Buildings- A Manifestation of the

Intangible Mores
 Abstract

Architecture is not merely about the need for shelter or a built space. Its scope lies
beyond the necessity of a functional building. Architecture represents tradition. It subsumes our
ways, beliefs and history. It takes one on a telltale ride and brings about conceptual
understanding clubbed with an amazing sensuous experience.

Architecture is a mode of expression, communicating to the soul and to the mind. The
sight of quaint structures compel one to think about architecture as-‘a way of thinking’. They tell
a story. Architecture conveys a captured ideology and holds a deep rooted understanding. It
combines aesthetics, vernaculars, technologies, topography and economy to blend them into a
single edifice that stands as a representative of that epoch.

Architecture is shaped by the essential or characteristic customs and conventions of a

place or an era. Based on logic, this art form combines beauty and humanism, entwining them
elegantly to depict an allegory. It helps recapture the bygones. It articulates history and
symbolizes a deep relationship with it. A timeless design is built on intangible factors such as
traditions and socio-cultural practices. Buildings are not just meaningless structural forms, they
transcend material quiddities. The architecture reflects values and notions. It shows genuine
respect for the mores, for people and for their beliefs.  It is therefore a practice that accents and
restores.

This can be very well noted in the buildings designed by Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens. He
distinguished architect, who artistically incorporated traditional architectural styles that befitted
the time and place wonderfully. Studying his philosophies, one can arrive at a coherent
understanding of how buildings define a purpose. They evoke a specific functional reaction in an
organism.

He had an unparalleled vision that led him to display the prevailing intangible mores
through buildings. His buildings conveyed a lot. They were fashioned preserving their purpose,
upholding the place’s integrity and accentuating the heritage and the culture. He was one of
Britain’s most respected and versatile architects, famous for his country houses, designed at the
turn of the century, his public monuments, war memorials and his pivotal role in creating New
Delhi’s grand administrative center.

Keywords

Traditional architectural styles, mores, vernacular, customs, intangibles, manifestation,

architecture, heritage, history.
 Introduction

Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens’ architecture is an epitome of expression. His design

philosophies and practices truly represent how lifeless built forms can be used to communicate to
the masses. His claim to fame was designing houses in the Arts and Crafts style of the late 19th
century. Discrete and huge and, yet tender and warm, he designed houses in Surrey, where he
grew up. His unique houses were known as “Surrey vernacular” and were marked by low-
pitched roofs and tall chimney stacks. He had studied architecture at what is now the Royal
College of Art in Kensington, central London after which he set up his own practice in 1888, at
the age of 19. Crooksbury House, his first commission, close to Farnham in Surrey, was
tremendously appreciated. It sprouted a superb career that spanned more than half a century.

At present, a part of Crooksbury House, which was split in two in the 1970s, is on sale
for the first time in 20 years together with another house by him, the Fig Tree Court, a seven-
bedroom property. The house incorporates examples of his distinct style that accentuated his
taste for cultures. It was largely remodeled by him a decade after its construction such as beamed
and vaulted ceilings and paned windows contravening a structural corner. Its interior features
finely worked cabinetry and paneling, and large fireplaces. The first-floor balcony has unusual
metalwork embellishments that owe their presence to the Arts and Crafts style that was prevalent
in Britain. His designs, adhering to that style are very well fashioned and make great use of
space. He also paid attention to joinery details to bring an overall effect of the style.

At the onset of his career, Lutyens co-worked with Gertrude Jekyll, a horticulturalist
known for her conscientiously planned cottage and enclosed gardens, and mild colour schemes.
The duo collaborated on many commissions, even in the design of Jekyll’s own house, Munstead
Wood, near Godalming in Surrey. Typically, Jekyll would use drifts of colour within boundaries,
often mapped out by Lutyens. Wood End, constructed with Bargate stone and has six bedrooms,
a meticulously paneled entrance hall and a staircase that is considered as one of Lutyens’ finest.
There are also distinctive fireplaces and barrel-vaulted ceilings. It is known to have the best
examples of Lutyens’ features.

From the early 1910s Lutyens expanded his architectural practice to include reputable
public and commercial commissions. The Whitehall Cenotaph, the Trafalgar Square fountains
and the Viceroy’s Palace in New Delhi are his most internationally remarkable works; the most
notable being the Viceroy Palace, that was commissioned by the British Government in 1912
which is now known as Rashtrapati Bhavan. It has features of traditional Indian architecture,
such as intricately carved stone screens known as jalis, rooftop chattris, or canopied structures. It
reminisces the era of the British Raj whilst acknowledging the Indian terrain on which it stands.
It is a beautiful manifestation of the culture that existed.
 Lutyens also designed the garden front at Sandwich in Kent, popularly known as The
Salutation whereby he conveyed its language really well- even better than the Victorian
architects who asserted that they had its right. The residence is built in brick and has elaborated
corners with stone quoins. It has a large roof that is hipped and has huge chimney stacks.
His design was a weekend retreat, enabling the residents to relish both the countryside and the
coastal air.

