Houses And Cottages Of Britain: Origins and Development of Traditional Buildings (Building Heritage) 2000

by Dr R.W. Brunskill
 PAMPHLET
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 The hqusesin this pamphlet are not meant to serveas
models. They are presentedcollectively in order to illum-
inate a cultuial and architecturalInlerrelationship. lgth
century interest in typology was a product of the belief
that there could be a universal theory of architecture
which would apply to all buildings,in all places.for all
times..This investigationseeksto use typology in a more
modestway within a relativeview of culturc. In America,
for example, there is the ideal that each human holds the
rights of equality. Within this conceptual setting, there
emergesa strugglefor each being to expressindividuali-
ty. The housesof sucha cultural milieu are theretbrecon
ceived from more than the context of a specific region or
neighborhood-they are conceived, as well, from an ab_
stractconceptin the mind. Suggestingan abstractcontext
and an unconsciouslogic behind the derivation of these
houseforms is more the intenthere than presentingmodel
house of definitive causation. With this in mind, the
houses selected strain the academic sense of the word
"type.'
The housescollected here exhibit a simplicity and in-
teg ty ofconstruction and expressionwhich link them to
modem architecture.The materialsofconstruction retain
a visible and tactile connectionto their natural state.Or
nament is sparseand directly relatedto the craft of work-
ing the materialsin which it occurs. Henry Glassie, wbo
hasextensivelyanalysedAmerican folk housingin sever-
al excellentbooks has observed:"The folk designeranti-
cipatedby nearly two centu es the Bauhausmaster'scall
for architectural honesty, for adherenceto impersonal
type forms and the rejection of omamentalobfuscation."
Glassieilluminatesthe dominanceofgeometrical ideasin
the silent artifacts of indigenousrural housesthe way a
composer/analystmight discover the fundamentaldotted
dancerhythm or the structureofmelodies with imperfect
cadencein a folk song.
The links between modem and folk architectureare
comparableto thosebetweenmodem and folk music and
the latter were observedby modem composerssuch as
F
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Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly. In architecture,as wellas
in music, fom, rhythm, proportion and mathematicsare
of elementary importance, suggestingthe possibility of
comparablemethodsof study.The work ofcomposer and
musicologistBela Baftok providesan exampleof a meth-
od ofobservation similar to that used in this study: when
Bartok tnveled over the Hungarian countrysidecollect-
ing folk music, he had in mind notjust the contemplation
of the peasant's"pentatonic scalewithout semitones,"or
the "isometric versesof four lines-" Bartok was intercsted
in the permeationof modern music with genuinepeasant
muric Speal'ingol thi. he\^roter"we areconcemednot
only with achievementsofpurely scientific issues,but al
so those which have a stimulating etfect on composers.
According to the natural order of things. practice comes
before theory."
In this brief study, the houses are airanged rn two
groups: rural and urban. The rural group examinesvari
ous house forms built on rural landscapes.The urban
group studiesthe relationofthe houseto the largerpattem
of the city. whereas the latter condition dependson the
contiguousinterlocking of houseswithin city b)ocks and
streets;the former relies on the relationshipof the house
to the earth and the sky. on an unspoiled perspectiveof
hilis and treesrevealingthe isolatedevent ofa house.
,fn the collection ofhral houses,the variety of types
shalrecommon principles: l) a recurring plan/section
schemataas the primary character.regardlessof applied
stylistic treatment;2) adherenceto geometricsymplicity
from overall massto elementssuchas porches.windows
and doors; 3) proportion of detail to mass, renderingde-
tail subordinateto mass;4)ornamentationwhich is direct-
ly developed frcm craft, constructionand the nature of
materials..
'in
the collection of urban house types, the common
principles are: I ) definition of a public streetor place; 2)
three types of walls: public sfteetfacades;party or blind
walls: and walls intemal to the block orcourtyard) 3) rela-
tronlo an overallcil) planor morphology
DOUBLEHOUSE

Double housesor semi-detachedpairs of housesoccur

frequently in Toronto. These houses are clearly urbanl
their nearly contiguouscharacter(usually four feet apart)
createsa boundary of public street space.The front and
back facadesare differentiated(public facade, backyard
facade)while the walls perpendicularto the streetaresim-
ilar to the typical blind party walls of row houses- As
Ceorge Baird has pointed out, "In the case of semi-de-
tached houses . . . the sides are differentiated between
the party wall and the open side but are equivalentto one
another."

