Ideology in Architecture:
The Arts and Crafts Movement
Developing largely as a reaction to the Industrial Revolution, the Arts and Crafts movement addressed the crisis in the Fine and Decorative Arts, created by the mechanization of industry. This movement fittingly developed first in Britain, also the seat of the Industrial Revolution. Although industrialization in the 18th century created massive economic growth, it was also the catalyst for significant shifts in moral and social attitudes, not the least of which were reflected in a parallel between the growing progress achieved within production techniques and in an unfortunate disregard for the ideals of artisan-oriented architecture and crafts. Handmade products were fundamentally excused in the 1850’s and 1860’s to make way for cheaper, more modular constructions of iron, lightweight wood, and glass. In response to the changing market attitudes, the fathers of the Arts and Crafts movement presented an alternative to the massed produced wares that now flooded markets. In her book The Arts and Crafts Movement, Naylor writes, “(t)heir endeavors were directed, ultimately, towards a social end, the establishment of a society in which all men would enjoy the freedom to be creative” (7). The Arts and Crafts movement stood in opposition to the wake of the Industrial Revolution, pitting moral against material, dogma against inspiration, machine against the human hand, and the industrial elite against the craftsman.
A short cast of influential thinkers, design philosophers, and artisans led the ideological reform of the Arts and Crafts movement. One of the initial theorists to espouse these principles was Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, (1812-1852) who published his True Principles of Christian Architecture in 1836, which was to become a major part of the basis for the fundamental beliefs of the Arts and Crafts movement. Pugin advocated that all ornament should be “appropriate and significant” and that décor should never be allowed to conceal “the real purpose for which the article had been made” (15 Naylor). His overarching concern for design principles in lieu of industrial standards made him a pioneer of the Arts and Crafts movement (see Appendix 1).
Pic:1 Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812-1852) (Visit Cumbria)
Another influential designer was Sir Henry Cole (1808-1882), director of the Great Exhibition of 1851, and founder of the design firm Summerly’s Art Manufactures, circa 1847 (12 Cumming and Kaplan). The philosophy of Cole and his contemporaries was in direct competition with that of the Industrial Revolution, which was to produce cheaper goods without aesthetic sensibility, replacing human individuality with moulds, looms, printing presses, and ever-advancing technology.
Known as the moral and theoretical backbone of the Arts and Crafts generation, the John Ruskin (1819-1900), advocated moral intervention in art and architecture through his works: Modern Painters (1843), The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849), and The Stones of Venice (1851). Ruskin also founded St. George’s Guild in the 1880’s, a craft association that sought to nurture his ideals of a fair and just society and to implement them through establishing communes with whom he was philosophically aligned. Ruskin “urged his followers to turn to nature for both intellectual and emotional stimulus” (23 Naylor), so that they may in turn remarry art and craft to machine, and educate manufacturers that the quality of an object is superior to its quantity. He pleads that “roughness and individuality need not imply a loss of standard” (29 Naylor), and that restoring dignity and respect to the plight of craftspeople would give way to an “aesthetic of individualism” (29 Naylor). Ruskin borrows these concepts from the Gothic Period, a style Ruskin promoted (O’Brien), at a time which saw handmade goods elevated to fine art. Other influences on Ruskin are rooted in the Renaissance regard for Fine and Decorative Arts as essential to the daily function of a society, expressed in the significant social status afforded to its artisans (e.g. Michelangelo Buonarroti). However, if Ruskin is the moral and theoretical backbone of the movement, then William Morris is its, eyes, nose, ears, mouth, and hands.
Pic 2: John Ruskin (1819-1900) (Brooklyn College)
Pic 3: William Morris (1834-1896) (Visit Cumbria)
Pic 4: The Red House’s well, round windows, and subtle Gothic details on door. (REBS)
William Morris writes of the state of industrialized Britain, “(m)en living amidst such ugliness cannot conceive of beauty, and, therefore cannot express it” (8 Naylor). It was this despair for an industrialized world which spurred Morris to formally establish the Arts and Crafts movement, circa 1860 England, when he founded Morris and Co. stationed out of his newly constructed Red House (1859) in the cottage hamlet of Upton (see Appendix 2). The house itself, designed by Philip Webb, is the epitome of what was to evolve into the Arts and Crafts movement in architecture, a largely residential style (see Appendix 3), that spread across Britain, and North America, as well as influencing art and architecture throughout Europe and the world (25 Langley and Sommer). Named for its exclusive use of red brick on its exterior, the Red House, according to Rossetti, was “…more a poem than a house” (96 Naylor), unadorned with ornament, its form expressed so simply that its construction is revealed instantly and tastefully.
Pic 5: The Red House: Entrance with Gothic arches. (REBS)
Pic 6: Dante Gabriel Rosetti (1828-1882) (Notable Biographies)
Its L-shaped shell is punctuated by rhythmic vertical sash windows, occasional round portals, implied gothic arches and detail in brickwork, with deep shadowy eaves embellishing continuous natural shingle patterns on its steep roof lines, and steep-roofed conical water well - a lyrical trope initiating the architectural movement. It is here that Morris begins his career as an artisan and decorator and holds close associations with other artisans, such as painter and stained-glass designer Edward Burne-Jones, architect Philip Webb, and artist Dante Gabriel Rosetti, all intermittent guests of the Red House.
