CO-OPERATION IN BUILDING.
Asbeautiful as an old English village.” The phrase arrests our attention and calls up many a pleasant picture stored in our minds; but with the remembered beauty there comes too the associated sadness of something loved that is fast passing away. The picture we recall may be the view down some long wide village street bordered with clusters of cottages, some opening direct on to the roadside, some with their bright bits of flower border in front; here and there a break in the buildings is marked with the dark foliage of trees in a larger garden; a dignified forecourt with its iron railings reveals an old manor house, or a gate-way in a high wall overhung by elms leads to the vicarage; while at the street end where the road turns away is the lich-gate, leading to the church whose parapetted roof and slender spire rising far above all the surrounding buildings complete the whole group. Or maybe we picture to ourselves rather some village green, with the rows of sunny whitewashed houses, the barns and haystacks of an occasional farmyard, the end of an orchard, and the village school, that are gathered round it.
In such views as these there are houses and buildings of all sizes: the hut in which the old road-mender lives by himself, the inn with its ancient sign, the prosperous yeoman’s homestead, the blacksmith’s house and forge, the squire’s hall, thevicarage, and the doctor’s house, are all seemingly jumbled together; and mingled with them are barns and village shops, wood-yards and wheel-wrights’ sheds. Yet there is no sense of confusion; on the contrary the scene gives us that peaceful feeling which comes from the perception of orderly arrangement. This is the more surprising because the order is rather intuitively felt than seen or consciously realised by the beholder. It is due very largely to the beautiful grouping of buildings and roofs, a grouping which has come so inevitably that it seems as if it would be somewhat difficult to avoid it, or to utterly spoil it. Certainly where many buildings of various characters and sizes are gathered together, as in a village, a picturesqueness of grouping is rarely absent even when the individual buildings have in themselves no special beauty; and very often the introduction of one or two really ugly modern buildings detracts little from this particular charm.
The village was the expression of a small corporate life in which all the different units were personally in touch with each other, conscious of and frankly accepting their relations, and on the whole content with them. This relationship reveals itself in the feeling of order which the view induces. Every building honestly confesses just what it is, and so falls into its place. The smallest cottage has its share of the village street on to which the manor house also fronts. It is content with that share and with its condition, and does not try to look like a villa. It is this crystallisation of the elements ofthe village in accordance with a definitely organized life of mutual relations, respect or service, which gives the appearance of being an organic whole, the home of a community, to what would otherwise be a mere conglomeration of buildings. This effect is greatly enhanced where the central feature around which the village has clustered, the church, castle, or manor house, is of sufficient size and architectural interest to challenge comparison with the whole village rather than with the individual houses. The impressive pile of the old Priory as seen across the valley towering above all the other grey roofed buildings of the little town of Cartmel, is a fine example of this. The sense of unity is further increased in most old villages by a general harmony in colour and style of the buildings themselves, due to the prevalent use of certain materials, which are usually those found in the district.
In the modern building-estate all these elements of beauty are entirely wanting. The land is cut up into little plots all about the same size; these are sold to a chance collection of people who erect on them houses of any conceivable style, or lack of style; each deals with his own plot quite regardless of the others; and every house seems to be wishing to dissociate itself as much as possible from its neighbours, to look as distinct and imposing as it can. Ground enough not being allowed for each house to stand comfortably within its plot, such separation as exists only makes it possible for every house to block the view from some other, and easyfor the occupants to over-look their neighbours and realise their near presence all round to a maximum extent. No grouping of buildings is thought of nor any organized arrangement, beyond occasionally some feeble attempt at laying out streets; and it is rarely indeed that we seem able to erect a public building of any sort at all in scale with the extent of the surrounding houses.
