Dwa polskie projekty M. H. Baillie Scotta

English Title: Two Polish projects of M. H. Baillie Scott

In: Rocznik Historii Sztuki, 22 (1996), pp. 139-154

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Translation of abstract (English)

Among numerous commissions from outside Great Britain M. H. Baillie Scott had on his score also two orders from Polish customers. First of the project was made in 1903. Unfortunately we do not know neither the name of the place the project was made for, nor that of the customer. One can only assume that the abode had to be constructed on the territory of the Russian sector of partitioned Poland. From the situational plan appears that the newly-projected house was to be erected on the territory of an already existing residence situated on a lake shore. The second of the "Polish" projects of Baillie Scott is better perceptible. It was ordered by a Chludzinski family for their estate in Laskowicze (former province of Polock, now in Belarussia) on the Obol river. The first variant of the project was made in 1912, the second one, designed for realization, a few months later. Both variants of the Scott’s project provided the construction of an identically planned building, the difference consisted in the adoption of a completely changed architectonic costume. A location plan of a two-storey house was square, with four wings united around an inner court, and with quadrilateral towers nearly totally sinked into the comers. The interior disposition was nearly identical in both projects. In the first one the elevations obtained forms in a style of the Wiener Secession. The second variant of the project provided giving to the whole building the view of a mediaevaI fortified castle. The interiors have been planned in a half-row disposition with a sequence of rooms in the outer row and with a narrow half-row of a corridor-gallery from the side of the inner court. The main room of the residence was to be the hall, covering the whole of the eastern wing - its whole width and height. The character of a mediaeval castIe given to this building by Baillie Scott was motivated by the architect with its situation. The choice of the place and the general disposition of the building were to protect it against the severe climate and attacks of brigands, while the interiors were to answer to the romantic character and the hospitality of the country life in Poland. The projects having the character of mediaeval castles in the scale similar to the Chludzinski’s house were not quite uncommon in the work of Scott. In the same year a project of a house, or rather a castle, was made for Dr. Crawford, so-called Hilltop House in Cotswolds, later on overprojected on the order of the same customer for Bidford-on-Avon. Nevertheless, building of this scale were rare in the work of Baillie Scott. Similarly to the previous project Baillie Scott applied also here a few solutions put into practice in some earlier projects. E.g. the layout of the hall in the Chludzinski’s house was based on the ideas used by Scott in the project of a music room for the art lover of a Darmstadt competition project.