Pic 7: Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898) (Visit Cumbria)
Pic 8: The interior of The Gamble House (1908) (University of Oklahoma
Another shining example of architecture that exemplifies the movement’s principles is The Gamble House (1908) at 4 Westmoreland pl. in Pasadena, California, by architect brothers Charles Sumner Greene and Henry Mather Greene and built for David and Mary Gamble of the Proctor and Gamble company (see Appendix 4). True to the Arts and Crafts principals, the Greene brothers overlooked no detail, from switch plates, to handmade lighting fixtures, and iridescent glass planes, the Gamble House is an expression of joinery and handicraft. (Pasadena City Centre).
Pic 9: The Gamble House (1908) A shining example of Arts and Crafts Architecture. (Columbia University)
Morris draws upon Medieval and Romantic influences insofar as his methods are inspired by décor devices of the past, refreshing old ideas such as handmade textiles and tapestry weaving, hand-carved woodblock printing techniques, illuminating and hand bound books, and wall paper patterns, all of which were designed by hand to be reproduced by machine. Morris put into practice the ideologies of Ruskin by creating new designs, by reinventing old technologies, to emulate the products of a bygone era.
He believed:
…that the designer (or architect) must have personal knowledge of the potentials and limitations of the materials he is working with if he is to produce work of any validity, and such understanding of the processes of design must be learned at first hand; it cannot be communicated by a teacher, or a book. (104 Naylor)
Pic 11: Morris designed this pattern called Tulip (printed on cotton) for Morris & Co. (147 Lochan, Schoenherr, and Silver)
In my opinion, Morris and his firm were successful in turning the tides of commonplace industrial manufacturing by returning design its soul, a soul that had been purged at the behest of a mechanized economy which valued automation over inspiration (see Appendix 5). By doing so, Morris validates Pugin’s doctrine of simplicity and Ruskin’s “rage against the machine” when he says: “Decoration is the expression of man’s pleasure in successful labour” (103 Triggs). Morris has, however, only succeeded partially thus far.
Pic 13: A typical modern suburban neighborhood. (Neo Athanasius)
If an evaluation of the Arts and Crafts movement in a contemporary context hinges upon the doctrine that the users of the designed item, and its craftsman, have derived equal pleasure from the item, then I would judge the movement as somewhat unsuccessful.
Industrial largesse at present continues to stamp the modern landscape with big-box stores, poor quality mass produced imports, computer generated textiles, cookie-cutter residential architecture, and unremarkable public buildings whose disappointing lack of imagination is typified by a insufficiency of individualism. These pervasive signs make it fair to conclude that the Arts and Crafts movement may be alive and well in modern society, however on a smaller scale than perhaps Morris, Ruskin, and Pugin would have hoped for.
The Arts and Crafts movement covered a broad rage of disciplines reflected in architecture, such as the Greene Brother’s Gamble House, and textiles, as seen in Morris’ catalogue of patterns. It is hard to imagine a sphere or discipline in England and North America that was not affected by the movement. This is especially true when one recounts the famous glass lamps and windows sold by Tiffany and Co. at the time. Also, the works of Madox Brown and A.H. Mackmurdo (see Appendix 6), the printings of Morris’ Kelmscott Press later in his life, and the countless tea services, vases, candlestick holders, decorative plates, beds, and other household items that were revisited for production by these denizen of design. Morris became an artist, manufacturer, social reformer, and icon, which made him well suited to the task of reuniting industry with art. Ruskin writes that the true worth of art is its humanity, "for it is not the material, but the absence of human labour, which makes the thing worthless" (26 Naylor).
Pic 14: Peacock and Dragon pattern on woven wool designed by William Morris for Morris a& Co. (165 Lochan, Schoenherr, and Silver)
Pic 15: Stained glass windows typical of the Arts and Crafts movement (58 Fyson)
Pic 16: Mission style chair Gustav Stickley (Web Teek)
Pic 17: Frank Lloyd Wright (University of Toledo)
This fertile movement, ripe with ideas, gave birth to Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs, Art Nouveau, Mission style furniture, the modern artisan, and the current Craftsman revival. In exploring the Arts and Crafts movement, we can identify the deep roots that craftsmen have established throughout design history, whereby longevity and perseverance ensure them the eternal cycle of dormancy and blossom.
Appendices
Appendix 1: The Exhibition Room by Augustus Pugin and Thomas Rowlandson (approximately my great granfather’s great grandfather) (Somerset House)
Appendix 2: The floor plan of Morris’ and Webb’s Red House (REBS)
Appendix 2: Interior photos of Morris' and Webb's Red House (REBS)
Appendix 2: Interior photos of Morris' and Webb's Red House (REBS)
Appendix 2: The staircase at the Red House (REBS)
Appendix 3: Another example of architecture influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement – House in Galveston Texas, USA. (The Real Galveston)
Appendix 4: The Gamble House under construction in Pasedena, California, USA (Columbia University)
Appendix 4: The Gamble House, front entrance, in Pasedena, California, USA. (Columbia University)
Appendix 5: Floor plan, section and details of a typical Craftsman home. These sorts of drawings were published on a regular basis in Morris' Craftsman magazine. (Historical Works)
Appendix 6: Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo, Chair, 1882 British, 1851 - 1942 mahogany and leather (National Galler of Art USA)
Appendix 6: Ford Madox Brown. Work. 1852-65. Oil on canvas, arched top, 53 15/16 x 77 11/16 in Manchester City Art Galleries. (The Victorian Web)
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