SIR EDWIN LUTYENS: ARCHITECT OF THIS HOUSE by William Mark Pimlott Empire, fixed there by the great Shah was not urttil late in 1912 that the Jahan. Now, the British Empire's rE'sposibility of designing any buildings largest territory was to be erected was actually awarded to Mr. Lutyens there. lt was to be an Imperial City, who, against the staunr.h opposition of as the King expressed: "lt is my desire I ora I ~ritish architects in Jndia, that the planning and designing of the lobbied strongly for the task. The public buildings to be erected wiU be commission of buildings, which considered with the greatest included four churd,es, houses for deliberation and care, so that the new Indian princes, a shopping district, a creation 'IVill be in every way worthy Rer.ords Office, Parliament, of this ancient and beautiful city." 1 Secretariat, and Palace was apportioned by Lutyens to a number of The plan of the new city would be architects. C.A. Blomfield designed ~ ffilo111 Marfc l'lmlott treldced t1lrcJugh left to a new body, the Delhi Town most of the Princes' town houses; the rndla In lhP .!lllmm~r o( JNJ Gr¥1 b PlatVling Committee, headed by a trio curr•ntly worlcfng (n lhP Montrecl Anglican and Roman Catholic of(lce o( l'trter RO$tr. of three carefully selected individuals, ea thedral$ were designeed by H. A. N. Capt. George S.C. Swinton of the Medd; a third church was designed by N THE MORNING of 12 London County Council; John A. A.G. Shoosmith (Lutyens's December 1911, a crowd of 8rodie, the Engineer of the Borough of representative In New Delhi); a fourth O one-hundred t:hotnand or ITlOI"e Liverpool; and Edwin Landseer was design<>d by W.S. George; the crowded the large arena for the Lutyens, a successful and already Legislative Assembly and the two Coronation Durbar of King Emperor accomplished country house architect Secretariat buildings were designed by George V, to the north of Delhi, India. W1 Surrey. Lutyens was selected after Lutyf'ns's closest r.ollaborator in the The event was the last of its t~,e to exhaustive c«respondence between the design of J)eJhi, He-rbert Baker. In RJBA in London and Lord be held In that country. The Crewe, chief Lutyens'~ mind, the most attractive King-Em~ror and the British Empire aade to the recently installed Viceroy, piece of the commission was, quite would be memories when India gained Lord llardinge (whose brainchild was naturally the Government House - the the tran, fer of the capital). independence some thirty-six years Robert Vteeregal residenr.e. lt wa'l to be the Grant lrving's extensive later. That day, however, a very thesis on focal point of the plan the Delhi Town Imperial l)eJhi $eemS evident Klr!! Emperor anoounced the to establish that Planning Committee and later, that transfer of the seat of the Lutyens's appointment was perfectly legitirnate, ancl unrelated to Lutyens's Lutyens ancl Baker had laboured so Government from the prosperous intensely upon. lt was to be British comtMrcial city of Calcutta (in the connectioM with Viceregal heritage rule In India manifest. east, with a substantial European (Lutyens married Emily Lytton, population), to Delhi, located in the ~htPr of Lord Lytton, Viceroy some The remainrlPr of this discourse will thirty Y"ars before). The mandate of be devotPd to this one building, which north, on the arid plains bordering the ·"~ river Jumna. lt had been the site of the Coanmitt,.c was solely to ber11mt' known "' (much to Lutyens's j fit teen cities through a history of determine the siting of the city, to delight) thE' VIceroy's llou~e . twenty-four hu-ldred years aM most arrive at a Mastf'r Plan and to make The Viceroy's llouse sih majestically notably the seat of the Mughal a r<.>port ju~tlfyin~: their decision. Jt on th<' top of Ralsina Hill, to the ! 32 THE FIFTH COLUMN, Spring 1982 band. So, the waJJs are both stepping back and battered ever so slightly. This operation is intimately tied to those Lutyens carried out in his earlier, 'Surrey Vernacular' houses, where their long, low roofs are analogous to the horizontal bands of the Viceroy's House, and their simple battered or buttressed waJJs find their analogy in their subtle counterparts here. The bands that wrap around the entire periphery of the building also break down the scale of the walls by ifltroducing shadows of varying depth - an 'ornamentation' of sorts which Facing page: The Ec:st Front; the bust tunanizes the building's otherwise bare of Lutyens in the Staircase Court, surfaces. inscribed: "Architect of this House"; a battered wall, above. What makes this eastern entrance front so immensely successful, south though of the wal!ed city of Indian 'styles'), the building seems to are the gestures made to Shahjaharabad. invoke major One proceeds to the be