Lutyens seemed to have acknowledged the Queen Anne style of architecture of the
seventeenth century due to the design’s elegance, picturesque appearance, and unpretentious
exterior that displayed values and was a reflection of the tradition. It alluded to an architectural
style that was introduced into Britain by William of Orange. His structure combines both beauty
and humanism to depict an allegory by entwining them gracefully. His lifeless building spoke
multitudes and defined the contemporary times. It represented the Dutch gabled style of the time
when they were at the zenith of their prosperity and power. The house represented the new found
wealth of the British middle classes, increasing decency and an appearance to suit the newly
acquired style of its owners.

It is an amalgamation of architectural styles, incorporating a tinge of Dutch, a little

Flemish, a touch of Adam, a generous dash of Wren and even a speck of French. He blended
these disparate architectural styles to create a homogeneous structure greatly crafted to
artistically emanate the vibes of different cultures. The garden was ubiquitous with shrubs and
herbaceous plants and its brick paths were made soft by covering them with herbs. The garden
consisted of lupines, lavenders, lilies and delphiniums which appeared directly in contrast to the
regular garden laying schemes prevalent in Victorian times. Lutyens and Jekyll’s design of
houses and gardens were composite, and derived their ideas, style and taste from a broad and
diverse range of sources. They were constructed of vernacular materials. Lutyens also designed a
garden bench for contemplation that gained a lot of fame.

Edwin Lutyens was focused on bringing to light the concept that a house and garden
complement each other. In the bedrooms designed by Lutyens for Folly Farm, he designed
cupboards of massive joinery to reveal wash basins of the latest design.
His designs were accepted but discreet which highlights his art of representing the intangible
mores.
 Overview

The memorials designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens’ define him as a thoroughgoing architect
who could disrobe his structures bare to express the sorrow and desolation. He designed banks
and even houses for bankers; he constructed the British ambassador’s residence in Washington
DC; he built a castle; and he built the capital of colonial India known as New Delhi.

His aim while designing Delhi was to symbolize the majesty and glory of the British
Empire that prevailed. He worked with Herbert Baker to procure a plan for the capital city, from
the best customs of the European renaissance and was revitalized by a detailed design of
plantation comprising of cherry picked varieties of indigenous trees and greenery. The buildings,
complexes, roads and their compounds were laid out according to pure standards that befitted an
imperial city.
Lutyens’ Delhi is a representative of an exceptional heritage and along with it, unravels a ride of
discoveries in which the past blends with the present and is jutted into the future. The rich
overlay of traditions, architectural styles and ethnicities of Delhi are unparalleled even by
magnificent cities like Athens and Rome. The architecture endeavors to make Delhi a tale of
many cities that comprise of histories.

In spite of being commissioned to design in different places of the world, the mindfulness
and civility we get to see in his works is appreciable. All his structures are designed conserving
that place’s integrity and culture. His designs appear impressive and beautifully engulf the
customs, the traditions and the past.

His designs give us a glimpse of the most befitting structures that could exist. He is also
known to be radical and conservative, in a unique way, both at the same time. His houses exhibit
a coziness inspired from the Arts and Crafts style, and are known by their inglenooks and their
scenic composition. All his structures are deliberately created rather than arising naturally or
spontaneously to look as if they have always been there. They blend superbly with their
surroundings. Yet the Thiepval Arch by him in northern France which is a memorial to soldiers
killed in the Battle of the Somme is severely bare in appearance having voids rather than
volumes. He has represented loss in a very profound and contemporary expression that is
impossible to imagine.
 Conclusion

Edwin Lutyens had mastered the art of switching styles and scales effortlessly and
wonderfully that he was never an easy professional to pin down. He is described as the first great
British architect of the modern age, despite the fact that all his structures had an historical flavor.
He was notable because of his being adaptable to versatility and the gamut of his inventions
along traditional realms.

Lutyens’ buildings portrayed the customary genre. His designs were a product of the
cliché and conventions of that place. He rationally combined all aspects to depict a time frame.
His buildings are hard to ignore. They are wonderful personifications of tales that recapture the
obsolete in an intriguing manner. They revolve around the past and symbolize its profoundness.
Yet, his designs are timeless. Their foundations are constructed on intangible factors such as
traditions and socio-cultural practices and that is what adorns them with eternal attributes.

His buildings signify a purpose. Their reach is far beyond ephemeral signatures. They are
an embodiment of values and notions and show tenderness for the mores, for people and for their
beliefs.