WINDOWS WITH CHARACTER

Evening Star, Issue 20958, 24 November 1931, Page 2

WINDOWS WITH CHARACTER

PROPER ARCHITECTURAL ADAPTATION Did you know that windows can have character and be as distinctive as, for instance, doorways or mantels? Did you know that each stylo of architecture lias a particular type of window which is essential to it and lias been developed from its tradition? asks a writer in the ‘ Christian Science Monitor.’ Let os imagine ourselves walking down an ancient tree-shaded street in a little English village and observe the distinctive characteristics of this street. The windows will probably catch our attention first. Wo pass first a little brick shop which bears unmistakable signs of having been built in Georgian times, and notice the small bow window for the display of goods. Its size, as compared to other merchants’ larger windows, seems to give it ail air of added distinction. The window, in plan, is a very Hat curve with much less projection than wo usually associate with bow windows; the panes are-small, and the total';impression is the feeling chat the several things displayed in it arc very choice articles. • Further along on this same street •we notice a Sinai 1 residence in the Elizabethan stylo and realise that it will be worth our while to study the windows of it, since this style, with its half-tim-bered work is so often used for American residential architecture. The windows are casements. The panes are small, diamond shape, and set in lead. Interested in this, observe the windows in other. Elizabethan houses, and soon see the variety of quaint details which are worked into the glass. There are bottle ends in the windows of smaller houses, and if wo should visit the manors on more pretentions estates ire would find shields, quaint escutcheons, small circular designs, and details of heraldry worked out in coloured glass and inserted among the small transparent panes, INDIVIDUAL. Each window seems to be original, and this is the essential quality of Tudor windows—a quality wo should strive to copy if we wish our reproductions of them to be authentic. The bay windows, especially on the second story, when worked out in half-timbers, have in each case a hand-made appearance, and-the timbers show the marks of the instrument with which they were dressed. Our half-timbered work should avoid the appearance of boards added to the surface for effect. For instance, a first floor bow window. developed from the English style, might be used on a moderate-size stone residence. Standard commercial casements have been indicated, but individual details should be added to suit the taste of the owner. Threo courses of brick might be used between tho stone and the casements, and other special details should bo developed whenever possible. Tho roof could be a low, curved copper one. SPANISH TYPE. in a small informal Spanish residence a double window, opening to tho floor, and the simple wrought-iron balcony is characteristic of it. Every effort should be made to make windows of this type as colourful as possible; bright draperies might bo used; tiles might be inserted in the stucco or vines might be grown in pots on the balcony, GEORGIAN STYLE. The Georgian stylo oilers several possibilities for interesting window arrangcmon, both in bow windows, as wo have seen in the one noticed above in the English street and in the windows of residences. Georgian windows arc generally double hung, and seem to obtain their chief effect from their regular monotony as though they, like Georgian architecture, were tho product of a society which placed its chief value on correctness and formality. ' Their monotony is broken at times in a quite welcome manner, either by a roundheaded window, by a circular window, or. if tho space is largo enough to permit its use. bv a window developed from the Paladian motif. This last is the one we associate most often with Georgian architecture, and is n window with a circular head, on each side of which are narrow windows, the tops of these narrow windows reaching only to the spring lino of the arch of the circular window. This motif is well worth remembering, as it can be well used to break the monotony of the long line of windows which we usually associate with Georgian residences. Windows are too often chosen from stock catalogues regardless of their style, while the entrance feature, roof, ami details are carefully studied for their correctness. By considering tho character of his windows tho homo builder will have taken one more op-

portnuity to enrich the appearance of his house and will have gained something which comes from n motif, stvle, or proportion which is the result of long years of development—something iutC mate and liveable.