To compensate for the loss of the interest springing from variety of grouping, a loss specially evident in the old-fashioned four-square suburban villa, an attempt is now mostly made to introduce some special features into each individual house, and so to create an artificial picturesqueness. This is not uncommonly done by needlessly cutting up the roof with turrets from which there is no outlook, or gables which serve no purpose except to provide an excuse for a little black and white half-timber work. A street of such houses is however even less satisfactory than one of the old square box houses, in that it is more artificial, and lacks a certain element of dignity which its predecessor often acquired from its very simplicity. In short, around all our towns are spread patches of villadom of the beauty of which no one can cherish any memories, but the ugliness of which causes them to be regarded by many with a cordial hatred; so much so that to the lover of natural scenery the commencement of a new house is regarded as a sure sign of the coming destruction of the old beauty.
Modern conditions of life and work are not conduciveto the production of great architecture, and it seems probable that we shall have to await some change in these conditions before much that is really fine in building will be accomplished. But in the simpler buildings required for domestic purposes there are marked signs of improvement. Already a few architects are meeting our wants without affectation or pedantry, but with simple directness and honesty of construction, and are producing individual buildings of great beauty; but so long as these remain isolated examples, mere units in a chance collection, they can do little to help the whole effect. The various buildings must be brought into harmonious relations one with another; the suburb or settlement must be conceived in some broader spirit and developed in relation to a definite idea of the whole, if any improvement is to be effected.
We cannot of course put back the hands of time, nor can we re-create the spirit which built the old churches that crown so many villages. The relationships of feudalism have gone, and democracy has yet to evolve some definite relationships of its own, which when they come will doubtless be as picturesque as the old forms. But allowing full force to these disadvantages, we could, if we really desired it, even now so arrange a new building site that it should not be an actual eye-sore, and might manage that it should have some little of the charm of the old village.
Thanks to the growth of taste among all classes of people there is springing up a demand forsomething of the kind. In all the large towns are numbers of people who hate the ugly & dreary life that they are condemned to live in them, who love the country and country life, and who will travel long distances to and from their work that they may be able to enjoy them. These people do not want to live in isolated houses, out of sight of their neighbours; they are townspeople of sociable instincts: but neither do they desire to live in a mere extension of the fringe of the town. What they really want are country villages, little centres of life large enough and varied enough to give them interesting human society and a few of the more necessary comforts of modern life, such as a post office, a railway station, efficient drainage and water supply. These people have many common interests, much that all would wish to preserve in a new home, as, for example, fresh air, and an open view of country that cannot readily be spoilt. Just such an amount of associated action as would ensure these advantages for them all, would suffice to give the sense of cohesion to the whole settlement which is so lamentably wanting when each struggles ineffectually to secure as much as he can of them for himself alone. With some co-operation the maximum of these advantages could be obtained for every individual house, be it large or small; without it none but those rich enough to purchase a large tract of country for themselves can be secure of even a limited share of them.
Within easy reach of large towns, estates & farms are constantly changing hands at prices little abovetheir value as agricultural land. Frequently we find the enterprising purchaser takes advantage of the demand for country homes: he spends a few hundred pounds in developing his purchase as a building estate, by making roads and laying drains; then he cuts it up into small plots and sells it at three, five, or even ten times the rate at which he bought it. If a few of those who wish to secure a country home were to purchase such an estate or farm among them, they could get all the advantage of cheap land themselves. If they were then to develop the site on co-operative lines, they could obtain many other equally solid advantages. The houses could be grouped together and so arranged that each would obtain a sunny aspect and an open outlook; and portions of the land could be reserved for ever from being built upon to secure these views.
See plates11,38and39.
