Customer Reviews

Edwin Lutyens: Country Houses

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Lutyens excelled in the creation of great country homes. He designed in the best English tradition and his estates on the exterior often looked like they had been there for decades or a century or more. Of course he is most famous for his Vicroy's House in New Delhi and his work with Baker on the master plan for imperial Delhi of the British Raj. Lutyen's was a British treasure, one of the great traditional English architects. This book has enlightening text and wonderful images, it really shows off his work in its best light. Highly recommended indeed.

Also Big Houses! Those looking for country cottages might get a detail or ten from Lutyens but his architecture is wholely in the service of large commissions and persons of taste with big budgets. Gavin Stamp, aided by the photographers working for England's 'Country Life Magazine', have put together a breathtaking book. Stamp's prose is well crafted, his content informative about the period and about Luytens' major country houses. Some of them are little-known in America but Heathcote (gardens by his collaborator Gertrude Jekyll), Castle Drogo and Folly Farm are better known here. Deanery Garden is a wonderful showplace that Luytens designed for Edward Hudson, the founder of 'Country Life.' In all, twenty-two of Luytens' projects are given special attention in this volume. All photography seems to have been done 'back in the day' when the houses were recently completed and the landscaping well-established. Both furnished interior and exterior images are presented in crisply clear black and white photos, each of which is of a generous size. The Monacelli Press (Random House) offers a superb production in this printing.

The book provides a record of the work of a major turn-of-the-nineteenth century architect whose work built on the ideas of Norman Shaw and Phillip Webb, proponents of a return to vernacular 'Home County' elements in built forms. Luytens' designs for exterior elevations are considered to be both referential to traditional forms and creative and fresh. He was not wedded to a particular 'look'; rather he was interested in volumes and presence in his structures. In keeping with the spirit of the times, he also planned to fit the built form to its landscape.

Had this book included plan views showing how spaces worked together or had each project been presented more completely in photographs of the exteriors, I would have given the book 5 stars. Of course, 'Country Life' would not have intruded so comprehensively on the privacy of the residents of these mansions and Stamp has had to be content to work within the limitations of his sources.

There are many books on Lutyens and I have several of them. For pure visuals I turn to this one (earlier edition). Beautiful production, which I believe is one of the Aurum Press numbers from England relabeled here by a US publisher. Buy it for the pictures, and buy the three volume set for the works.