Edwin Lutyens

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Architectural career

In 1888, he began his own practice, his first venture being a private house in Crooksbury, Surrey, Surrey. Gertrude Jekyll, a garden designer and horticulturalist, met him during this course. In 1896, he began working on a house for Jekyll at Munstead Wood near Godalming, Surrey. It was the beginning of a professional collaboration that would define the appearance of many Lutyens country houses.

Within a layered structure of stairs and balustraded terraces, the "Lutyens-Jekyll" garden had hardy shrubbery and herbaceous plantings. This blended style, that of the formal with informal, was exemplified by brick paths, herbaceous borders, and plants such as lilies, lupins, delphiniums, and lavender, in comparison to the previous generation's formal bedding schemes. Until recent times, this "natural" style would have defined the "English garden."

Lutyens' fame soared as a result of Edward Hudson's introduction of Country Life, which featured many of his house designs. Hudson, a great admirer of Lutyens' style, retained Lutyens for a number of projects, including Lindisfarne Castle and the Country Life headquarters building in London, at 8 Tavistock Street. Maxwell Ayrton, one of his aides in the 1890s, was one of his assistants.

Lutyens was regarded as one of architecture's rising men by the turn of the century. "He is a young man who has risen to the top of domestic architects' field and who may soon be the recognized leader among English house builders," Hermann Muthesius wrote of Lutyens.

The bulk of Lutyens' early work was made up of private houses in an Arts and Crafts style, heavily inspired by Tudor architecture and the vernacular styles of south-east England. This was his most innovative phase of his career. Including Munstead Wood, Tigbourne Court, Orchards, and Goddards in Surrey, Deanery Garden and Folly Farm in Berkshire, Overstrand Hall in Norfolk, and Le Bois Des Moutiers in France, the period's most notable works include Munstead Wood, Tigbourne Court, Orchards and Goddards.

This style gave way to more modern Classicism in about 1900, a change of direction that had a major effect on wider British architectural practice. His commissions ranged from private homes to two churches for the new Hampstead Garden Suburb in London to Julius Drewe's Castle Drogo in Devon, to India's new imperial capital, New Delhi, where he worked as chief architect with Herbert Baker and others. He brought elements of local architectural styles to his classification system, as well as based his urbanization scheme on Mughal water gardens. As his Delhi palace, he also planned the Hyderabad House for the last Nizam of Hyderabad.

He was appointed one of three main architects for the Imperial War Graves Commission (now Commonwealth War Graves Commission) and was involved in the construction of several monuments to commemorate the dead ahead of the First World War. A Stone of Remembrance is on display in the Cemeteries, which was created by him. The Cenotaph in Whitehall, Westminster, and the Somme's Missing of the Dead, Thiepval, are two of these monuments. David Lloyd George's Cenotaph was first ordered by David Lloyd George as a temporary structure to be the centerpiece of the Allied Victory Parade in 1919. Lloyd George suggested a catafalque, a low sitting platform, but Lutyens' idea for the tallest monument was rejected. The entire project took less than six hours to complete. Lutyens has also created several other war memorials, some of which are based on or inspired by Lutyens' designs. The War Memorial Gardens in Dublin, the Tower Hill memorial, the Manchester Cenotaph museum, and the Arch of Remembrance memorial in Leicester are three examples of Lutyens' other war memorials.

Lutyens also renovated Lindisfarne Castle for its wealthy owner.

The Salutation, a house in Sandwich, Kent, England, is one of Lutyens' smaller works but is still one of his masterpieces. It was built in 1911-1912 with a 3.7-acre (1.5 ha) garden, and was named after Henry Farrer, one of Sir William Farrer's three sons.

He was knighted in 1918 and appointed a Royal Academician in March 1920. He was elected a member of the newly formed Royal Fine Art Commission in 1924, a position he held until his death.

Lutyens obtained other commissions in London, including several commercial buildings and the British Embassy in Washington, DC, as work continued in New Delhi.

He completed the construction of Queen Mary's Dolls' House in 1924, which is perhaps his most popular style. This four-story Palladian villa was built in 1/12 scale and is now on display in Windsor Castle's public area. It was not intended or created as a plaything for children; the aim was to display the finest British craftsmanship of the period.

Lutyens was commissioned in 1929 to build a new Roman Catholic cathedral in Liverpool. With commission sculpture work by Charles Sargeant Jagger and W. C. H. King, he designed a massive block of brick and granite, topped with towers and a 510-foot (160 m) dome. This building was built in 1933, but it was interrupted after World War II. The initiative came to a halt due to a lack of funds, with only the crypt complete. The Walker Art Gallery in 1975 restored a model of Lutyens' unrealised building, which is now on view in the Museum of Liverpool. Sir Frederick Gibberd, the architect of the new Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, which was built over a portion of the crypt and consecrated in 1967, was the architect of the modern Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral.

