_Adaptation to Purpose._--Our young architects discovered that there
are certain fundamental principles or laws that must be observed at
the very beginning, if a really good and true design is to be made.
The first of these laws is the _law of adaptation to purpose_. The
application of this law was illustrated in the location of the various
rooms in the plan of the house, in the dimensions agreed upon for
each, and in the details of arrangement, especially in the kitchen
and other rooms connecting with it. But this law is universal in its
application. It determines not only the broad features of the plan but
the details as well. It does not permit anything useless or superfluous
to exist, for that would mean weakness. It aims at efficiency and
strength. It dictates the details of construction all along the line,
from the framing of the building to its finish and its decoration. It
even determines the character of the furniture and the amount of it.
Adaptation to purpose is a ruling principle.
_Simplicity._--Another great principle that revealed itself as the
plans of the house developed may be called the _law of simplicity_.
This is one of the elementary laws of nature transferred to the realm
of craftsmanship. It is an axiom of geometry that the straight line
is the shortest distance between two points. Not less evident is the
fact that when Nature undertakes to do anything she goes about it in
the simplest and most direct way. The natural tendency of all motion
is along a straight line--so reads the first law of motion. Analyze
the most complex forms and processes of nature and we shall find them
due to the harmonious combination of the simplest elementary lines
and movements. But the same law of simplicity which invariably marks
the works of nature gives strength and beauty also to the works of
man. Thus, in discussing the various problems that developed as the
designing of the house progressed, it was found--as of course it should
have been--that the solution which met the test of simplicity, while
satisfying the law of adaptation to purpose, was the true one.
_Correlation._--A third great fundamental principle that found
expression in these studies of the house plans was the _principle
of correlation_. Not only must each part of the design be adapted
to its use in the simplest possible manner, but it must support all
other parts and receive support in return. It is like cooperation or
team-work in play or in the practical affairs of life. Every room in
a house bears some natural relation to every other room, and even the
objects in the same room or in adjoining rooms must assist each other,
whether their purpose be utility or decoration or a combination of
both. Only by due attention to the mutual relations of the various
elements that must enter into the composition, can the designer produce
those pleasing space effects, those blendings of colour tones, those
manifest relations between the various objects, useful or decorative,
that give order, unity, and sympathetic feeling to a complete design.