Book Description

This long-awaited book is the first to focus solely on the brilliant but often neglected interiors and furniture of the great British architect Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens (1869-1944).

Lutyens's lifelong creative partnership with landscape designer Gertrude Jekyll spurred the revival of the English country garden, and his designs-rooted in the English Arts and Crafts movement but inspired by Classicism-remain popular today for their clean lines, angles, and contrasts. Published with the cooperation of the Lutyens family, and illustrated with specially commissioned and archival photographs of intact or restored interiors and gardens, original furniture designs, and contemporary reinterpretations of the Lutyens style, the book provides fresh insight into a design genius whose masterful synthesis of function and artistry has enduring relevance and appeal.

ELIZABETH WILHIDE was born in the United States and has lived in England since the late 1960s. She is a leading expert on interior design who has written, co-authored, or contributed to dozens of books on the subject, including Abrams' William Morris: Decor & Design.

CANDIA LUTYENS, who has contributed the foreword, is the great-niece of Sir Edwin Lutyens. She lives in England.

116 illustrations, 90 in full color, 9 x 10" ... Read more

Book Description

Born in 1869, Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens opened his own office in London when he was only 20 years old and began his career with a series of opulent country houses. The architect of such important commissions as the British Embassy in Washington D.C., in 1925, and the plan for New Delhi, the new capital of British India, in 1912, Lutyens continued throughout his career to design houses in which the vernacular manner adopted by Philip Webb and Norman Shaw in the previous century was developed with originality and wit and with remarkable formal control. As an upholder of the classical language of architecture, Lutyen’s achievement was not always appreciated by a younger generation of architects inspired by the modern movement, but the sheer beauty of materials and construction and the inventive handling of historical styles offered by Lutyen’s houses makes his contribution to early-20th-century domestic architecture on a par with that of his contemporaries Frank Lloyd Wright and Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Gavin Stamp, an expert on the architecture of Lutyens, presents 22 houses illustrated with exquisite duotone photographs culled from the archives of the great British magazine Country Life. Most of the photographs date from before World War I and show the houses as their architect intended they should look and performing as they were designed to perform, before the kitchens were modernized, the gardens simplified, and the interiors compromised to accord with modern tastes. ... Read more

Book Description

This digital document is an article from New Statesman (1996), published by New Statesman, Ltd. on June 24, 2002. The length of the article is 1403 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: At the feet of genius: Edwin Lutyens may have been dumpy, of lowly birth and hopeless in bed, but his wife revered him. Lynn Barber on the life and marriage of a once pre-eminent designer. (Books).(The Architect arid his Wife: a life of Edwin Lutyens ) (book review)
Author: Lynn Barber
Publication: New Statesman (1996) (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 24, 2002
Publisher: New Statesman, Ltd.
Volume: 131Issue: 4593Page: 48(2)

Article Type: Book Review

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Reviews (1)

