DOI: 10.25136/2409-8744.2019.5.27546

Abstract: This article is dedicated to the social aspect in the history of British manor architecture. The author examines the design of a Victorian country house, which fairly accurately reflects a particular lifestyle common to the English landlord of Victorian era. The article gives detailed characteristics to the two main elements of the English manor house – the so-called master unit and service facilities; as well as analyzes the structure of each part, and what role their elements played in everyday life of the manor’s owner. Besides the traditional for the art history method such as formal analysis, the author resorts to the meticulous study of layout concepts, using the historical-cultural methods. Despite the fact that the Victorian manor house often became the subject of detailed research, there are very few attempts to trace the correlation between its architectural concept and peculiarities of lifestyle of a specific social class in a specific era.  Pragmatic thinking, characteristic to the era of positivism, generates the desire to find the most rational solution corresponding to the requests of a Victorian family.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0609.2019.1.27547

Abstract: The article addresses one of the most important sociological aspects of studying the topic of Victorian estate architecture: the aspect of the client. The Victorian era was accompanied by a particular boom in the field of suburban construction. The research subject of this article is the social composition of clients of the English country house during the Victorian era, which was very variegated and diverse. The author sets before himself the task of uncovering the most common motives that caused British landowners of this era to start building country houses or to rebuild their family nests. In this article, the author applies the method of art sociology, which is widely used in contemporary art history studies, and which considers the history of art and, in particular, architecture as a reflection of the characteristics of a period's social life. Using the example of British art sources, the author attempts to tie the topics in the history of suburban residential architecture of the 19th century with the social processes taking place in Victorian Britain. They can be most clearly seen, in the author's opinion, in such aspects of examining the historical material as the topic of the client, when not only his wealth but also his various ideological ambitions directly influence the architectural process.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0625.2018.10.25621

Abstract: The object of the research is the nature of perception and means of interpretation of the medieval architectural heritage and traditions of the High Victorian epoch. Sokolova also analyzes the influence of John Ruskin's ideas on the development of aesthetic preferences in the English architecture of the epoch. The subject of the research is the English country houses designed by such architects as Richard Horman Shaw, William Eden Nesfield, and Gilbert Scott. The researcher also focuses on the books of John Ruskin The Stones of Venice and The Seven Lamps of Architecture and their influence on the development of particular aesthetic preferences. Sokolova performs a detailed formal stylistic analysis of the frontal composition and architectural decor of English country houses in the aforesaid epoch. Despite a common belief, masters of the British Gothic Revival were not inspired only by the images of the national architecture. Thaks largely to John Ruskin's writing that has become so popular lately, the interest of architects shifts towards the medieval heritage of other European countries including Italy. 

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0609.2018.3.25625

Abstract: The subject of this article is the architecture of the English country house in the late Victorian era. The author considers the work of major architects of the named era, such as J. Devey, W. Nesfield, R. N. Shaw. The object of this study is the transformation undergone by the idea regarding the national style in the architecture of this time. The author traces the changes in the notion of which monuments of national antiquity became most often a model for imitation and analyzes the method of understanding what constitutes a monument of national heritage in the works of the above-mentioned British architects. The author conducts a detailed art history analysis of the most significant monuments of the British suburban architecture of the studied period and reveals their particularities of style. The author's main conclusions are the constatation of a change in the aesthetic priorities in the British suburban architecture of the period under consideration. Finally, the author demonstrates the interrelation of these processes with the change of the social situation in general: at this time the composition of clients of country houses had significantly changed. It became increasingly made up of representatives of the banking and industrial capital, whose system of values differed significantly from that of the priorities of the old landed aristocracy.

DOI: 10.25136/2409-8744.2018.1.25624

Abstract: The object of this research is the style issue in the works of British architect of the late Victorian era Richard Norman Shaw. The subject of this research is the area that holds an especially important place in Shaw’s works – the suburban homes, because namely the suburban architecture becomes a so-called litmus paper that allows determining the processes that take place in British architecture over the last decades of the XIX century. The article also analyzes the projects of his contemporary and colleague George Devey. The elements of volume-spatial composition, façade composition, and architectural décor of the suburban homes of British architect are subjected to a comprehensive art analysis. The following conclusion was made: in the end of the Victorian Era, the suburban architecture in England experiences a crisis associated with the loss of value of the land property for social status of its owner. Thus, property sized become smaller and suburban homes turn into the new role model. A modest farm cottage rather that a manor house inspires the new-generation architects, particularly R. N. Shaw, which inevitably leads to the substantial transformation of the stylistics of suburban homes.