Customer Reviews

Voysey, C.F.A.

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As an Architect always in search of refreshing ideas I was truly pleased when I first reviewed this book. All architects should be familiar with Voysey's career and work. Next to my monograph of Mellor Meigs and Howe I can think of no more favorite book that I have purchased this past year. Voysey was a forerunner of the modern movement, a true innovator and artist.

Today I have the pleasure of comparing two books on the work of CFA Voysey, a major designer of wall coverings and a major 'modern' transitional English architect during the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries--a period during which architects and designers emphasized that no part of a living space, its decoration or its hardware was too 'insignificant' to merit careful thought and fine design. Voysey's work may be characterized by his use of 'vernacular' English/Gothic architectural elements (translated into forms for his own time), his use of natural stone surrounds for windows and doors and his reliance on a white 'rendering' exterior wall finish (akin to stucco.) This review will emphasize 'CFA Voysey,' by Wendy Hitchmouch. My companion review can be found for 'CFA Voysey: Architect, Designer, Individualist' by Anne Stuart O'Donnell. I purchased both books from Amazon and enjoy each one for different reasons. This book is my favorite exposition of Voysey's architecture for its plates and its descriptions of each of the Voysey projects selected for comment by the author. More of his architectural work is included in this book. Many of the same projects are included in Anne Stuart O'Donnell's book but Wendy Hitchmouch's exposition provides far more detail and written analysis of each project and the plates and photographs of his major 'oeuvre' are far more communicative in her book--there are many more elevations and plan views, the illustrations/photographs are much larger and the drawn labels are clearer. Those of us who are interested in Voysey's architecture will be disappointed in O'Donnell's book...but those persons interested in his art design work will love O'Donnell and will scramble to find sources to purchase versions of Voysey's wall papers even if they need to custom order them.

I have an amateur interest in architecture, fired by 'A Pattern Language' (various authors; Oxford Press), a work which provides an unequalled introduction to the description and the uses of domestic spaces. During my life, I have had the opportunity to own and to live in two architect-designed homes of different styles and I have participated in detail as a client with an architect in the design of a third, 'Usonian' (simple, modern, cost-effective)retirement home. I have a modular-type archtectural program on my computer (Punch series)and I am always fiddling with some arrangement of space or trying to experience new materials and apply them to room surfaces. More than most people, I may be prepared to 'see' and to treasure books such as these but a wider audience will appreciate them at least as well as I do.