The Modern Home
Tendencies and Progress
Tire issue of The Studio Year Book of Decorative Art for 1931 gives us a convenient opportunity for examining the tendencies and promo of what is called the " modern movement " in domestic architecture and decoration. In this country it has not yet found more'than a fraction of the popularity it enjoys on the Continent"; and we may, perhaps, be thankful in some respects that this is so; since there are already signs of a certain reactinn_ against its more _extreme productions. The .idea of a home as " a machine to live in," and nothing more, ' was never likely to find lasting support in any but the very young or earnest ; and the tenets of the Corbusier school, having served a valuable purpose in breaking new ground (as do all extremist movements), are likely to suffer considerable and increasing modification in the future. If our insular conservatism has spared us some of the wilder extravagances, we should not let it prevent our making steady progress along the lines which have now been very fairly mapped out by others.
The determining factor in modern architecture is the changed function of the walls. All through history, until our own times, these have served primarily as supports for roof and floors, and any interruptions in their surface for doors and windows have been at the expense of the whole fabric. Modern methods of construction have changed this. The entire weight of floors and roof is now borne by a framework of steel and concrete, and the walls may almost be said to be hung round as a screen against the weather. The two principal results of this are that there is no longer any limit to the amount of wall-space that can be given to windows, and that the logical form for a roof is flat. These are the features which first strike us when we come to 'examine a house of modern construction. On the question of greater window-space--at least in temperate climates—architecture and medical science are at one ; the only limitations are aesthetic and economic—since more windows mean greater expenditure on heating in cold weather. The first manifest- ation of this extra window-space--the provision of yards of " strip " windows along the sides of a house--appears to be succumbing under pressure of both aesthetic and practical considerations to the newer fashion of designing much deeper windows, reaching, in fact, to the ceiling. This is not only a more acceptable form when viewed either from inside or outside the house, but the greatly increased illumination of the ceiling and the avoidance of dark corners give a feeling of space and a lack of oppressiveness much to be desired. On the question of flat roofs one cannot speak so decisively.
So far as the town house is concerned, there is little to be said against them : the problem of composing a rectangle or series of rectangles into urban surroundings is one with which every town architect is already familiar ; moreover, the extra space afforded will probably be more and more welcome as the growing purity of our city air makes the roof garden a less smutty retreat. But in the country, trees, hills, the horizon itself tend to show up the flat-roofed building as an intruder. It can be done, of course. There is an illustration on page 11 of the volume under notice, which shows how well the gaunt lines of a Yorkshire landscape are matched by a house of this type ; there is a concrete villa at Cap Martin too, on page 27, which juts pleasantly from the cliff like some well- ordered outcrop. But, on the other hand, page 33 gives us a house and a hunting lodge near Berlin which, in spite of their individual charm, appear—and will seemingly continue to appear—excrescences on the countryside. . • . . •
I lately talked with a man who has been to Austria to inspect some of the modern houses which appear so intriguing in what few photographs reach us. His comment was that, in almost every case, the photographer seemed to have chosen his posi- tion with rare skill : from most other points the appearance of the majority was disappointing. One must discount the effect of what is still almost stark novelty—though he was a thoroughly sympathetic observer ; but the style is still young, and it seems evident that as yet it has not nearly realized its possibilities. There is no doubt that increasing familiarity
with the type will bring a solution to the problem—perhaps along the lines of a greater variation of roof levels or the provi- sion of side wings leading the eye up to the main building. But either of these expedients would seem bound to add to the cost—and yet another difficulty confronting this method of construction is that, in this country at least, the older system is still the cheaper.
In the furnishing section, this year, as in previous years, the most noticeable feature is the absence of any ornament other than that proVided by the nature of the material itself. With this, and largely as a consequence, we find a wide increase in the variety of materials used. Not only is the old range of woods being rapidly extended by the advent of newcomers with such exotic names as bubinga, holdu, amboyna, zebra- wood and so forth, but with them we find increasing use made of steel, zinc, tin, monel metal, glass and aluminium. Nor can one find any good argument against the employment of metals in this way. On the contrary, there is something:very pleasing in the different qualities of surface obtained and in the contrast of their restful smoothness with the grain of the wood. Restful, beeause we find them in the plainest forms only : flat, tubular or cylindrical—and never ornamented. Chromium plating is by no means the only finish (as those who base their ideas of modern furniture on " The House of the Future " seen at Olympia a year or two ago might suppose). It suffers the disabilities of all plating, and is over-bright for some tastes. These latter can already: find satisfaction in surfaces ranging from a more satin quality almost to roughness ; and as growing production continues to bring down the price of stainless steel it seems probable that chromium will be largely superseded.
The tubular metal chair has plainly come to stay ; and this is as it should be Of all forms of woodwork chair-making has always been the widest straining of the nature of the material. As evidence of this one has only to note that it is quite beyond the powers of the average cabinetmaker to build a really good chair : it is a task for , the specialist. Those four long legs, dependent for their rigidity on a joint at one extreme end, preseat a pretty problem ; and even if it be simplified by the addition of stretchers, one still feels that some other material should be capable of doing the job more simply. This the metal chair does. Once the eye has grown accustomed to the absence of back legs, there is something definitely charming in the rather swan-like line of the standard metal chair. ` It looks inevitable and right ; and when one considers that it has the further advantages of being both cheap and comfort- able, it is clear that its progress is not to be stayed.
Of the glass-topped, steel-framed table I cannot speak so surely. I have seen examples which undoubtedly possessed a certain Charm*; but it seems' doubtful whether the eye can ever be completely satisfied by a form which insists on revealing the other side of itself. Viewing the entire frame through the glass top gives one a slightly uncomfortable " X-ray " feeling. The use of obscured glass would do away with this objection ; but one might then say : " Why glass ? " And, in any case, there remains the fact that glass offers air unpleasantly inelastic surface on which to put anything down, and is also cold to the touch. On the whole, I am inclined to think that it will find its fullest use in other departments of the home.
The reader of The Studio Year Book will find plenty of evidence, pictorial and type-set, on which to judge this and other problems of modern decorative art. It includes sections on British Domestic Architecture, Modern Exteriors, Interior Decoration (much French, little British, and, of that, little that is essentially modern), Furniture (here we :do better), Rugs and Hangings, - Lighting' and Heating, Pottery, Glass- ware, Decoration and Ornament—a comprehensive seven- and-sixpenceworth. The production is excellent, and the way in which certain blocks are set right up to the edge of the paper, without margin, deserves mention as being extremely effective and almost new in this country. One hopes that the book will stimulate intelligent interest in its subject.
G. M. BOUMPTIREY.
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