Charles Robert Ashbee

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Charles Robert Ashbee, 1903

Charles Robert Ashbee (born May 17, 1863 in Isleworth , † May 23, 1942 in Godden Green, Sevenoaks , Kent ) was an English architect, interior designer, silversmith, artisan, art theorist and poet.

Ashbee came from a wealthy family. His father was a senior partner in the London law firm Charles Lavy & Co. of his future father-in-law Edward Otto Charles Lavy from Hamburg, which his son Charles Lavy Jun. Later inherited. Lavy Sen.'s daughter, Elisabeth Jenny Lavy (1842-1919) and Ashbee's father Henry Spencer Ashbee (1834-1900) married in Hamburg in 1862.

Both son, Charles Robert Ashbee, first studied at King's College in Cambridge and then from 1882 to 1885 trained with the architect George Frederick Bodley, who specializes in church construction .

In 1888 he founded the School of Handicraft in London - a training workshop for craftsmen - which had its first domicile in an empty warehouse across from Toynbee Hall at 35 Commercial Street, in the middle of the poor district of London's East Side. On June 23, 1888 he founded the Guild of Handicraft with Fred Hubbard , John Pearson , John Williams and CV Adams and - after the move - the Essex House Press .

He had presented his plans for this to William Morris , who brushed this idea aside, pointing out that such a small experiment as a guild would not be able to help the suffering of the unemployed. How much Morris was wrong, the establishment of further "schools" made z. B. in Glasgow, Liverpool and Birmingham. Her guild (or guild) with the workshop in Central London at 16a Brook Street had grown to 150 members in 1900. The craftsmen carried out carpentry, carving, cupboards, and painting. When a forge was built in the garden, they also made metal, silver and jewelry. In 1898 the guild worked with Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott in the manufacture of furniture for the palace of Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse-Darmstadt . In 1900 the guild was represented at the Vienna Secession Exhibition.

Ashbee had contacted Frank Lloyd Wright when he was visiting America in 1896 and remained in contact with him later.

In 1902 Ashbee moved the school to Chipping Camden, Gloucestershire. The work of this school has been exhibited in London, Düsseldorf , Munich and Vienna and has been very successful. In 1902 Ashbee became an honorary member of the Munich Academy and in 1915 professor of English literature in Cairo . After working as an urban planning consultant in Jerusalem (1918–1922), he returned to England in 1923.

As an architect, Ashbee built simple, functional buildings, especially single-family houses, where the construction and furnishings formed a whole.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Ashbee, Charles Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English architect
DATE OF BIRTH May 17, 1863
PLACE OF BIRTH Isleworth
DATE OF DEATH May 23, 1942
Place of death Godden Green, Sevenoaks , Kent