XXXI. The House in Relation to Its Site

If God has made the country, then may God / At least complete the country house; / So let the humble artist stand aside.

Prepare the canvas and the palette set / For those sure hands / Which touch by touch add purple to his roofs,

And clothe his walls with woodbine and with rose.

The success of the artist in house-building will largely depend on his faculty for recognising the demands of the genius loci. Robert Louis Stevenson, in his “Gossip of Romance,” has shown how the aim of the writer of fiction should be to fit to a particular place its appropriate story, to make the right thing Happen m the right place, and so satisfy the imagination of the reader. And so the architect must try to express in his building the spirit of the country-side. So far from forming the blot on the scene which the modern country house or cottage so often is, it must be, if possible, an added beauty, appearing to interpret and explain the character of the surrounding country, and supplying that human note without which its appeal would be less intimate.

To explain this relation between the house and its surroundings, one must turn to the old buildings, and think first of some village in Kent or Surrey, with its cluster of purple roofs ana timber-framed walls. There is no inharmonious note here, unless it be the modern board school, or a few smug modern villas or cottages. Or again, let us visit, in imagination, a Wiltshire village where the straggling cottages which line the wide High Street are all of pearly grey. And here perhaps the sole discordant note may be a modern arrangement of red bricks and tiles. Or, if we go further north, we shall find in a rugged mountainous district houses and cottages which express the same stern qualities as their neighbour hills. Again, in a chalk district, such as Norfolk for instance, we find that the presence of beds of flint in the chalk causes them to be used for building the walls. And so these old villages constitute a kind of geological map of the country. Much of the appropriateness of the old buildings to their positions was due no doubt to this use of the local materials. The stone house was thus of the very stone of the hill out of which it grew, so that it became difficult to realise where man’s work began and Nature’s ended. Or the timbered structure was framed from the trees of the forest near which it stood, and in its curved braces and massive corner posts still there lingered some hints of the forms of the branches from which they were hewn. The step from Nature to building was a short one, and the materials were not subjected to the iron rule of the factory to lose their characteristic qualities under the steam saw and planingmachine. Not only were the conditions more favourable to the retention of local character, but the builders themselves were unconsciously closer to Nature and were almost as much a part of their natural surroundings as their buildings were. Their conceptions were the unconscious result of long hours spent in the open fields, and not the conscious and fantastic imaginings bred in offices and factories. And so it will generally be found that communities based on agriculture are usually characterised by buildings in harmony with Nature, while round the factory building becomes mean and sordid.

Modern facilities of transit, as well as the artificial conditions of modern life, the influence of machinery on the modern workman and his materials, as well as the growth of the commercial spirit are the main causes which have destroyed local character in modern building, and so on the bleak hillside we find the machine-made half-timbered picturesque villa showing in its rugged environment like a child’s toy which has been left out in the rain. The town encroaches on the surrounding country like the spreading of some foul disease, and in the wildest and most picturesque scenery the traveller’s enthusiasm is checked by the fatal glimpse of a desirable residence “pricking a cockney ear” over the tree-tops. Building, no longer an added beauty to the country, has become a nightmare of ugliness from which there is no escape, and soon the pictures in the railway carriages will be the last surviving record of the beauty of the past.

In modern building, while we may well learn a lesson from the old work, in using local materials, it would be unreasonable to forego the opportunity modern transit affx)rds of importing materials which are more suitable for our requirements. Such importation, if judiciously effected, will not destroy the harmony between the house and its surroundings. It becomes dangerous when materials of an artificial character are imported to a district where the buildings are of natural materials. Stone, for instance, may not look out of place in a brick district, but it is not generally advisable to introduce a brick house into a stone locality.

It is desirable in country building to use materials which will colour naturally. Whatever artists we may employ to decorate the interior of the country house, it is well to invoke the aid of Nature in toning down its exterior till it harmonises with its surroundings and its walls are clothed with creepers. And so the materials for the exterior will be chosen with this end in view, and its tiles and bricks will not be selected for the smoothness of their surface.

