Chapter 1 of 24
Tigbourne Court, 1900, Edwin Lutyens
I talked before of the amazing period of industrial invention and expansion that centred on the decade of 1850 to 1860, and the way that William Morris' Red House of 1859 can be seen as a reaction against that industrialisation and wealth; a romantic search for a simpler, more rural, less ostentatious way of life: and of architecture - or as they preferred to describe it "building". This slide is a picture of a house built in 1900 - Tigbourne Court by Edwin Lutyens - and it shows you the three-gable roofing device that we studied in Philip Webb's house at Joldwynds, now carried to a highly sophisticated level, carried also to a rather luscious and sometimes superfluous level. Notice that the three gables have been altered, so that there's a smaller one in the middle, and that the two side ones are drawn down to create the roofing system that makes the forecourt that leads you into the house. Notice also that Lutyens feels quite free to reintroduce touches of classical architecture in the Doric colonnade that makes the entrance. Lutyens was essentially an eclectic architect who would pick up on motifs as and when he found them enjoyable or suitable. He was also an energetic inventor of his own motifs. Notice the way that the two chimneys are placed at the ends of the gables that create the forecourt so as to make a kind of portal or portico to take you into that forecourt. It doesn't bother me much but many people are upset by the fact that the chimneys on the left are fake.