Ceda. Avenue, Philadelphia, Pa.

Ccdar Alenue, Philadelphia. Pa.

Cedar Avenue. Philadelphia. Pa.

40
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'p3poldY. esnoq.tqnoq
ROWHOUSESGROUP
Row houses with each house exhibiting a different
characlerare typical in many North American cities. A
more unique type is the row housegroup.
When a few contiguouslots. lessthan an entire block.
are combined into a row housegrouping. compositional
rhythms emergein Ihe group. For example, in the Victor
Falkenau houses in Chicago, Louis Sullivan combined
threenearly identicalplansto get an A-B-A readingolthe
composition of three houses. In another group of row
housesin in Chicago, Frank Lloyd wright combinedfour
houscsin a singleyet individualized grouping AAAA.

Robe W. Roloson Holses- Chicago. 1894

Frank Lloyd wright. Archilcct.
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 Fl ReadingP
. ennsylvania

R e a d i n SP
. ennsylvania.

41
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with grossdecorativeelements,obliteratingoverall form.
The self-confidenceofthe American settlersto take an
unprecedentedcoursewas a quality of dispositionwhich
carriedinto their architecturc.Invention for the carpenter-
architect did not mean concoction of strangeformsi the
square,the triangle, and the circle are primary geometries
which were combined and recombined. However, tradi-
tions of style and old wotld types were often willingly
transformed or abandonedas other types emerged. For
example, Fowler's Octagonhouseand his manifestolike
book is fullofthe innovationsofits time: centralheating,
speakingtubes, running water, etc. The fact that such a
little book could inspireover 1000consffuctionsexempli-
fies the culture's willingness to embrace new ideas
Changing forcesdirectly transformedhousetypes. In the
caseof the Highway housetype,the invention of the auto-
mobile gave birth to it, and the developmentof modem
freewayseliminatedit. Thesehousespresentthe notion of
typology not as a method for citing precedentbut as one
for studying causeand effect.
ln these houses,the whote is always greaterthan the
parts.This architecture,at its most elemental,is massIine
and space organized through adherence to tyPe and
geometry.The elementalhouseis not madesignificantby
decorationwithrepresentationalsymbols;itbecomesrep-
resentationin its totality. Adherenceto the schemataof
plan/sectionand geometric form, especially in the rural
house, projects the entire house as representation.An
appliedrepresentationalfacadeto an amorphusentity will
seldombe found.
54
In the caseofcontiguous urbanhouses,the facadeis part
of the definition of the street.The facadeis a public repre-
sentationbackedby a geometricallysimple plan delimit-
ed by the overall urban pattem. There are three separate
wall conditions: facade. blind walls and court or rear
walls which are unifiedby plan and section.Unity oftype
binds the partsofthese housesinto a greater,if more am-
biguous, meaning-
The characte stics manifestedin thesehousesare the
result of the carpenter-architect'scarrying out of an un-
compromising realizationof an intuitively held goal For
us, such a goal must be held conceptually.A clear archl-
tectural idea, frankly stated,is analogousto the intuition
which set the path for the carpenter-architect.In today's
circumstances.where numerous individuals work as a
team to achievea construction.a unified resultdemandsa
clearly statedconcept.
The carpenler.architecl'.adherencelo tlpe and
geometry was a silent expressionof values which tran-
scend the merely fashionable. The symbolic power of
thesebuildings standas amute argumenttothosechampi_
ons o[ the academicwho rejectvemacularconstruclion\
as without text and theory and therefore irrational and
meaningless.As a cultural expression,thesehousesare
part of an elementarystock of forms in which coherence
and emotionalfeeling can be detected;which istosaythat
they exhibit theory in the same sensethat Cassirer re-
ferred to when he wrote, "All intuition is bound up with
theoreticalthinkine."