In the town, on the contrary, this natural colouring cannot be included in the architect’s scheme, and everything will tend to become black and dirty. Whatever beauty its buildings possess must be of an entirely artificial character, and the beauty of the whole must depend on some definite and conscious conception which should include a colour scheme. There is little to cheer the heart of man in the dingy buildings of stone or brick which comprise the modern town.

In the country or suburban house it may be noted that the more formal its surroundings the more artificial the house may be. Its terraces and lawns, like the frame of the picture, will help to isolate it from the surrounding country. In fact, instead of making the house harmonise with Nature in this case, we make Nature harmonise with the house. It will still be wise, however, to make concessions on both sides, so that house and Nature meet each other half way. But for the small houses, at any rate, it has been shown that the formal type of garden may not be altogether suitable, and the house which springs directly from its natural surroundings must be more natural and less artificial in its materials and their treatment. When, however, small houses occupy restricted roadside sites, a degree of artificiality is necessarily introduced which may suggest a more formal character for the house and its garden. The choice between artificial and natural beauty will depend largely on the tastes of the individual. The first becomes reasonable wherever houses are grouped into communities, and the latter is desirable when they are built in the country, and the house will be judged not alone by its intrinsic qualities, but by the extent to which it adapts itself to its surroundings.

The position of the house on its site is a matter of primary importance, and too often the fatal mistake is made at the outset in this matter, in which, as in many others, the architect’s advice may be duly considered, but is only acted on when it agrees with the preconceived ideas of his employer. Too much attention is usually given to the question of view, for houses nowadays are commonly so designed that it is only possible to endure to live in their apartments by resolutely and constantly looking out of the window. In most cases the best view is the outlook on to the garden, and the plans illustrated show how, in the placing of the garden in connection with the house, special vista effects should be arranged opposite the principal windows. But in some situations the question of a more extended prospect must be considered. Let us assume the case of a hillside sloping to the south. Here in the old days it is probable that the house would have been built in the valley at the bottom of the hill, because the builders valued shelter and cared little about outlook. But in modern times the tendancy would be to place the house, if not on the hilltop, at least as near to it as possible, in order to get the most extensive outlook. In most cases it seems the wiser course to secure as far as possible both view and shelter by placing the house in such a case about half-way up the hill, so that the higher ground to the north shelters the house from cold winds and forms a fine background to the building, which rises above terraces formed in the hillside to the south. If the approach to the house is from a road which runs parallel to the hillside on the north side, the conditions will be favourable for the best possible arrangement of the grounds. It must not be supposed that the approach to a house from a higher level is necessarily undesirable. One catches then at first a glimpse of the building lying low amid its encircling gardens, giving an impression of sheltered homeliness which is perhaps preferable in some respects to the view from the valley, where the house is seen towering above its terraces. In discussing the question of steps and levels in the interior of the house itself this matter has already been mentioned, and here the same principles may be applied. It wiU be found that while the approach from a higher level suggests snugness and homely comfort in the house, in the approach from below these qualities are exchanged for dignity and impressiveness of effect. The distance of the house from the road is a question which demands careful consideration. In cases where the site is on the north side of the road, and the house must be approached from the south, the drive should be kept to either the east or western side of the site, and should be screened from the gardens opposite the south front. In such a case the conditions suggest that the house should be placed well back from the road, and the entrance to the house should be placed at the end rather than in the centre of the south front. But where the opposite conditions obtain, and the house is approached from a road on its north boundary, the house would then naturally be placed nearer the road to allow ample space for the garden opposite its south front. This arrangement is the best one for a country house, though the town-bred mind is apt to rejoice in making the approach to the house from the south, with the drawing-room bay window at the side of the front door. In cases where the road is to the east or west of the house the front entrance may well be placed facing the road, but the house should be kept to the north side of the site, so that the greatest possible space may be available to the south.

In thus fixing the position for the house on the site the question of aspect is here the main factor, but where the site is restricted it may be necessary to give up the idea of the south front overlooking the garden, and to be content instead with a garden outlook which faces west or east, bnt in such cases, wherever possible, windows to the south should be introduced to admit the sunlight. Special local conditions may often modify the principles advanced, but in most cases the question of aspect will be the dominant factor in determining the situation of the house.