The arrangement that should be adopted to obtain the best result, would depend entirely on the nature of the site. If it were on the ridge of some rising ground, probably the best plan would be to group the houses at each side of a good broad roadway, taking the wide village street as the suggestion; while on a good southern slope, the most successful plan might be to gather the houses and other buildings on three sides of an open space, adopting the village green as the model. Where the site was large enough, and the slope sufficient, a second green with its houses could be arranged, low enough not to obstruct the view from the upper one; or where two sides of a valley wereincluded, villages might be placed on each of the slopes, leaving the valley below for ever free to afford a pleasant prospect for each village. The particular arrangement to be adopted would be a matter for most careful thought, and no building should be commenced until some definite conception of what the completed village was to be like had been worked out. The sites for prospective schools, church, or other public buildings, should be reserved from the first, in accordance with the size to which the available land would allow the community to grow. The houses should be clustered together as much as possible, not set villa-wise each in the centre of a little plot. Some few houses of wealthier members could stand back in larger grounds, taking advantage of outlying positions or sharing in the common outlook as seemed best: their gardens and entrances would make pleasant openings in the buildings. But the majority of the houses should be gathered into groups, which would inevitably acquire picturesqueness from the variety both in size and form of the buildings.
A good number of the houses too might be open to the road or green. The unfenced common coming right up to one’s doorstep, always gives a charming sense of openness whether viewed from within or from without; a sense in no way diminished by the contrast that occasional fenced gardens or forecourts offer where the houses are set back somewhat. All sorts of individual tastes and needs would afford opportunity for obtaining variety:the one thing to be avoided at all costs would be the producing of anything like a street of detached villas.
The common insatiable desire for detachment is very remarkable; it appears to arise mainly from a resigned acceptance of the jerry builder’s party wall as the inevitable one. Everyone suspects a party wall, looks to hear through it his neighbour’s child in the dead of night, or his piano on a Sunday afternoon. Guarantee a sound-proof party wall, and few will be able to give any valid reason why there should be from ten to fifty feet of useless ground between every two houses. In a properly built house, one is really much less conscious of one’s neighbour, and much less over-looked by him, if his house is attached, than if it is a few yards away. Where it is desired, however, many minor devices, such as a highly walled garden or a covered-in yard, may be used with effect to increase the number of separate houses without destroying the grouping.
Artistically, the success of the plan would depend largely on the clustering of the buildings, the avoidance of mere rows on the one hand and of detached villas on the other. But, in addition, some controlling influence must maintain a certain degree of harmony. The use of local materials as far as possible should be encouraged, and the introduction of discordant colours or styles of building be prevented. The extremest degree of simplicity should be allowed, but anything pretentious, showy, or false, be rigidly excluded. Probably thisgeneral control could be best secured by giving to some architect in full sympathy with the scheme powers similar to those usually possessed by the agent of a large ground landlord, though exercised in the latter case more often to maintain the value of the property than its beauty.
The question of design in the individual building is one that cannot be touched on here, though obviously a matter of vital importance to the degree of beauty attainable; rather I seek to emphasize the great advance which is possible to us by a right use of such taste and designing ability as may be readily commanded to-day. So soon as the desire for some collective beauty in our buildings has been stimulated, the chief difficulty will have been overcome. If by some little co-operation we can arouse interest and pride in the matter, time will develop that collective appreciation of what is fitting, to which we must look for final success.
See plates36and38.
Association for mutual help in various ways is undoubtedly the growing influence which is destined to bring to communities that crystalline structure which was so marked a feature of feudal society, and the lack of which is so characteristic of our own. When our new settlements begin to feel this influence they will again take on some of the unity which comes from organic growth. And as this influence increases in force, and interest and thought become more and more centred in the communal institutions and buildings, so will these begin to grow in beauty; for the people will wish to adorn them. The beauty of the village and its publicbuildings will then become a first consideration, and the pride of the inhabitants will be displayed in these, not in the aggressive elaboration of their own houses.