A year after his death, a Plan for Kingston & County was published. Lutyens was on board with Sir Patrick Abercrombie's idea and are acknowledged as co-authors. The introduction of Abercrombie in the scheme specifically mentions Lutyens' contribution. The City Council of Hull had opposed the scheme, however. He was also involved in the Royal Academy's postwar London proposals, which Osbert Lancaster dismissed as "not like what the current Nuremberg might have been if the Fuhrer took the inestimable advantage of Sir Aston Webb's advice and support."

The Irish National War Memorial Gardens in Islandbridge, Ireland, include a bridge and a bridge over the River Liffey (unbuilt), two tiered sunken gardens, a bookhouse, and a chapel; and the White Star Line's near Dublin; following the sinking of the R.M.S., J. Bruce Ismay, Chairman of the White Star Line; and Costelloe Terrace, County Galway; the restored and extended castle and farm building complex; the restored and Titanic (Titanic): Lutyens constructed Tranarossan House in 1907, just north of Downings on the Rosguill Peninsula in County Donegal's north coast. As a holiday home, Mr and Mrs Phillimore, a London architect, were given a local granite slab. Mrs Phillimore donated the "youth of Ireland" to An 'ige (Irish Youth Hostels Association) in 1937, and it has been a hostel ever since.

Largely designed by Lutyens over 20 or so years (1912 to 1930), New Delhi, a city in Delhi popularly known as "Lutyens" Delhi, was chosen to replace Calcutta as the British Indian government's seat in 1912; the project was completed in 1929 and officially opened in 1931. Lutyens created his own unique order of classical architecture, which has earned him the Delhi Order, and has been used by him for various projects in England, including Campion Hall, Oxford. Unlike the more traditional British architects who came before him, he was both inspired and incorporated elements from Indian and classical architecture, as shown by Viceroy's House's huge drum-mounted Buddhist dome, now Rashtrapati Bhavan. This palatial building, which spans 330 acres (130 ha), incorporates a private garden that was also designed by Lutyens. The building was built as the Viceroy of India's official residence and is now the President of India's official residence.

The front door of the palace has bells embedded into them, which has been reported that Lutyens had planned with the assumption that as the bells were still muzzled, British rule would never come to an end. More than 2,000 people were required to care for the building and assist the Viceroy's household at one time.

Both the Parliament buildings and government offices are located in the new city, which was built in a manner similar to Herbert Baker's, and it was constructed in a distinctive Mughal style.

When drafting the proposals for New Delhi, Lutyens imagined that the new city would be located southwest of Shahjahanbad's walled city. The city's development also laid out the street plan for New Delhi, which consisted of wide tree-lined avenues.

The site where the new imperial city and the older native settlement met was supposed to be a market, and was designed to be built in the spirit of British colonialism. Lutyens predicted that the Indian traders would participate in "the grand shopping center for the people of Shahjahanabad and New Delhi," giving rise to the D-shaped market seen today.

Many of the garden-ringed villas in Lutyens' Bungalow Zone (LBZ), also known as Lutyens' Delhi, are under threat due to continuing pressure in Delhi due to continual pressure for growth. The LBZ was included in the 2002 World Monuments Fund Watch List of the 100 Most Endangered Sites. None of the bungalows in the LBZ were designed by Lutyens; he only created the four bungalows in the Presidential Estate surrounding Rashtrapati Bhavan, now known as Mother Teresa Crescent. Baroda House, Bikaner House, Hyderabad House, and Patiala House are among Lutyens' designs in Delhi.

Lutyens was named a Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire (KCIE) on January 1, 1930, in honor of his architectural accomplishments during the British Raj. The KCIE knighthood pretended over his earlier bachelor knighthood as a chivalric order.

The only statue of a Westerner in New Delhi preserved in its original position is a bust of Lutyens in the former Viceroy's House. Robert Grant Irving's book Indian Summer is about Lutyens' life in New Delhi. Despite his pioneering work in India, Lutyens' insights on the Indian sub-continent's people are still deemed "racial," although not unprecedented for people of his time.

In Madrid, Lutyens' work can be seen in the interiors of the Liria Palace, a neoclassical building that was badly damaged during the Spanish Civil War. The palace was built in the 18th century for James FitzJames, the 1st Duke of Berwick, but it now belongs to his descendents. Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart, the 17th Duke of Alba, commissioned Lutyens' reconstruction. When serving as the Spanish ambassador to the Court of St. James, the Duke was in touch with Lutyens.

Lutyens produced plans for a new palace for Hernando Fitz-James Stuart, the 18th Duke of Pearcyan, between 1915 and 1928. Edwin Lutyens' largest country house would have been built at El Guadalperal, as it had been announced.

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