Article on...Ideology in Architecture
/Arts & 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).