The Arts and Crafts House

This text examines the Arts and Crafts movement's international influence by exploring the design, decoration, furnishings and gardens of both town and country houses of the last 150 years. Special features draw on contemporary sources to demonstrate its philosophy, architecture, design, and style.

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Some of the most influential architects and designers of the last 150 years - William Morris, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Edwin Lutyens and Frank Lloyd Cartwright - were associated with the Arts and Crafts movement. They were drawn to its central premise that designs in the industrial age were ugly, mechanistic and dehumanizing, and that honest construction and individual craftmanship with a respect for the past was the way forward. The legacy of this movement was some of the most intriguing, inviting, and individualistic homes ever made. This text examines the movement's international influence by exploring the design, decoration, furnishings and gardens of both town and country houses. Chapters discuss William Morris and his disciples, houses built by architects for themselves, the American response to the Arts and Crafts style, and the movement's relationship with the disappearing rural community. A broad range of houses is presented, ranging from the Red House in Kent that Philip Webb built for Morris in 1859, to Frank Lloyd Wright's Storer House in Los Angeles, completed in the 1930s.Within each chapter special features draw on contemporary sources, such as literature, magazines and exhibitions, to demonstrate the philosophy, architecture, design and style of the Arts and Crafts movement.