ARTS AND CRAFTS

ARCHITECTURE
EUROPE AND AMERICA

The Arts and Crafts Movement was a British and American

aesthetic movement occurring in the last years of the 19th century
and the early years of the 20th century.
Inspired by the writings of John Ruskin and a romantic idealization
of the craftsman and it was at its height between approximately
1880 and 1910.
It was a reformist movement that influenced British and American
architecture, decorative arts, cabinet making, crafts, and even the
"cottage" garden designs.
In the United States, the terms American Craftsman, or Craftsman
style are often used to denote the style of architecture, interior
design, and decorative arts that prevailed between the dominant
eras of Art Nouveau and Art Deco, or roughly the period from 1910
to 1925.

The Arts and Crafts Movement began primarily as a search for

authentic and meaningful styles for the 19th century and as a
reaction to the eclectic revival of historic styles of the Victorian era.
Reaction to the" soulless" machine-made production aided by the
Industrial Revolution.
Considering the machine to be the root cause of all repetitive and
mundane evils, some of the protagonists of this movement turned
entirely away from the use of machines and concentrated towards
handcraft.
The Arts and Crafts movement was in large part a reaction to
industrialization.
It was neither anti-industrial nor anti-modern.
Some of the European factions believed that machines were in fact
necessary, but they should only be used to relieve the tedium of
mundane, repetitive tasks.

The Great Exhibition of 1851 in London had demonstrated that

England was the industrial leader of Europe.
However, many observers, including art critic John Ruskin, believed
that quality art and design were sorely lacking.
The movement also had its origins in the love of Gothic and
medieval culture that was part of Romanticism.
Architects such as A. W. N. Pugin brought the Gothic revival to a
new prominence in English architecture with his design for the
Houses of Parliament.
So inspired was the Arts and Crafts movement by the Gothic revival
that it sponsored the creation of medieval-type artists' union to
create works of decorative art.

The focus was on

simplicity of design with
ornamentation for
specific purposes only.
Furniture was
streamlined, but
wallpaper and fabrics
were decorative.
The
Oregon Public Library in
Oregon, Illinois, U.S.A.
is an example of Arts
and Crafts Architecture.

Certain tendencies stood out in

Arts and Crafts Movement
were
neo-gothic influences,
rustic and "cottagey"
surfaces,
repeating designs,
vertical and elongated
forms.
In order to express the beauty
inherent in craft, some
products were deliberately left
slightly unfinished, resulting in
a certain rustic and robust
effect.

Myers Free Kindergarten

building in Auckland
New Zealand.

The Arts and Crafts movement

were against the principle of a
division of labour ,
The idea of the master
craftsman, creating all the parts
of an item without the
participation of the master
craftsman was a routine.
The Arts and Crafts movement
sought to reunite what had
been ripped asunder in the
nature of human work, having
the designer work with his
hands at every step of creation.

Although its ideology was often socialist, the Arts and Crafts
movement was in many ways an upper-class trend, as few could
afford one-of-a-kind decorative objects.

William Morris, established Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. in 1861,

which expressed in their desire for art by the people and for the
people.
Morris's company was one of the first companies to specialize in
handcrafted decorative objects such as furniture, stained glass, and
wallpaper.

Slowly female members where also indulged in the handi-crafts.

The Arts and Crafts movement owes its success in many ways to
two other nineteenth-century trends: Aestheticism and Art Nouveau.
Aestheticism, which rose in popularity during the 1860s, encouraged
the belief that one should surround oneself with beautiful art in order
to become more refined.
Art Nouveau was the French version of the Arts and Crafts
movement in its celebration of purposeful decorative motifs for
everyday household objects.
Art Nouveau was the first international commercial artistic fashion,
ultimately opposing the Arts and Crafts movement because these
works were often mass-produced.
The Arts and Crafts movement had a great influence on interior
design, the aesthetics of home furnishings, and the production and
conception of decorative objects as art even in an industrial age.

RED HOUSE-LONDON

Red House, London (1859),

by architect Philip Webb for
Morris himself, is a work
exemplary of this movement in
its early stages.

There is a deliberate attempt

at expressing surface textures
of ordinary materials, such as
stone and tiles, with an
asymmetrical and quaint
building composition.

Red House in Upton, in the southern suburbs of London, England is

a key building in the history of the Arts and Crafts movement and of
19th century British architecture.
It was designed in 1859 by its owner, William Morris, and the
architect Philip Webb, with wall paintings and stained glass by
Edward Burne-Jones.
He also desired to have a "Palace of Art" in which he and his friends
could enjoy producing works of art.
The house is of warm red brick with a steep tiled roof and an
emphasis on natural materials.
The garden is also significant, being an early example of the idea of
a garden as a series of exterior "rooms".
Morris wanted the garden to be an integral part of the house,
providing a seamless experience.

The "rooms" consisted of a herb garden, a vegetable garden, and

two rooms full of old-fashioned flowers jasmine, lavender, roses,
and an abundance of fruit trees apple, pear and quince.
Morris lived there for five years after which he had to leave the
house for financial reasons.
The house remained as a family home for 150 years after which the
National Trust acquired Red House in 2003 and is carrying out
further restoration and research to restore the house as closely as
possible to its original condition.
The house is open to the public but with certain restrictions now.

John Ruskin

John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) is best known

for his work as an art critic, sage writer, and social critic, but is
remembered as an author, poet and artist as well.
Ruskin's essays on art and architecture were extremely influential in
the Victorian and Edwardian eras.

Ruskin was born in London, and raised in south London.

In his first work The Poetry of Architecture,he made a study of

cottages, villas, and other dwellings.
According to him,the buildings should be sympathetic to local
environments, and should use local materials.

He had a devotion towards nature and attacked even Michelangelo

as a corrupting influence on art.

His most famous dictum was "go to nature in all singleness of heart
rejecting nothing and selecting nothing."

For Ruskin, the Gothic style embodied the same moral truths he
sought in art. It expressed the meaning of architecture.
Ruskin associated Classical values with modern developments.
Consequences of the industrial revolution, resulting in buildings
such as The Crystal Palace, which he despised as an oversized
greenhouse.
Ruskin had a deep respect for Gothic architecture and old buildings
in general. To him, the building's age was the most important aspect
of its preservation.

The Oxford Museum, a building designed Sage Hall at Cornell, an example

of the "faux-Gothic" adaptation
with Ruskin's collaboration
of Ruskinian principles of architecture
as an experiment in modern Gothic

Glasgow School of Art

Architect :
Charles Rennie Mackintosh
Location;Glasgow ,Scotland
Date:1897 to 1909
BuildingType;
College Construction
System : bearing masonry
Climate : temperate
Context : urban
Style : Arts and Crafts ,
Art Nouveau
Notes : West wing built second,
from 1907 to 1909.

The Main Entry.

North Facade.

West End Exterior

Skylight
Meseum Interior

Library Interior

D. L. James House

Architect : Greene and Greene

Location : Carmel Highlands,
California
Date : 1918
Building Type : House
Construction System : Native
stone
Climate : Mild temperate
Context : waterfront, ocean
coast, cliffs.
Style : Arts and Crafts
Notes : Romanitically sited on
cliffs above sea

Entrance Gateway
Views of the House

Bloemenwerf House

Architect : Henry van de Velde

Location :Uccle, near Brussels,
Belgium
Date1895 to 1896
Building Type : Architect's
House
Construction System :
masonry, timber
Climate : temperate
Style : Arts and Crafts
influence
Notes : strong eaves and
gables