a pure mass, which has been interruptions of these masses, and Palace along the one and three-quarter modulated in order to aJJow light and through these gestures, their mile long, eight hundred foot wide shadow the honor of articulating the subsequent modulation and avenue that lays before. it like a great elevations. The modulation and choreography. carpet, the colours of which, by description of mass, as opposed to Lutyens's design, have been restricted 'architectural construction' is what Firstly, by physical methods, Lutyens to the green, red and cream of the contributes to the success of the breaks up the plane of the walls by earth and stone, and the blue of water exterior of the House, and what places using loggias, aedicules, and and sky. Visually the framing the palace it far ahead of the buildings of his central entrance porch; dividing the from afar are Herbert Baker's con temporaries in India. The control predominant form into ~maller Secretariats (now the Home and of the qualities of the mass, which monumental blocks, connected by Fvreign OHlces of the Government of only Lutyens (and by training, colonnades. The bbcks are tied India), which rest at the front of Shoosmith) had mastered, became together through the continuity Raisina Hill, forming a propyleum to known as his 'Elemental Mode'. The suggested by the colonnade; a this Indian 'Acroplis'. As one draws 'Mode' really only attempted to continuous rf"d sant1stone base closer to these buildings, the Viceroy's achieve two things - to allow light (brilliantly using its colour to House sinks below the horizon, and its and shaclow to provide most of the empha<>i7.e its importance imperious as a linking dome seems to barely float articulation of the form: and to make element to the forms above, executed above the hot, shimmering pavement. the mass 'sit' better on the ground in c ream sand<>tone); and a broad, Then, the ramp between Baker's through such methods as the batt<'rmg raking cornice or chujja which wraps buildings that obscures the view of the of wall~. 2 around the entire building, ~rving as palace slips away, and its full, broad Of course. Lutyens's skill macle tht"~e a C'O THE FIFTH COLUMN, Spring 1982 33 East Front, The Dome configuration to the eout front), are the guest bedrooms and royaJ suites, the nursery, the Dining Room and the Ballroom. Unlilce the east front, with its bold contrasts between solid and void, the garden elevation presents no such contrasts, and instead, deals with Of course not only the eastern Yet for aJI their capriciousness, they more traditional models by punching entrance front, but the entire building at once pleasantly break down the window-like openings into the is brouRht into a calm order by the otherwise relentless cornice line, and continuous wall. The undynamic great, unuwal do~ which rises 166 help pull together (and position) the facade (apart from the strong line of r~t from the house's precise centre, solid and void elements in the the relentless c:hujja) is quite homely ~tlv over thf- State Thr~oom, oc elevation. and entirely approachable. Its l:>urbM Hall. 3 remarkable quality is its apparent Lilce the body of the house that it Indeed, Lutyens used an analogous change in size from the east front. emerg~ from, the dome is a mass device at Orchards, in Munstead, Lutyens has, by placing the bedroo~ articulated by colour (cream, red, Su-rey (1897-99), where the procession and major entertaining rooms on thlS cream, red, eream, and black from to the courtyard and entrance is both 'rear' facade, allowed functions within bottom to top) and by sculpted fronted and !lanked on one side by the House to communicate with the horizontal nands focming deep clefts long sloping roofs. The !lanking roof exterior, unlike the 'front' facade, o! shadow. Its attenuated drum. split is punctuated by tiny dormers (with which contains and conceals the ~ at the top and emphasized at its rooms behind) while the roof cutting activities within. F\ecause of the corner.s, suggests not only the image across the procession way features a double storey height of the great of a fortification Hor instance the similar dormer over the gate. rooms (some thirty-four feet in the Red Fort of Shahjahanabad), but also However, there i$ neither a window Ballroom), window openings are free to of some watdtful Imperial creature nor a room behind - the dormer be larger than usual. Also the loggia (spedfically a British lion, by virtue throws a little light on the roof which would have been enclosed by of its 'arms' which create and embrace trusses of the gateway. The dormers, colonnades on the east front, are on d~ focecourt). 