There is the more hope of this because the practical advantages to be derived from such co-operation as suggested, are so great and obvious as to form just such a reliable basis of utility as is required for the healthy growth of art. Without going fully into this side of the question, a few of the more obvious directions in which co-operation could help people of limited means, after they had associated for the purpose of purchasing and developing their settlement, may be referred to. The improvement and use of the land not required for building purposes, by draining, planting of fruit trees, or the erection of a suitable dairy, would be one of the first and most important of these; this would secure a good supply of pure milk and fresh farm produce, and at the same time allow the open ground to be enjoyed to the full for recreative purposes. A laundry would be another enterprise specially easy to organize on co-operative lines, and even in a village too small to support a fully staffed laundry, it would make all the difference if everyone could have the advantage of a well appointed wash-house instead of having to use the ordinary inconvenient cramped scullery with no proper appliances. In a community where several business men daily journeyed to the town, a co-operative conveyance to and from the station could be arranged in connection with the farm, as could alsothe general carriage and cartage requirements. In providing education for the young and recreation for all, association would be invaluable; while it could easily be used as a means of buying, on advantageous terms, in large quantities, commodities which cannot economically be obtained in the country in small quantities, and of securing many valuable services for all which would be out of the reach of individuals.
It is of course not necessary that the first steps towards the development of such a building scheme should be taken by the prospective tenants. A landowner might well work on this line; he would find in it a means of adding greatly to the value of estates which might not be available for an ordinary building scheme. If he would lay out a plot of land and offer to all comers a site of such size as they wanted with sufficient open land between them and any future buildings that might block their view secured by perpetual guarantee, he would get plenty of applications even in positions that are not the most favourable. He could also, by building some houses of various sizes and carefully grouping them, give an example of the sort of building he would encourage, which would soon be followed. By retaining some control of plans for buildings to be carried out by others on his land, he would be able to secure a general harmony and a consistent development. He could too enlist the interest of his tenants or purchasers in the growth of the colony, and foster among them co-operative effort in that direction.
On the same lines, also, the state or municipal landlordmight relieve the over-crowding in towns by developing hamlets and villages in the out-lying districts wherever they had, or could get, suitable land. And even in the towns and immediately surrounding suburbs, much might be done to remove the dreary ugliness of the streets by the use of co-operation in building, and by the fostering of it in the occupants of the houses. The arrangement would need to be different for a town or suburb, where land would be costly, from that suggested for a village. For just as the price of land in the centre of cities regulates to a large extent the height to which it is profitable to carry up the buildings, so on the outskirts it must determine the area of land that can be allowed to each house. By co-operation it may be secured, however, that all the land which can be afforded shall be available to give air and outlook to all alike, while its actual occupation can be reserved for those who really want a garden.
See plates6 to 10, also34and35.
In the country we have seen how co-operation could give back to us some of the picturesqueness of old villages. In the same way it would add character and dignity to our towns, even to rows of cottages. What more satisfactory town buildings could one desire than some of the old colleges? Yet these consist primarily of rows of small tenements grouped round quadrangles or gardens with certain common rooms attached. The hall, the chapel, and the gatehouse, are prominent features; while the cloisters, where such exist, affordingcovered ways from the tenements to the common rooms, help to give a sense of unity to the whole. Why should not cottages be grouped into quadrangles, having all the available land in a square in the centre? Some of the space so often wasted in a useless front parlour in each cottage, could be used to form instead a Common Room, in which a fire might always be burning in an evening, where comfort for social intercourse, for reading, or writing, could always be found. Such a room could be used also for music & general recreation, and might add much colour to the lives of all those who frequented it. To this Common Room could be added a laundry and drying-room fitted with a few modern appliances which would not only reduce by half the labour and time occupied in the weekly wash, but would take the bulky copper and mangle out of each cottage, and relieve them all of the unpleasantness of the steam and the encumbrance of the drying clothes. In connection with this a bath-room could be arranged for groups of the smallest cottages, while the growth of co-operation would soon bring the common bakehouse and kitchen. From this to the preparation of meals and the serving of them in the Common Room would be only a matter of time; for the advantage of it is obvious. Instead of thirty or forty housewives preparing thirty or forty little scrap dinners, heating a like number of ovens, boiling thrice the number of pans & cleaning them all up again, two or three of them retained as cooks by the little settlement would do the whole, and could give better and cheapermeals into the bargain.
