Charles Mackintosh's Hill House was a groundbreaking architectural achievement at the time. Mackintosh took a distinct approach to architecture, creating a complementary design by combining feminine and masculine ideas. Charles Mackintosh's house was a work of art. It embodied creativity and pioneered construction in modern architecture. The hill house isn't a villa, palace, Scottish castle, or Swiss chalet; it's just a house. Charles Mackintosh showed considerable knowledge of architectural styles, leaving most experts in awe of his works. The hill house is a bourgeois Edwardian mansion with rooms enough to accommodate a staff of seven. Moreover, the house has a considerable service wing with its model being the Crathes Castle of the Scottish history. This paper meticulously analyses the Hill House giving evidence on the reason why the Hill House built by Charles Mackintosh is considered the most innovative and pioneered the design of modern architecture.
Description
The Hill house was designed by Mackintosh from inside out. This was done by putting intentional details on the interior space of the house. The outside of the house is silver gray with harling plaster and is complemented by the wrought iron gates; the interior design of the house is simply another world. This means that the interior of the house and the exterior are quite distinct with unique features. The outside of the Hill House is not a reflection of whatever the interior design is. An entry to the poetic decoration of room design is the glass entry door with other aspects of aesthetics such as color and furniture.
The masculinity of dark stained grainy oak and a feel of the arts and craft design is an attractive feature at the fore – front of the home. Moreover, within this distinct masculinity, glimpses of purply blue, white enamel and silver can be spotted. The transformation from masculinity to elegant feminity as a person ventures into the Hill House is striking. Dark ebonized furniture and details are clearly brought out with the pulley light rooms bearing white walls. A Japanese black and white color are therefore apparent. The greatest principle, which Charles Mackintosh maintained, was the fact that there should be no apparent break between the decoration of the house and the construction. This assisted in coming up with his designs and focusing on themes which facilitate beauty and elegance of the buildings, particularly, the Hill House.
The approach, which Mackintosh used in his design of the Hill House, showed a perfect balance between masculine and feminine features of the building. The building is covered in silver gray harling with the deep gray slate roof. Moreover, there is a mixture of Edwardian and 17th-century z – plan scot tower. The geometric order of the building is facilitated by the wrought iron gates. On the interior design of the Hill House, there are nine dark doors with nine small pieces of square glass. Likewise, the design of the library of the Hill House leaves a lot to be admired. The library has thick glazed trellis inner screens and it only takes an adult to make four steps into the main hall and make a right turn to reach the library. The design of the library is braced by masculine features. There are dark stained oak bookshelves with some arts and crafts detailing.
Further, there is a door with four long purple glass inserts. The structure is magnificent with masculine darkness broken up by tiny inland squares composed of white enamel and purple or blue glass on the bookshelves. It is hard to analyze the design of Charles Mackintosh Hill House without looking at the 12.5 feet tall ceiling with masculine dark oak cornices at 7.5 feet. There are also little windows with a particular window on the upper side facing the south and giving high light to the building. The hallway and the stairs are the thresholds of femininity of the building. The path through dark masculinity leading to a paley lit clearing with rectangular fittings beautiful for viewing. The rectangular light fittings have pink and white glass. The interior designs of the hallway are equally attractive; there are tungsten lamps with pink and orange castings, which cast shadows on the walls of the rooms and the ceiling. At the top of the corridor, there is a dark hidden seat commonly referred to as a seating room.
Moreover, there are masculine solids and voids of dark and light along the hallway. At the top of the staircase is a white wall with spots of purple glass. The details of the description of the hallway provide the meticulous attention paid by Charles Mackintosh in his designs. The Hill House has a Walter Blackie’s dressing room and washrooms. The design is masculine at the top of the stairs right close to the washroom; the shower has horizontal jets, which were probably the first in Scotland. The design of the dining room is another attractive room in the Hill House with both masculine and feminine features. The dining room has dark paneled masculine Edwardian values with bronze and white glass shapes on the window walls. There is a table in the room with deep purple and white glass interior fittings.