1he entrance front as therefore, reduce the 'relentless' the west enclosed by walls, and light a whole, then becomes somewhat quality of the roof and bring is brought to them by large, anthropomorphic (bearing human, or in coherence and order to the two-storey openings, and aedicules, this case by ext~sion, animalistic processional route and its elevations. common to all facades of the building. charactensticsl, and it is this very The oversized treatment of the quahty which allows both the whole The multiplicity of readings as openings causes the wall surface to be front and specific details to be read demonstrated by these strange but read as 'smaller'. Furthermore, the in different ways, that is, as 'biJjJt-in' friendly chattriJ allow the readings of great dome which sits on the ambiguities. Jt r::an be said that the building as a whole to be more intersection of the diagonals of the anthropomorphir:: qualities render !ocms flexible, and permit Lutyens to eouily plan (the centre of the building), does 'friendlter', and perhaps this is what change the character of the House not sit in the centre of the central a !lows tfoubJ,. readings to take place from focmal (as on the east, north, block. The outstretching arms of the more ea:uly. For example, the and south) to domestic Cas on the west west front are shorter than those of parapet on the east front is front, where a Mughal garden, rather the east, causing the centre to be punctuated by ten minute than a one and three-quarter mile located closer to the eastern facade. lnterruptiom. n~~e chattris - basically processional route, faces the House). Thus, on the formal side the dome stone umbrellas with projecting The west front overlooks the arid, appears to be large and omnipotent, chujj.u, were described by Lutyens ;u barren plains ouhide of Delhi, and yet on the domestic side it recedes, "stupid useless things." 4 behind it, facade, (similar in seeming to decrease In height and become 'smaller'. 34 THE FIFTH COLUMN, Spring 1982 $0UTI4 COURT - ...... R • I ' I. L 11 .. • • • • - !;'~. · ..... ~ .. .~... ···~t{""; I .. I I I - I ~ ~ I I I MAIN FLOOR. PLAN - ~.•...,..~ IO - f -.. . ~~ ... The a bili ty of the building to intended to be a procession through negoti a Seqt~ for a Visitor to the State a t e be t ween t he demand of <;cquence of spaces. The spaces vary expression of a formal edifice and a in character and proportion, yet they From the great domest ic house, both within court formed by the what are always finite and felt to be ((anking arms rnatly would call t he 'st raightjacket' of ('nclo<;ures. of the east front, the There is a rythmac vi si tor walks up a broad flight C lassicism, is i ndicative of its pat tern in the of sequence, quite often -;tairs to arrive under the entrance subtle ty, refinement and Lutyens's expressed as a great change of the portico, where there is a trtple row Immense control and skill. quality of <;pace of (for example, open thirty foot high columns. Going area to constricted space to open lutyens's ta through the entrance doors, the space lent may be seen as well sp.1c<', and so on). The circulation ln the plan, remains tall, yet is long and which, although having -;pac!"s in the Vicero>•'s House, which been discussed with respec con~tricted, directed towards the t to the 51-rely dominate the central portion of centre of tht> general disposition of State rooms, building. Tht>n. there is has th<' plan, are quite comple'<, and a not yrt been examancd in terms threc-b THE FIFTH COLUMN, Spring 1982 35 great domed Durbar Hall, ringed by a marble screen which shelters a series of semi-<:ircular 'chapels'. The space, circular in plan, features the thrones of the Viceroy and Vicereine, which terminate the major axis. This fact is essential to the workings of the circulation system, which are based upon the movement around, and not through the Durbar Hall. Sequence for a Regular Visitor In this case one is driven into the great eastern court, then through the front of the building. After a brief series of formalities under the groin-vaulted porte-cochere, one enters the more intimately scaled southern court, further tamed by trickling Cobra fountains, and then enters the central block by means of a vaulted carriage-way, one storey beneath Dl.rbar Hall. After being let off, one IS sent west through a smaJJ, vaulted compartment, then south into a fabulous Staircase Court .. made into a finely proportioned room by a large coved cornice which does not meet a conventional ceiling, but rather, the open sky. The court permits one to either go directly to the West garden loggia, to the Dining Room or the Ballroom by briefly crossing the major circumferential corridor. Here though, the presence of the dome is most evident (it is, evident everywhere), looming above the court as one looks through the open ceiling. One is led to that major