t 
 
 Is there a Ponibility of a Neiv Style of Architecture ? 
 
 his raw materials in masses, so as to produce agreeable effects ot 
 light and shade. But he must go nuch further than this, to pro- 
 duce anything worthy of being mentioned in comparison with the 
 masterpieces of ancient or modern Architecture. There must be 
 beauty of detail as well as of outline, and play of light and shade 
 on surfaces as well as in contrasting masses. He would now have 
 to go on to express the construction by suitable detail, and enrich 
 it with appropriate ornament, so as to form a beautiful and harmoni- 
 ous whole. If, with the limitations sve have assumed, he were able 
 to accomplish this, he would thereby prove himself such a heaven- 
 born genius as has never yet appeared in the world. All his 
 ideas of outline of masses and play of light and shade and beauty 
 of form would have been derived from a class of objects entirely 
 different in shipe, proportion, color and texture, from those with 
 which he was now called upon to deal. He would be practically in 
 the position of a student, say of electrical science, who had studied 
 the theory of electricity but had never seen a dynamo or other elec- 
 trical machine. Such a person would probably discover on taking his 
 first model to the patent office that he had wasted his time in in- 
 venting again something that had been invented in the very infancy 
 of the science. Our designer would be in the same position. So 
 far as Architecture is concerned, he would be in the position of a 
 child or a savage, and his best efforts would inevitably be crude 
 or puerile. 
 
 Now let us suppose the same problem presented to an architect 
 trained in the modern or eclectic school, the sole proviso being that 
 his design should be beautiful, but absolutely devoid of style. 
 Would it be possible for him to divest his mind of all his accumu- 
 lated knowledge of the architectural forms and details and ideas of 
 the old styles, as a slate is cleaned off with a damp sponge ? Is it 
 not more likely that from the very first steps in the arrangement of 
 his plan he would be influenced by recollections of the old styles ? 
 He could not divest himself of the influence on his taste of those 
 buildings which he had admired and studied. Try as he might, he 
 would find recollections of basilica, or temple, or cathedral, or 
 mosque, suggesting ideas as to the treatment of his raw materials, 
 and insensibly he would find himself designing in some familiar 
 style. He could not help himself, because style consists not merely 
 in ornamentation, but also in structural form and disposition of 
 mass. So the questions of style and external treatment have to be 
 kept in mind even in the arrangement of the ground plan. The 
 consideration of the nature of the various materials alone would 
 bring him face to face v/ith the question of style. Is the ruling 
 motive to be the beam or the arch ? This might not be determined 
 by local circumstances, and so the one system might be as available 
 
 »s 
 
li then a Possihility of a Sew Style of Architecture ' 
 
 as the other. What is to determine it then ? The aesthetic taste 
 of the designer. And having once made his choice, his artistic 
 instincts would lead him to adhere consistently to the principles of 
 the system chosen. The leading lines must necessarily be either 
 horizontal or vertical, because every great architectural monument 
 thdt has ever been produced has been either in one style or the 
 other. 
 
 No ! it is not thus that a new style of Architecture will ever be 
 invented. Man is always the heir of all the ages, and his heritage 
 is the sum of the learning and knowledge that have been slowly ac- 
 cumulated in the past. Progress is only made by advancing beyond 
 the highest point previously reached The men who originate new 
 ideas are those who are most familiar with all the ideas of their 
 predecessors. New inventions are most likely to be made by those 
 who are most familiar with all previous inventions. So, in art as in 
 science, that man is most likely to invent a new form whose mind 
 is most saturated with the best of the old forms. 
 
 Some attempts have been made to produce a new style by hark- 
 ing back to some old style at an incomplete stage in its develop- 
 ment, and trying to carry it onward on some other lines than those 
 on which it was actually developed. This appears to have been 
 F^ichardson's idea in attempting to revive the Romanesque style, 
 and to that extent his attempt differed from most other modern at- 
 tempts to revive old styles. None of these attempts have had any 
 better result than to galvanize the old forms into a semblance of 
 life more or less ephemeral according to the ability of the apostles 
 of the cult for the time being. Examples of the more recent 
 attempts will at once occur to you— the Gothic revival, Norman 
 Shaw and the Queen Anne, Eastlake and his so-called principles of 
 "Truth," It is curious to observe in Eastlake's case how some of 
 the designs in his own book belie every one of the principles laid 
 down in it. It is difficult, for instance, to conceive on what prin- 
 ciple of truth a book-case can be designed which is finished on top 
 with an imitation of a shingle roof with dormer windows. As 
 regards Richardson, it is futile now to speculate what he might or 
 might not have accomplished had he lived to the allotted span. 
 His experience would doubtless have been that of all others who 
 have trodden the same path. Measured by actual results, his in- 
 fluence upon the Architecture of thiscountry has not been beneficial, 
 not so much because of what he did or failed to do, but because of 
 what his imitators have done. Richardson went to original sources 
 for his inspiration, but most of his imitators have only gone to 
 Richardson, and the result therefore cannot be considered surprising. 
 
 Attempts have sometimes been made to combine the outlines of 
 one style with the details of another, but no new style has ever re- 
 
 t6 
 
 
A there a PossiMlity of a Sew Style of Anhitecturt > 
 
 suited from these attempts. The best example of this is probably 
 the French Renaissance of the time of Francis I, where the outline 
 is Gothic and the details mostly Classic. The offect is picturesque, 
 but there was no vitality in the resulting style or variety. The 
 English Elizabethan is of the same type. The term " debased " 
 applied to it by the Gothicists is not inappropriate, and no better 
 instance of this debasement is to be found than in the west fron*. of 
 Westminster Abbey, where the Classic details look strangely out of 
 place on the fiothic front. 
 
