• Complain

Gustav Stickley - More Craftsman Homes

Here you can read online Gustav Stickley - More Craftsman Homes full text of the book (entire story) in english for free. Download pdf and epub, get meaning, cover and reviews about this ebook. year: 2012, publisher: Dover Publications, genre: Home and family. Description of the work, (preface) as well as reviews are available. Best literature library LitArk.com created for fans of good reading and offers a wide selection of genres:

Romance novel Science fiction Adventure Detective Science History Home and family Prose Art Politics Computer Non-fiction Religion Business Children Humor

Choose a favorite category and find really read worthwhile books. Enjoy immersion in the world of imagination, feel the emotions of the characters or learn something new for yourself, make an fascinating discovery.

Gustav Stickley More Craftsman Homes

More Craftsman Homes: summary, description and annotation

We offer to read an annotation, description, summary or preface (depends on what the author of the book "More Craftsman Homes" wrote himself). If you haven't found the necessary information about the book — write in the comments, we will try to find it.

Gustav Stickley (18581942) leader of the American Arts and Crafts Movement, publisher of The Craftsman, writer, innovator, and famous furniture manufacturer created designs for a new form of American home. Based on beauty, simplicity, utility, and organic harmony, these designs were to have lasting impression on the shape, look, feel, and rationale of American domestic architecture.Many of the features advocated by Stickley exist today: split-levels, semi-partitions, an integration of structure with natural surroundings, and the primacy of form following function. Here, in 345 crisp black-and-white illustrations, are 78 authentic Mission style dwellings. These are the plans that Stickley himself approved reprinted directly from the original 1912 publications and include illustrations of the exteriors and interiors, floor plans, elevations, structural suggestions, landscape designs, and Stickleys own inimitable comments.Deeply influenced by the English Arts and Crafts Movement, especially the writings of John Ruskin and William Morris, Stickley rebelled against the outmoded architectural traditions of the Victorian age. Instead of creating rooms that were a series of separate cells, he proposed letting one living area flow smoothly into the other; instead of imitating the styles of 19th-century Europe, he proposed an original and vital American style, all the while searching for a new vocabulary of exterior and interior design. His method was the simplification of architectural space and the elimination of superfluous ornamentation; his aim was a harmonious blend of utility, economy, and aesthetics.The ideal of the Craftsman home was an honest and beautiful building, well planned for efficient use of space and materials, built to last several generations, and within the means of the average family. Craftsman architecture adhered to four basic principles: a style of building suited to the ways people actually lived; having the best structural outline and the simplest form; made from materials that belong to the countryside in which the house was built and in harmony with the landscape; and rendered in colors that please and cheer. For Stickley, the true beauty of a building was not a matter of decoration a something to be added but was inherent in the very lines and masses of the structure itself.This excellent republication of Gustav Stickleys More Craftsman Homes affords a fresh look at an influential and thoroughly American style of design and construction. Todays architects, designers, decorators, and collectors of Americana will find in the text and illustrations of this volume sufficient information and insight to appreciate the Craftsman home, the Craftsman idea, and that innovative spirit who made it possible, Gustav Stickley.

Gustav Stickley: author's other books


Who wrote More Craftsman Homes? Find out the surname, the name of the author of the book and a list of all author's works by series.

More Craftsman Homes — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "More Craftsman Homes" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

Reset

Interval:

Bookmark:

Make
Table of Contents A WORD ABOUT CRAFTSMAN ARCHITECTURE F ROM the - photo 1
Table of Contents

A WORD ABOUT CRAFTSMAN ARCHITECTURE

F ROM the beginning of my work as a craftsman my object has been to develop types of houses and house furnishings that are essentially cheerful, durable and appropriate for the kind of life I believe the intelligent American public desires. It comes to me every day of my life that a home spirit is being awakened amongst us, that as a nation we are beginning to realize how important it is to have homes of our own, homes that we like, that we have been instrumental in building, that we will want to have belong to our children. And, of course, this means that the homes must be honest and beautiful dwellings; they must be built to last; they must be so well planned that we want them to last, and yet they must be within our means. The delusion that a really beautiful home is within the reach of only the very rich is losing ground, as is its sister delusion that only by the slavish imitation of foreign models is aesthetic satisfaction to be achieved. People are also awakening to the fact that beauty in a building is not merely a matter of decoration, a something to be added at will, but is inherent in the lines and masses of the structure itself.

