A House and Garden in Poland

The house now to be considered is one designed for a site in Poland, where the rigour of the winter climate demands some modifications of the normal English plan. The chief of these modifications consists in the reduction of the windows as far as possible, and the construction of these with double thickness of glass with an air-space between, and also in the thickening of the walls, and by these means reducing to a minimum the influences of outside conditions on the internal temperature. It further became desirable to create an interior world which in its warmth and brightness would, to some extent, compensate for an enforced seclusion within its walls for half the year. A large floor-space and a somewhat irregular disposition of the apartments was specially desired so that the interior would be rich in pleasant vistas, and the occupants feel something of that sense of unconfined freedom which the rectangular plastered box cannot give. The plan which is illustrated shows but a modification of a scheme which was originally designed by my client with a view to realise such a spacious and unconfined interior effect.

In the scheme for the roof it became necessary to consider the question of snow and to avoid all internal gutters. The heating question is also an important one, and involves, besides the ample open fires, a complete system of hot-water heating.

The conditions under which this house is to be built are peculiarly favourable to that human expression in workmanship which, under modern conditions, it is so difficult to obtain. The brick for the walls are all made on the spot, and the timber for the trees felled in the neighbourhood. In the working of this timber it does not pass under the fatal rule of the steam saw and plane, and so the beams of the house seem still to retain some of their original characteristics, and are eloquent in signs of human handicraft. It is all the difference between the orange picked from its native tree and the orange bought from the greengrocer’s shop, and the associations of Nature still cling around the beams and posts in the house. In the effect of the interior it is the art of mere building which is principally relied upon, and posts, beams, braces and arches all contribute their aid to the whole constructural scheme.

The final notes of the general effect of the interior, which consists for the main part of broad spaces of creamy plaster with the grey-brown of timber, are supplied by brilliant concentrated notes of colour in heraldic decoration. In some of the rooms a more extensive use of superficial decoration is arranged for, and the bedrooms are each adorned with a special flower motif.

The scheme for the o-arden shown in connection with this house is based on existing features in the grounds surrounding a previous house, and also the natural levels, so that lawns and terraces can be formed without excessive cutting and filling. In thus modifying and developing an existing garden, impediments which one is apt to regard a little impatiently at first seem gradually, when the matter has been exhaustively considered, to become the means of realising unexpected effects, and like the grain of sand in the oyster, form the nucleus for what may at last become a pearl. As an example of this may be instanced the hothouse shown on the garden plan illustrated, a building of solid structure which could not be easily removed. Other and more vital considerations led to the placing of the new house at an angle which bears no definite relation to this building, and as the lines of the new garden plan necessarily followed those of the house, the hothouse seemed to become a discordant element in the scheme. A reference to the plan will show how, by the introduction of diagonal paths which follow the lines of the hothouse, this building is brought into harmony with the scheme, and the sketch of this portion of the garden shows that thus, from a given point of view, one may look along the lines of three radiating vistas—a special garden effect which resulted from the necessity for incorporating the hothouse in the garden scheme. An important feature in this garden is the circular drive to the north of the house where the horses may be exercised, aud viewed from the house or from the seats in the recess which forms the terminal feature to the main drive vista.

One of the principal factors which have governed the choice of the position for the house as well as the main lines of the garden has been the relation of both to existing old trees, so that they should so group themselves round the building and form points of interest in the garden so as to make it appear that the trees were a part of the general scheme.

So too the existing tea-house, by the extension of its verandah and the introduction of a little paved court in front of this becomes a terminal feature to one of the main vistas, and is brought into pleasant relations with the rose garden.

It will be noticed that this garden plan chiefly extends to the east of the house. This is owing to the fact that it is in this direction that the slope of the ground, which falls towards the lake to the south, is less steep. On the south and west of the house the ground falls rapidly, and here the principal feature is a pergola cut in the hillside and open on one side to the lake, the other being formed by a retaining-wall. This follows the natural lines ot the hillside round the south and west sides of the house, and connects the terrace below the lawn with a kitchen garden formed on the west side of the house. In this part of the garden plan is also included a broad flight of steps which forms a descent from the centre of the lower terrace of the house to the lake and boathouse.

Amongst other features of the garden scheme may be noted the maze, which occupies an irregular piece of ground, and the long flower garden adjoining this to the north.