Arts and crafts master: The Houses and Gardens of M.H. Baillie Scott

From 1892 until the beginning of the Second World War, Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott exerted a profound influence on English Arts and Crafts Architecture. Indeed, his impact on visual culture was so international, it even affected architecture here in Bermuda. I am thinking especially of the impact it had on Will Onions, but other Bermudian architects as well.

Of several well known Arts and Crafts architects, M.H. Baillie Scott is possibly the most influential, yet today, he is the least known, so little in fact that when I Googled the Arts and Crafts Movement for a list of its architectural practitioners, Baillie Scott's name was not mentioned. That is about to change.

A few days ago I received a recently published book on this architectural master and the author is none other than Bermudian Ian Macdonald-Smith. Published by Rizzoli, the book, as is typical of that publisher, is sumptuously beautiful on the inside, but, like a Baillie Scott house, this particular book is fairly plain on the outside, that is, without its jacket. The coloured photograph on the jacket depicts a path that leads the eye through a rose garden in full flower, to the garden facade of Waldbühl in Uzwil, Switzerland. Baillie Scott's architectural services, in his day, were sought internationally and this Swiss house is just one example.

The book is well researched, easily readable and a visual pleasure, with coloured photographs and detailed histories of 43 Baillie Scott houses and gardens. The photographs are exquisitely composed; many having been taken at times of day when the light was particularly striking, often coming from the side, so as to pick up the varying material textures of the architecture and at the same time, interacting with the garden setting. There are also many interior views and architectural details, such as door handles, lamps, stained glass or newel posts. With each house,there are also architectural plans. This provides an overview of the building, which is especially useful. Additionally there is an extensive introduction, giving, amongst other matters, biographical particulars, as well as detailing Baillie Scott contributions as an Arts and Crafts architect. The book consists of 239 pages. It price is $55.

In order to fully appreciate the context in which Baillie Scott worked, it is essential to know something of the history of the Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain. It was instigated by William Morris in 1861, when, he and a group of friends founded the business, Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. This business was established to produce and market items that the owners considered to be within the framework of their aesthetic philosophy. They specialised in decorative objects for the home, including wallpaper, textiles and furniture.

As a student at Oxford, Morris had been introduced to the Pre-Raphaelites, especially Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the writings of John Ruskin. Additionally, at the Great Exhibition, held in London in 1851, he had been offended by the vulgarity of the ostentatious ornamentation on furniture and other objects, as exhibited by British manufacturers. Eventually, by varying and circuitous paths, he had come to apply Ruskin's philosophy to practical applications (domestic design). He also promoted these ideas through writing. Additionally, Morris's aesthetic always had a socialist underpinning. For one thing, he saw a need for universal beauty, for everyone.

What he disliked about the designs that he saw at the Great exhibition, was the insensitive, piled-up application of ornamentation to just about everything, from furniture to bric-a-brac. He saw that with the Industrial Revolution, manufacturing practices had been altered, so that workers in factories now did piece work and thus did not have the total design as part of their responsibility. He also saw that with the development of the machine, the ease of producing ornamentation was greatly facilitated, thus paving the way for its indiscriminate overuse.

Morris thought the answer to this problem was in getting back to handcraft. He saw the machine as an enemy and any use of these new tools as an unfortunate compromise. Not everyone in the Arts and Crafts Movement saw the machine in such dire terms, however, and eventually, after considerable debate, an appropriate machine aesthetic would result, although this did not happen in Morris's lifetime. Nevertheless, with the emphasis on handcraft and a return to traditional ways of making, a problem was created. The emphasis was on universal beauty for everyone, but at the same time, a contradictory insistence on handcraft, which greatly inflated the cost of production, thus putting this kind of beauty out of reach of ordinary people.

Ballie Scott saw through this problem and advised a solution. Before such contemporaries as the Viennese architect, Adolf Loos, or the American, Frank Lloyd Wright, he pointed out in his book, "Houses and Gardens," that excellence would not be created through costly materials or workmanship or even in imitation of such costliness. Rather, he advised the setting up of a humble and reachable standard, particularly the omission of the vulgar and then by slow degrees, the careful choosing of a few, choice ornaments. Furthermore, Baillie Scott, it seems, was not so caught up with the avoidance of machinery. When a judicious use of mechanisation eased the work of craftsmen, he did not hesitate in using it. He saw through the contradictions in Morris's thinking and realised that an application of an appropriate machine aesthetic was needed.

In an age of ostentation, Baillie Scott houses are characteristically devoid of great amounts of ornamentation. Instead, he emphasized variations in structural materials to create visual interest. Additionally, depending on where the house was to be built, he made use of traditional building materials from the region, as well as local building techniques. His house plans, in an age when most architects divided the house into separate rooms for varying uses, were noted for openness and flexibility. He stressed, in his approach to house planning, that each house should be tailored to the needs of particular families. Before the modern age with its stress on function, Baillie Scott was already concerned with the utilitarian.

Today, Baillie Scott houses appear to be of an earlier period, but they have had a considerable influence on the modern period. His principles, as well as the Arts and Crafts Movement generally, impacted design worldwide and initiated a debate that, like a time release capsule, is still having a subtle, albeit unrecognized effect.

During his day, the English house, especially the Arts and Craft house, influenced architects like Frank Lloyd Wright and Hermann Muthesius in Germany, who indirectly initiated the Deutscher Werkbund.

Another organisation impacted by the English Arts and Crafts Movement was the Wiener Werstatte (Vienna Workshops) with such individuals as Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka, Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser. Most importantly, out of these developments the Bauhaus was established. Its influence has been all pervasive and continues to impact us.

The book will be on sale in Bermuda bookstores.