not too much exterior wall, and so to secure as far as possible the advantages of both types of plan.

In order to get that low snug effect which is so characteristic of the old English house, and which always seems desirable and appropriate in the country especially, the eaves of the roof are sometimes brought down to about the window sill level of the upper rooms, making the bedrooms partly in the roof. This may be desirable in certain cases, but as a rule it is better to keep the eaves at such a height that they are unbroken by the windows, and thus secure a simple outline and a larger attic space, which whether developed or not into rooms is always useful as a possible means of extension.

In departing from the rectangular form of plan, the first step consists in making an L-shaped plan by adding a projecting wing at one end, and this is often a very suitable form for a small house, while a further development of this is the T-shaped plan. If this form is then made symmetrical by adding a similar wing to the opposite end of the main roof and perhaps by also adding a central projecting porch the form arrived at would be as shown in Fig. 6, and this is often to be found in old English manor-houses, while a further extension of this form leads to a house built round a court (Fig. 7). Another form of plan which is without precedent in the past but yet has some special advantages is that shown in Fig. 8, and which is described fully later on.

In all these forms it will be observed that the form decided on for the ground plan involves at once the plan of the roof, and these two factors of ground plan and roof plan are the primary factors in designing a house.

Next to them the most important consideration is the height of the ceilings and the number of storeys; and in order to secure the horizontal proportions which are generally desirable, it is important that the ceilings should be as low as possible and the house not more than two storeys in height. The larger the house the less difficulty there is in this matter, as the extension of the ground plan makes the horizontal dimensions preponderate even with high ceilings; but in small houses, unless the ceilings are kept low, it is best to give up the horizontal idea and to accept verticality as the characteristic of the design, although in the country especially this alternative.

Conditions of plan and the desire to achieve picturesque arrangements of roofing will often lead to more complicated outlines in the form of the house, though they will generally be traceable as developments of the types I have sketched. The success of such schemes will mainly depend on the balance of the roof plan and the satisfactory grouping of the masses of house from all points of view. It will also depend on the extent to which is an undesirable picturesqueness appears to be the outcome of practical requirements, rather than a quality pursued for its own sake.

In the consideration of house plans there is a tendency to consider only seriously the large house on the one hand and the labourer’s cottage on the other; but, as I have already pointed out, the house which the average citizen requires has hardly met with the attention it deserves, while its plan is the outcome of a tradition which belongs essentially to the large house. The study of house planning, it is contended, may best be approached by considering the central type of plan required for the ordinary type of house, and showing how this may be expanded into the larger house and contracted if need be to its minimum dimensions. It is suggested that the hall as the central focus of the house would, in most cases, persist through the whole scale from cottage to mansion, and that changes in plan will chiefly consist in the modification of subsidiary apartments, the rooms required for the various members of the family, the guests and the servants. The family group, consisting of the parents and children, will demand for its members, besides the necessary bedrooms, &c., private sitting-room for master, mistress and children, while the accommodation for servants and visitors will vary in direct ratio to the size of the house. A reduction in size from a central type of plan will involve the elimination of separate private family rooms, in which case it is desirable that the bedrooms in some cases should be specially adapted for use as bed-sitting-rooms.

As the house expands in size, and includes the almost continuous presence of guests, the central hall with its adjoining rooms become more public in their character, so that separate suites of rooms may be required for family and guests, while the servants’ quarters become correspondingly increased and subdivided. These large houses, however, are not possible for the average man; and these and the labourer’s cottage represent the extremes of a scale of building of which the central type is the house of average size for more than which few should seek, and which it should be the triumph of the architect to make as perfect as restricted conditions may admit.