 If, then, all attempts at revivals have failed to produce a new- 
 style ; if the eclectic method has failed; if the invention of new 
 constructive methods and the creation of new needs have also failed, 
 and if the attempt to dispense with style altogether is sure to fail, 
 is there anything left on which to base a hope that there will ever 
 be a new style ? It is a question not lightly to be answered. The 
 conditions under which the old styles were produced have long 
 passed away. Life was leisurely in those old days. There was 
 time to linger over a design until it was as perfect as its author 
 could make it. Men whose work was of an artistic kind worked for 
 the love of their art, and took pleasure in their work for its own 
 sake. The styles were not made by men who looked upon their art 
 as a mere means of making a living. In those days each worked in 
 only one style, and all worked in the same style at the same time, 
 and they probably knew little or nothing of any other, so that to 
 them it was the vernacular. They did not dabble in Greek one day 
 and Gothic the next In some cases they may have had before 
 them exami-'es of the preceding styles out of which their own had 
 grown, but they could only have had such knowledge of these as 
 they could obtain at first hand. There were no excursion trains to 
 afford them the mental dissipation of a glance at all the monuments 
 of antiquity during a summer holiday. They had few books, still 
 fewer illustrations, and no photographs at all. So it is not surpris- 
 ing that some of the Romanesque work, for instance, was obviously 
 (.he result of efforts at recollection of Roman forms, which might 
 perhaps have been copied literally, had the means only been avail- 
 able in the shape of a library. Men were therefore compelled to 
 think for themselves instead of borrowing the thoughts of others. 
 The growth of a new style was an affair of centuries. The best 
 Egyptian or Greek architect, if called upon to design a spire, would 
 probably have pronounced it impossible. And so it was, within the 
 time at the disposal of one man or one generation. But keep the 
 problem before one generation after another, and gradually the 
 thing is done— not all at once or by one man, but slowly, through 
 many tentative efforts and failures, success is finally reached, 
 and the Greek temple becomes the Gothic cathedral. Mr. Sturges 
 
 '7 
 
Is tktre a PossihUity of a Xew Style of Architaturf f 
 
 puts this idea very well when he says : " Once only in a series of 
 centuries appears an architectural thought destined tu grow great 
 and stimulate other thoughts, and call out their embodiment in 
 visible form." 
 
 The shadow cannot move backwards on the dial, and the old con- 
 ditions can never be restored. Some one said recently that " the 
 most fertile mind — much less the average — is not able to produce 
 from the use of the material and purposes of the structure, an en- 
 tirely original supply of forms, especially within the limit of the 
 time allowed for the occasion." That is true, and therefore every 
 architect must express his ideas in the forms of some known style. 
 All styles are open to the choice and ail are alike alive or alike 
 dead to this generation. The history of the last three centuries 
 seems to point to the Renaissance as the one most in touch with 
 the spirit of modern life. It is by far the most plastic of all styles. 
 It is suitable alike for all classes of buildings, from the most humble 
 to the most palatial, and for every purpose — domestic, ecclesias- 
 tical, educational, commercial, municipal, national and monumental. 
 So long as the fancy is restrained within the limits of good taste, its 
 forms can be used with the utmost freedom, and adapted to every 
 purpose. Every young architect, after having acquired a general 
 knowledge of all styles, should take some one and make it his 
 own and try to know it thoroughly, in its principles, its history, its 
 monuments and its details, and he should, if possible, design in 
 that and no other. If the Renaissance is chosen, then some one 
 phase of it — say French or English— should be thoroughly 
 mastered before another is taken up. 
 
 It cannot be predicated with certainty that there will ever again 
 be a new style. But there are certain principles on which the ex- 
 isting styles should be used, and it may be confidently asserted that 
 if these principles are not followed there will assuredly never be a 
 new style. Blind copying will never produce one. It would be a 
 long task fully to analyze and formulate these principles, but for the 
 present purpose they may be summed up into two propositions -. 
 ist. That construction must be absolutely truthful, and must be 
 expressed in forms appropriate to the purposes of the building; 
 and 2nd, That no moulding or feature of any sort must ever be 
 used merely from habit, or without careful \nalysis to discover why 
 it is pleasing to the eye, and what it means, and even then it should 
 be used only after long and careful consideration whether it should 
 be used at all, what function it is to perform, and whether nothing 
 better can be devised to perform that function. 
 
 The following out of these principles may never result in the 
 formation of a new style. Certainly no one man will ever invent 
 one ; but it may be that the efforts of some of those who try faith- 
 
 t8 
 
Av their a /\>.s.ii/>ility of a .Wrc Style o/' Arc/iitictior ' 
 
 fully to carry out these principles ina\ start an intliieiice that will 
 increase as it rolls onward, until in course of time it will be found 
 that unconsciously a new style has grown up Hut assuredly the 
 only efforts that will he of any avail will be inspired by an earnest 
 striving,' after what is true and beautiful, and an honest love for art 
 for its own sake, and oidy when these are vivified by at least sonic- 
 spark of that divine creative imagination which must be born in a 
 man, and without which he may be a builder, but never an 
 architect. 
 
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