The point of view of the New England farmer, whose instructions to the architect were: Ill build my house, and you fetch along your architecture and nail it on, is no longer typical. Today if you find a farmer who is thinking about building a home, the chances are that he and his family and the town builder spend a lot of evenings around the farm dining table, poring over plans and blue prints, and probably sketches which the farmer himself has made. There is no suggestion about an Italian villa or a French chateau, but the farmer is probably saying, We want a large room to live in; we want an open fire in it because it looks cheerful and the children like it; we want a kitchen that my wife wont mind working in, and we want the house light and warm and pretty. This is a great change from the old days, and is in line with the theory on which Craftsman architecture is founded,namely, a style of building suited to the lives of the people, having the best possible structural outline, the simplest form, materials that belong to the country in which the house is built and colors that please and cheer.

The Craftsman type of building is largely the result not of elaboration, but of elimination. The more I design, the more sure I am that elimination is the secret of beauty in architecture. By this I do not mean that I want to think scantily and work meagerly. Rather, I feel that one should plan richly and fully, and then begin to prune, to weed, to shear away everything that seems superfluous and superficial. Practically every house I build I find, both in structural outline and in the planning and the adjustment of the interior space, that I am simplifying, that I am doing away with something that was not needed; that I am using my spaces to better advantage. All of this means the expenditure of less money and the gain of more comfort and beauty.

It is only when we to an extent begin at the beginning of these things that we come to know how much that is superfluous we have added to life, and how fearful we have been to be straightforward and honest in any artistic expression. Why may we not build just the house we want, so that it belongs to our lives and expresses them ? I have, all too slowly, begun to realize that it is right to build houses as people wish them, to cut away ornament, to subordinate tradition, and to put into the structure and into the interior finish the features that the occupants will find comfortable and convenient, and which almost inevitably result in beauty for them. It seems to me that every man should have the right to think out the plan for his house to suit himself, and then the architect should make this plan into a reasonable structure; that is, the outline should be well-proportioned and the different parts should be brought together so that the structural perfection will result in decorative beauty. If, added to this simple reasonable structure, the materials for the house are so far as possible those which may be found in the locality where the house is built, a beauty of fitness is gained at the very start. A house that is built of stone where stones are in the fields, of concrete where the soil is sandy, of brick where brick can be had reasonably, or of wood if the house is in a mountainous wooded region, will from the beginning belong to the landscape. And the result is not only harmony but economy. Why should the man who lives on a hillside bring brick from a long distance when the most interesting of modern dwellings, the log house, is at his hand ? Or, if the brick could be had from the kiln a few miles away, why seek logs which are made expensive by the long freight haul from far-away mountains, and which would not seem in any way harmonious with the country where trees are scarce ?

Once having settled upon the style of house which must suit the lie of the land and the happiness of the owner, the arrangement of floor spaces is next in significance. First of all, do away with any sense of elaboration and with the idea that a house must be a series of cells, room upon room, shut away from all others. Have a living room, the great room of the house that corresponds to the old great hall of ancient dwellings. This space is the opportunity for people to come together, to sit around the fireplace, for there must always be an open fire. It is the room where people read or study or work evenings, or play or dance, as the case may be,the place where the elderly members of the family will have the greatest comfort and contentment, and where the children will store up memories that can never die. This great room must be well lighted, it will have groups of windows that furnish cheerful vistas in the daytime, and it must be so planned that seats or divans circle the fireplace and bring, by the very structure of the house, the family into intimate, happy relationship. It is wise, of course, that the entrance to this room from out of doors should be through an entry way or vestibule, in order that drafts may not be felt and to furnish coat room and opportunities for the putting aside of heavy wraps, umbrellas, etc. This should be borne in mind especially in cold climates where the whole comfort of the room may be sacrificed to a too abrupt connection with out of doors.

In the planning of this first floor and the adjustment of the spaces I have as few entrances and doorways as possible. They are expensive; they use up space, prevent a look of coziness and lessen the opportunities for building in of interesting fittings. It is also economical and picturesque to group the windows, and always the built-in fittings, the bookcases, the corner seats should be adjusted to the light from the windows as well as the fireplace. But here, as in the outside structure, I find the process of elimination must be always borne in mind. I do away with everything that does not contribute to comfort and beauty. This is a safe rule. The charm of the living room can be greatly enhanced by the alcove dining room, a greater sense of space is added and all the things that are put in the dining room to make it beautiful contribute to the pleasure of the people who are sitting in the living room. Also, the pleasure in the dining room is enhanced by glimpses of the living room, its spaces, its open fires, its grouped windows. This does away also with one partition; it furnishes opportunity for the interesting use of screens, or for the half-partition, on top of which may be placed lines of books or jars of ferns, not expensive ornaments for the house, and adding greatly to the beauty of color and to the homelike quality.

Next page
Light

Font size:

Reset

Interval:

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «More Craftsman Homes»

Look at similar books to More Craftsman Homes. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.


Reviews about «More Craftsman Homes»

Discussion, reviews of the book More Craftsman Homes and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.