The best book on the planning and design of New Delhi
Delhi has laid claim to be the capital of India since the earliest days of Aryan civilisation in the great North Indian plain. Rajput kings and Muslim invaders alike have built large planned cities and strong fortifications. Delhi has attracted many because of its strategic location: defended to the west and south by quartzite ridges that are the last spurs of the Aravalli ranges and to the east by the great Yamuna river, which has also ensured it plentiful water. To the east lies the fertile Gangetic plain and to the west the rich lands of Punjab with its five rivers. From Delhi pressure can also be exerted to the south on Ajmer, the gateway to the Rajput kingdoms. No fewer than 15 cities had been built on this spot beforethe British rulers of India decided to move capital here. By doing so they wanted to lay claim not only to the vanished Mughal empire, which had its brilliant court in the Red Fort in the heart of the city of Shahjehanabad on a site northward of Delhi, but also impress upon the people that they were the legitimate heirs to the great empires which had ruled from this spot. Imperial Delhi, then, was to, from thebeginning, be a city that would awe the beholder. It was to be the expression of British might in India, of its stable policies and enlightened views, and of its respect for law, order, reason and tolerence. It was also to be a city that would in its architecture display a synthesis of Classical and Indian design elements, thereby symbolising the progress and harmony that was to be had out of co-operation with the rulers. This book is one of the finest chronicles of the process of planning New Delhi and its principal monuments. It covers the original vision for the city, several alternate sites and plans, and the eventual outcome of the co-operation between Lutyens and Baker. New Delhi's systematic lay-out is the highest evolution of rational principles. The Vicregal Palace together with the Secretariat blocks occupies the highest point- Raisina hill. In defence of !this site Lutyens quoted from the Bible ' the city on the hill cannot be hid'. A great east-west axis- the Kingsway- proceeds from Raisina to the Yamuna and the oldest city of all Indraprastha. Wide green lawns, straight avenues of trees and long reflecting pools border this principal axis. The Kingsway is cut at right angles by the other axis of the city- the Queensway. At the heart of the city stood a statue of the King-Emperor, while arrayed around the hexagon around it that delineated Prince's Park, were the palaces of the Maharaja's friendly to the British. The whole thus expressed a rational, well-planned city, where the Viceregal Palace symbolised the paramountcy of the British empire over the native rulers, who affirmed their loyalty to the King. With its wide, straight, tree lined boulevards the city has often been compared to Haussman's Paris. The resemblance is strengthened by the enormous All-India War Memorial Arch that stands in Prince's Park, astride the Kingsway. Its proportions and outline recall the Arc de Triomphe and the whole is remniscent of the Champs Elysee. Meanwhile Lutyens evolved a style that could truly lay claim to the brilliance of Indian decorative elements while espousing for its overall form the simplicity and strength of Classical Greek architecture. His sandstone buildings are simple and massive, shunning excessive decoration for a nobler expression. Restrained and fused to these solid buildings are decorative elements from the three principle Indian cultures, Hindu, Muslim, and Buddhist. Lutyens deliberately avoided an ' Indian style' because he felt that there was none such- each ruler had merely imposed his conventions and indeed Indian buildings are modest in their structure and ground-plans. Most cover this up with a profusion of decorative elements, but again Lutyens shunned this over-richness for a more austere and formal style. This was also necessitated by the raging controversy over whether Delhi should have a Muslim or Hindu architecture, which threatened to ! incite communal riots. Insofar as Lutyens borrows form Indian structures it is from Buddhist stupas such as the one at Sanchi, for their bold simple lines struck a chord. For the rest, the wealth of floral and geometric patterns, not to speak of animal carvings that India has produced are subtly woven into the whole. This book covers the entire history of the evolution of New Delhi. I recommend it for the wealth of plans and lay-outs it has, as well as some of Lutyen's original designs for the Viceroy's palace. It should appeal to all those with an interest in city planning or in the architecture that Lutyen's promoted which sadly did not outlive him. It is unique in that it neither gets bogged down in academic discussions of what city-planning ought to be, of the needs of developing nations or of indigenous design requirements, nor is it a glossy picture book of Delhi's 'sights'. It is a well-paced, thorough book that evokes the image that the planner's of Delhi had in their minds- of a grand city, that a nation that considered itself to be the heir to the Roman Empire would be proud to build. Perhaps the only shortcomings of this book are that it does not display all the plans that are discussed nor does it indicate which ones the text is referring to. This means that one has to often read very carefully and try to make a plan fit a description. This difficulty could very easily have been obviated. Secondly, while much of Delhi eventually remained on paper, it would have been worthwile to display and discuss those structures that never got built. The rapid decline of the British Empire meant that Delhi remained an unfinished city, and I was particularly looking for insights into the Delhi that might have been, the institutions, hospitals, libraries, museums, offices that were doubtless intended to fill in the capital and continue and irrevocably establish Lutyen's claim to an imperial architecture for India. While Delhi remained unfinished, this book need not have and from a historical chronicle could! have continued into the imaginary realm of the Delhi that was envisioned, the Delhi that was to be the second city of the Empire after London, the Delhi that might have been. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Masterly Study of Masterly Architect: Lutyens as True Genius
As this century draws to a close, Lutyens' star is on the rise, and has been for several years. The perspective of history now enables us to see this master form-giver as practicing the ancient rules of classicism in a fresh and unconventional way, not as some retardataire, architectural anachronism. Suffused with romance yet buffeted by dashed expectations, Lutyens' life should be in line for treatment as a Merchant-Ivory feature-length film. His architectural legacy, in most instances compromised by subsequent owners, German bombs and inexcusable neglect, remains nonetheless unassailable. Hussey's book, though old, is not dated. In fact, according to the distinguished historian of architecture David Watkins, it is "the finest architectural biography" in English. Expensive and lengthy it is; it is also the most engaging and fulfilling study of a 20th-century architect I have ever read ... Read more

Book Description

This volume looks at Sir Edwin Lutyens, one of England's most notable and best known architects who designed over 300 traditional yet inventive buildings and projects. He is well regarded for his many superb designs for the large English country house, as well as for the New Delhi Government Buildings and the Cenotaph, London. The book features approximately 80 full page drawings, water colours and sketches, with informative captions, many of which have not been published previously. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Imperative for Lutyens Fans, but...
A must have for Lutyemns fans, but not the meaty treatist we have been waiting for. I expect MORE from Margaret Richardson! ... Read more