The main bedroom is another room in the Hill House with interesting design features. There is a door with six white squares made of lead glass. Moreover, there is the overwhelming ivory color with the backside of the door painted white with pink enamel squares. Other features include; lacquered white furniture, sleek and sensual low barrel ceiling and a white bed. The bed has purple tesserae and black lead accents, with a tiny and low window. Other admirable feminine features within the room include; an intimate vault, tall ivory mirror that is placed between two windows and a ladder back black chair. At the top 2.5 feet of the room is a band of the light fixture with a window head. Moreover, there is a fireplace by the door with a freeze of mauve and composed of green rose and leaves.
The last room is the drawing room. The room has a dark wooden door with white opal squares. The door opens to the sun, which is usually a Japanese trick. It facilitates visual experience coupled with the fireplace and the small windows. The window seats enable the windows to go down to particular feet. There are beautiful feminine windows composed of rectangles of pink and green lead glass and having a low cornice. The walls of the drawing room have masculine white and silvery stripes with a fireplace that has mosaic. The furniture has been masculinized; all the movable furniture is dark and ebonized.
The 20th century when the designs of Charles Mackintosh gained prominence, the architects at the time were designing buildings from the outside to the inside. However, the design of Mackintosh’s Hill House was made from the inside to the out. By doing this, Charles Mackintosh made it possible for the designs to be distinct. Aptly put, he designed the home into two distinct worlds. A renowned client of Mackintosh, Robert Blackie, talked to Charles about the external design and he responded by drawing up the designs and sections of the interior of the Hill House before exploring the exterior designs. The exhibited the innovativeness of Mackintosh because the common practice of architects at the time was making the designs from the exterior to the interior. Currently, modern architects have adopted the design methodology employed by Mackintosh.
A survey and analysis of the Hill House reveal great aspects of beauty. There are balances between two poles; there are a dynamic equilibrium and the making of interior spaces. The interior of the Hill House is white. The uniqueness of Charles Mackintosh design has given the Hill House its own brand. The design of the Hill House beat the architectural designs of the 19th century. The coordination of the feminine and masculine aspects of design all show conformance. Charles was keen to stick to the theme of his designs not leaving out aesthetic aspects in the overall designs of the buildings.
Architecture is art in its own style. There are aspects that have to be analyzed in an individual design to bring out the beauty of a theme or an idea. One of the greatest aspects of the design of the interior is color coordination. Charles Mackintosh used feminine aspects of color selecting such themes as purple and pink to be his major themes. These themes were feminine aspects. The Hill House, therefore, displayed a great coordination and balance between the feminine and the masculine aspects of design. For example, the design of the library with dark masculine colors revealed great color coordination exhibiting aesthetics, pleasing to the eyes and leaving a lot to be admired and emulated. This in its own sense was innovation in the history of architecture.
Conclusion
Contrary to the architectural designs of the 19th century, Charles Mackintosh designed Robert Blackie’s Hill House from inside out. The common practice at the time of most architects was making designs from outside towards the inside. Therefore, by designing the Hill House from the inside to the outside, Charles Mackintosh was innovative. He left a method that has been embraced by most modern architects. Modern designs are done from the inside towards the outside, a practice emulated from Charles Mackintosh. Equally important in the designs of Mackintosh of the Hill House, was the balance between the feminine and masculine aspects of design. Color coordination with theme feminine colors like those that are pink, purple and blue was used with well-designed doors and windows. The pictures and descriptions given of the Hill House present a strong argument in establishing the dark, heavy masculine contributions. The designs are delicate.
Bibliography
McKean, John. "The HIl House." In Charles Rennie Mackintosh, by W. Kaplan, 175-200. New York: Abbeville Press with the Metropolitan Museum,1996.
Macaulay, James. Charles Rennie Mackintosh. WW Norton & Company, 2010.
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