Previous Index Next

 

CHAPTER FOURTH.
ARCHITECTURE AND HOMES.

Art is that higher unfolding of nature which t a k e s place through plan. The stately temple or the powerful engine are as truly prod

ucts of nature

as the tree of the forest. The laws of art have their basis and their explanation in the laws of the mind. "Architecture is a material expression of the wants, the faculties and the sentiments of the age in which it is created." In these words Owen Jones expresses a fact which architects very well know. And from this truth we also know that a new social order and civilization requires a new style of architecture to be in harmony with its methods of life.

The three primary wants of man are food, clothing and shelter. The cave-men and the primitive dwellers in tents solved the problem of shelter in a rude way. The dwellings of worked stone and wood in the more advanced stages of society still retained features

95

Picture
Picture

Previous Index Next