The concept of the "ideal house" in the English arts and crafts movement architecture

The article is devoted to the domestic architecture of the English Arts and Crafts Movement launched by W. Morris in the early 1860s. The Movement was an attempt of reviving the artistic handicrafts in the field of decorative arts and reviving the traditions of country domestic building in the sphere of architecture. The article analyzes the concept of the "ideal house" worked out by the Movement architects and briefly formulated by W. H. Bidlake in his theory of the "three lamps" of architecture. The origination of this concept in the context of the English architecture of the second half of the XIXth century is contemplated as the negative reaction to the stylistic eclecticism in the Victorian architecture. The basic attitudes and peculiarities of the concept of the "ideal house" of the Arts and Crafts Movement are revealed in the article. In conclusion the brief description of the influence of this concept on the origination of the Art Nouveau aesthetics in the English domestic architecture of the late XIXth - early XXth centuries is given.