ART OF HOME-MAKING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22356, 29 February 1936, Page 6 (Supplement)

ART OF HOME-MAKING

SECRETS OF THE ARCHITECT BUT—CHERCHEZ LA FEMME!

BY B.M.G.

It has been said that a home should represent three qualities—distinctive good taste in the owner; distinctive good taste in the architect; and distinctive harmony between the house and its environment. To woman usually goes the credit of the owner's good taste, for man more often possesses the money-making genius and woman the spending wisdom. So it falls to her lot to seek truth and simplicity in her home-making; to avoid shams, with their waste of labour on things which should be restful and plain; to reduce ornament to the minimum required to add beauty to real practical uso; and to be mistrustful of fjatterns, since by their constant stimuation they can become irksome and even irritating. A woman's good taste is apparent, too, not so much in seeking an expert's advice as in abiding by it; for there are regulations about worth and make-believe which must be accepted by lay folk, since they are the grammar of architecture. The appreciation of beauty and tho exercise of restraint are qualities which may have to be acquired, but once attained they introduce the owner into a sort of citadel of philosophy. When the home is complete wtih airy, sun-filled rooms, few patterns and quiet colours —for a riot of colour, like obtrusive patterns, resembles clashing music—the taste of the owner is again essential to keep the home a real home, and not to allow it to become a means of cramping existence. "House pride" is said to be "a dull hermit when it lowers the blinds to save furniture from fading!" The Architect's Part

The distinctive good taste of the architect, for his part, is revealed by his iiso of traditional styles to express himself in his own way, "the silent great ones gone," conveying a message by means of which he builds oil their best attainments but adds his own touch of originality and thus acquires & gracious fluency. It is our so-called bungalows that a characteristic style is most likely to endure. In the Old Country cottages and manor-houses have always been Jess "cosmopolitan" than more pretensions dwellings, in so far as accessories from foreign countries were not imported to build them, but materials ready to hand were used, so conforming to the surroundings.

It is the suburban dweller who can -help the city and the future. Ruskin, lecturing in Edinburgh, once said: "Edinburgh cannot be blamed if she cannot be interested in architecture, if she does not like it, if it bores her." He went on to say that it was not by erecting a large building every 50 years that she could call up architects and inspirations; and it did not matter how many beautiful buildings she possessed if they were not supported by and in harmony with the private houses of the town.

The Law of Harmony The expert's taste makes thrifty use fof space for every given purpose, working all into a harmonious symphony which will give gratification, not for a short time of novelty, but for the life of the house. Something as individualistic as the owner's personal clothing is thereby created. Apart from individual rights no house should be an exact copy of another, for there are climatic and topographical considerations to be taken into account, and that is where the expert sees the site, with house, garden and trees as a composite whole. What could be more natural than for lie suggestion of levels, prevailing winds and sunny aspects to call up a desire for steps and paths, walls creepered over, shaded nooks, vistas of flower borders, rockeries and view-breaking trees —all sd essential to the atmosphere of some definite plan for a home? In the eighteenth century, landscape gardeners were a thorn in the flesh for architects. One of vast popularity called "Capability Brown" disliked colour, declaring that "Red brick put a whole valley in a fever." Another, Repton by name, destroyed beautiful brick terraces because "work in red brick was a scarlet sin against good taste I" It is the architect who, from windows, doori! and balconies should bo able to visualise lawns and garden plots, to peer through "dream" Lombardy noplars, elms and palms, to see mandavillea and roses/ running riot on trellis and rustic arch, and to picture the new home thus softened by nature's graciousness.

There is, or should be be, a presence, ■a mystery about every home. At times, one feels certain that the very walls of such a home are about to speak, •when there is peace from within and the "light of heaven all about." Perhaps the nioon suddenly slides from behind a cloud whose shadow races from the wall, leaving Virginian creeper stencilled there in delicate photography. It is as if a spirit stole from the masonry and from the timbers, eager to tell of the wind broad and free in primeval forests, of man's striving and of beauty and philosophy now and through the ages. True, from the very muteness of the inanimate, comes the certainty that beauty, which is perfection of harmony, conveys its message ; simply through the philosophy of Being. Yet, still the personality in the bricks and timber of a home is something alert and virile, born of the p ' heart and brain of tho craftsman. It is a spirit which resents the closing of casements against the loaminess of leaf mould in ,rain; which dances like a sprite when birds sing or child voices echo from wall to wall; which poises on the window-sill like a child of nature. The creation of this subtle charm in tho environment of good taste is a blending of graces with all that is } concrete and practical in woman.