Sir
Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944) is often described as the greatest British
architect of his age and possibly of all time. His prolific career
encompassed manifest numbers of country houses, fine commercial buildings,
monuments and, as perhaps his greatest achievement, the Viceroy's House,
the centre piece of New Delhi, the city for which he was responsible.
Stylistically, he never fitted into any single school or movement in as
much as the mark he left was always his own.
Although influenced early on by the Arts
and Crafts movement of his youth, and later by the discipline of the
classical ideal, his eclecticism was such that he was more concerned with
the intricacies of his own aesthetic principles.
The architectural historian Henry
Russell Hitchcock called Lutyens "the last traditionalist." His
interest in vernacular architecture and traditional building techniques
certainly set him apart from his contemporaries who were leading the
Modernist Movement. Lutyens produced over 300 buildings, the majority of
which were large country houses. His work is characterized by a strong succession
of spatial events, with very clear connections between the house and
surrounding gardens (often designed with the great landscape architect Gertrude
Jekyll).
Sir
Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944) is often described as the greatest British
architect of his age and possibly of all time. His prolific career
encompassed manifest numbers of country houses, fine commercial buildings,
monuments and, as perhaps his greatest achievement, the Viceroy's House,
the centre piece of New Delhi, the city for which he was responsible.
Stylistically, he never fitted into any single school or movement in as
much as the mark he left was always his own. 
