audiobook More Craftsman Homes (Dover Architecture) by Gustav Stickley in Arts-Photography

Description

Gustav Stickley (1858–1942) — leader of the American Arts and Crafts Movement; publisher of The Craftsman; writer; innovator; and famous furniture manufacturer — created designs for a new form of American home. Based on beauty; simplicity; utility; and organic harmony; these designs were to have lasting impression on the shape; look; feel; and rationale of American domestic architecture.Many of the features advocated by Stickley exist today: split-levels; semi-partitions; an integration of structure with natural surroundings; and the primacy of form following function. Here; in 345 crisp black-and-white illustrations; are 78 authentic Mission style dwellings. These are the plans that Stickley himself approved — reprinted directly from the original 1912 publications — and include illustrations of the exteriors and interiors; floor plans; elevations; structural suggestions; landscape designs; and Stickleys own inimitable comments.Deeply influenced by the English Arts and Crafts Movement; especially the writings of John Ruskin and William Morris; Stickley rebelled against the outmoded architectural traditions of the Victorian age. Instead of creating rooms that were a series of separate cells; he proposed letting one living area flow smoothly into the other; instead of imitating the styles of 19th-century Europe; he proposed an original and vital American style; all the while searching for a new vocabulary of exterior and interior design. His method was the simplification of architectural space and the elimination of superfluous ornamentation; his aim was a harmonious blend of utility; economy; and aesthetics.The ideal of the Craftsman home was an honest and beautiful building; well planned for efficient use of space and materials; built to last several generations; and within the means of the average family. Craftsman architecture adhered to four basic principles: a style of building suited to the ways people actually lived; having the best structural outline and the simplest form; made from materials that belong to the countryside in which the house was built and in harmony with the landscape; and rendered in colors that please and cheer. For Stickley; the true beauty of a building was not a matter of decoration — a something to be added — but was inherent in the very lines and masses of the structure itself.This excellent republication of Gustav Stickleys More Craftsman Homes affords a fresh look at an influential and thoroughly American style of design and construction. Todays architects; designers; decorators; and collectors of Americana will find in the text and illustrations of this volume sufficient information and insight to appreciate the Craftsman home; the Craftsman idea; and that innovative spirit who made it possible; Gustav Stickley.