Charles Robert Ashbee
Charles Robert Ashbee ( born May 17, 1863 in Isleworth, † May 23 1942 in Godden Green ) was an English architect, interior designer, silversmith, artisans, art theorist and poet.
Ashbee was born into a wealthy family. His father was a senior partner in a London law firm, and his mother came from a wealthy Jewish family in Hamburg. After studying at King 's College, Cambridge Ashbee made from 1882 to 1885 training at the church architect GF Bodley specialized. In 1888 he founded the London School of Handicraft - a training workshop for artisans - who had their first home in a vacant warehouse opposite the Toynbee Hall, 35 Commercial Street, in the midst of arms Vierteles London's East Side. June 23, 1888, he founded the Guild of Handicraft, together with Fred Hubbard, John Pearson, John Williams and CV Adams and - after the move - the Essex House Press. His plans for he had William Morris presented, but this idea swept aside with the remark that would not help with such a small experiment as a guild, the suffering of the unemployed. How much Morris was wrong, the establishment of other "schools" for example in Glasgow, Liverpool and Birmingham made clear. Your guild ( or guild ) with the workshop in Central London in 16 Brook Street was in 1900 has grown to 150 members. The craftsmen resulted from carpentry, carving, cabinets and painting. Was built as a blacksmith in the garden, they also featured metal and silver work, jewelery ago. 1898 Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott guild with collaborated in the production of furniture for the palace of the Grand Duke of Hesse- Darmstadt. 1900 the guild at the Vienna Secession Exhibition was represented.
Ashbee had been in touch with Frank Lloyd Wright when he visited and kept in touch with him later in 1896 America.
In 1902 Ashbee moved the school to Chipping Camden ( Gloucestershire ). The work of this school has been exhibited in London, Dusseldorf, Munich and Vienna, and were very successful. 1902 Ashbee became an honorary member of the Munich Academy, and in 1915 professor of English literature at Cairo. After working as an urban planning consultant in Jerusalem (1918-1922), he returned in 1923 to England.
As an architect, built Ashbee emphasizes simple, functional buildings, especially single-family homes, which formed to build and equip a whole.