It is not only to those who live in cottages that co-operation offers advantages. From another class we hear much of the great servant difficulty. Hotels, boarding houses, and hydropathics, are springing up in every direction to accommodate those who are seeking to escape from the worry of servants, the trouble and expense of jerry-built houses, and the endless small anxieties that go to the running of a separate establishment. But hotels and boarding houses do not really meet the wants of this class. What they need is some arrangement by which they could retain the privacy and individuality of a separate house, while gaining the advantage, which they have in a boarding house, of properly organized service and skilled cooking. These needs would be admirably met by groups of houses arranged to give ready access to a communal establishment, where meals would be supplied, laid either in the common dining room or in the private house as desired; where the occasional use of commodious rooms could be obtained for entertaining purposes; and from whence properly trained effective helps could be sent out daily, for as long or as short a time as might be required, to do all the domestic work of the separate houses, or such part of it as the occupants might prefer not to do themselves. Such an establishment could readily be built and worked on co-operative lines, giving many of the advantages of hotel life without entailing its disadvantages or its costliness.
The planning of the Common Rooms wouldrequire much thought and care. On this would depend greatly the success of the co-operative effort. The usual small meeting-room, high, four-square, having a great deal of tawdry decoration, but lacking anything whatever to give a sense of comfort or to add a bit of interest, would be fatal. High the rooms should be, in parts, sufficient to give air space and promote easy ventilation. But there should be deep recesses or ingles with low ceilings, places which by the contrast of their special cosiness should attract people to sit there. If there could be a little gallery for the musicians, a deep balcony overlooking the street or the gardens for the smokers, these would prove great attractions for which everyone would gladly dispense with the adornments usually thought necessary for public rooms: though adornments of a more interesting character there well might be, and undoubtedly would be, when people came to appreciate their Common Rooms. As such co-operative quadrangles multiplied, the necessary variety to suit different habits of life would arise; for even those composed of houses of similar size would become differentiated, somewhat as different colleges in a university acquire a character for hard reading, for athletics, or for sport, and each could choose according to his tastes. The essential thing from the æsthetic point of view is that there shall be enough co-operation to secure some grouping of buildings, some centralising influence on them.
How different our streets would look if instead of the rows upon rows of dreary uninterestingcottages and hardly less dreary terraces of larger houses, we could have blocks such as suggested. Some might be adorned with a colonnade facing the street, and leading to the common rooms at the corner; some might have a comely arched gateway into the court as a special feature, through which, as one passed, a peep at the quadrangle, tennis ground, or garden, would be obtained. There need be nothing elaborate about such buildings. Quite simple cottages or houses, with some variety of size to suit large and small families, a little taste in proportioning doors, windows, and other details, a little imagination in welding them into a complete whole—these would suffice to change our dreary streets into something, the beauty and interest of which would be a constant source of pleasure.
Architecture has always reflected the condition of the society in which it flourished, being great in times of organisation, and deteriorating in times of disintegration. Recently it has very clearly represented the inordinate desire for individual independence. One sees terraces of houses, each painted a different colour to try and emphasize their independence. Or one may find the gable end of a porch which is common to two villas, painted half a bright green to match one house, half a chocolate red to accord with the other. These may be extreme instances, but they are very typical of the length to which independence has been carried. Society is, however, now realising very fast that this independence is no end in itself, and is onlygood in that it sets free the individuals to form new relationships based on mutual association. This is already having its effect on architecture, in that it is now not uncommon for the individual to make some effort to have his buildings made beautiful for the public to look at, as well as convenient for himself: the interest of the community in the matter is so far acknowledged. Very soon it will seem equally obvious that the relations of the separate buildings to each other should be considered, and concerted effort be directed to the creation of streets with at least some unity and dignity of effect, and settlements that, if they may not have all the charm of the old English village, shall at any rate look at home in their country surroundings.
RAYMOND UNWIN.