corridor, itself a repetitive series of spaces (all domed and on semi-circular arches), which in turn, when surrounding Durbar Hall, leads to an Inner corridor of smaller proportions. From a small enclosure here, one enters one of the semi-circular 't::hapels' spoken of earlier; which is an expandmg space, opening emphatically Into the great domed space, three steps below. The plan is choreographed masterfulfy, and a1 theatre (which a public part of a pnla<":e surely must be), it celebrates the spatial experienc e s of the individual, who 1S drawn through the building by the magnetic Ourbar Hall. E\oth in plan and in form, the Vice-oy's House remains a work that is astonishingly versatile for its treatment, position and size. With a floor area of around two hundred thousand square feet and a collection of three hundred and forty rooms (this is a house), it manages to ma intain both a formal attitude (as the centerpiece of the British Empire in its largest colony) and a domestic one as an English country house, complet e with garden, which is home of the British Raj. The Viceroy and Vicereine (Lord and Lady frwin), who first moved in (in 1931, seventenn began) found years after construction Lutyens, who loved Architecture and their new accommodations a bit large c:himneyp•eces, and bits of furniture of who loved Man, has fully earl"lf'd this ~ts the sudden was Lutyens's design one at first, but commented that "it praise. for he was not a capricious quite a livable house."5 unanalysable felicity that makes one Romantic "caught in the box of his one's breath." tool for this mediation was catch The time", 8 as some have maintained, but 11. lrving, p. 174. c lassical language, Lutyens's own an Architect of profound sensibility 5. lrving, p. 206. augmented by his sense of humor and and maturity, whose example bears 6. Imperial Defhi, a film by the Arts wit in life and in detail. To him, tremendous importance for us all. 0 Council of Britain, 1981. Architecture was a civilised practice 7. Roderick Gradidge, Edwin l.utyens: with the measure of Man as its basis. Notes Architect La..-eate, 1981, p. 70. t1 Modern Architecture, he recognized I. Robert Grant lrving, Indian Suml'llel'", Stamp, quoting Peter Smithson, and regretted "the passing of 8. 1981, p. 13. RI8A JO\rllill, 1969, p. 316. Humanism."6 2. The notion of 'sitting better' has to The Classical language, however, with do with our visual perception of the References Palladlo and Wren as the precursors building - how a wall visually recedes. Man whom Lutyens mos t loved, placed Lutyens batters the walls to make the Tht> Arts Council of Great Britain, at the center and cele brated his base feel broader and the wall~ feel Lutyens: The Work of the English of love existence. Lutyens's infusion slimmer, more.> elegant. Lutyens also Architects, Sir Edwln lutyens, and wl t into his Architecture, his uses this subtlety to advantage in the OU9~t9n), 1981. mastery of form and proportion, are loggie and entrance porch colonnades, Roderick Gradidge, Edwin Lutyens: all poignantly manifest in the Viceroy's where the spacing between columns Architect Laureate, 1981. House, and are what makes it so Increases slight I v above arched magical, and so right. Peter lnskip, Lutyens' Houses; openings and in front of the main Architect\ral Monographs No. 6: Edwin entrance doors. Tht" device introduces Lutyens. 1979. one of the few Roderick Cradldge, a subtle rythm wh ich breaks down a Robt-rt Grant lrving, Indian Summer: maintained an English architects who po<>~ible monotony in the colonnade<; Lutyens, Baker and lmperiaJ Delhi. appreciation for Sir Edwin Lutyens's and renders tht" fa cade 'more restful'. 1981. larity work during its years of unpopu J, Gavin Stamp, "The Rise and Fall of Erich Marosi, "Sir Edwin Lutyens: (19115- 1970), wrote that "Lutyens's Edwin Lutyens," Architectural Review, 1869-19111!," THE FIFTH COLUMN, Vol. nch1evernent wa~ trernt'ndous, the.> Nove-mbe-r, 1981, p. 312. From H.'i. I, No. 2, 1981. Vir"<'roy's ll ou~e i~ magnificent in it~ Goodhart Rrndel's Fe-bruary 191!5 Cavin Stamp, ''The Rise and Fall of form, it~ plan, and most p,trticularly speech to tht' Rlf\A: " ... The dome of Edwln Lutyens," ArchitecturaJ Review, In lt, architecture. A subtle mixture thr Vi c<-roy's Hou<>c-, also, ha<: a November1 1981. of Cl!mlcal and Mughol d<'tails, it i~ suavity that must comt" from a rare Robert Venturi and Denise Scott uMurpa~sed by any SE'Cular huilding subconsrious pe-r c eption of Brown, "Learning from Lutyens," RlBA built in tlw last two centuries." 7 I rnpondc>rablrs, and in rnany doorways, Journal, August, 1969.
SIR EDWIN LUTYENS: ARCHITECT of THIS HOUSE by William Mark Pimlott Empire, Fixed There by the Great Shah Was Not Urttil Late in 1912 That the Jahan
