Housing
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Brisbane’s Interwar House Styles and Who was Responsible?
Judy Rechner, Historian,
Brisbane
This paper discusses changes in styles of Brisbane’s vernacular
housing during the interwar period. It is based on research into Queensland’s
state housing, the Workers’ Dwelling scheme. Workers’ Dwellings
were not rows and rows of identical houses. Nor were they built from
a limited number of stock plans. State housing did not signify shabby
little homes for those of low socio-economic means. Workers’ Dwellings
were designed by public service architects to suit the block of land
and applicants needs.
The main thrust of my paper is who was responsible for designs and
why changes occurred and during the interwar period. While the initial
1910s designs were very simple, the Workers’ Dwellings architects
were aware of architectural trends and these influenced their designs.
The 1920s fresh-air fad resulted on sleeping verandahs; promotion of
the Californian Bungalow in the 1920s created new styles and saw adaptation
of its features to older styles while architectural concepts of modernity
and the austerity of the 1930s produced radical new designs and the
elimination of decorative features.
Formes Nouvelles and the Communication of Modern Domestic Ideals in Postwar Belgium
Fredie Floré & Mil
De Kooning, Department of Architecture and Urban Planning
Ghent University
In many Western countries the postwar period was characterised by a
broad social, political and cultural debate about 'good' modern living.
This debate had its roots in the interbellum period, but developed extensively
after the war, due to the enormous housing need and the expanding industrialisation.
The concept of 'good living' was based on the conviction that better
housing is a prerequisite for cultural and social emancipation. The
domestic interior, the decoration of the house and the way in which
objects, furniture and occupants relate to each other, were considered
issues of utmost importance.
This paper focuses on the communication of modern domestic interior
models in postwar Belgium: a virtually unexplored territory. It presents
a critical reading of the activities of Formes Nouvelles, an important
actor in the national debate on 'good living' and the first crystallisation
of the postwar revival of taste education in the form of a Belgian association.
Echoing domestic reform movements abroad, this group of critics, designers,
architects and producers aimed to promote 'good living' to a wider public
and to encourage the communication between young designers and production
firms. Although Formes Nouvelles had a substantial number of members
and some of its exhibitions obtained a large public interest, the importance
of the organisation mainly existed, not in educating, but in creating
temporary model interiors as exhibition places for the furniture experiments
of a select group of young Belgian designers.
Material Culture in the Relocation of Timber Framed Housing in South-East Queensland
Jo Case, Curtin University of Technology
Once seen as representational of the pioneering spirit, the practice
of relocation of predominantly ‘timber and tin’ dwellings
in South East Queensland between the mid-nineteenth century and current
time has evolved, now accommodating the complexities of a range of contemporary
concerns.
This proposal, in part, reviews the rationales for this common practice
in historical and cultural contexts. Sources for historical studies
include work by Donald Watson (1981) and Ian Evans (1994) for information
directly related to the Queensland house. A broader historical study
on portability and prefabrication reviews work by Gilbert Herbert (1974)
and Robert Kronenburg (1998). The continuing popularity of house relocation,
partly attributed to cultural value, is examined in the context of cultural
identity as reviewed by Rod Fisher (1994) and material culture by Glassie
(2000).
The paper also identifies the deliberations of the modern house mover
discussing issues of persuasion including the romance of age (of the
Queensland timber framed house), economic benefits, reuse in relation
to environmental sustainability and architectural potential. Case studies,
supported by quantitative data suggesting the significance of this housing
option, include evaluations of the Guthrie Residence (Steve Guthrie
Architect) and the Borgelt/ Butcher Residence (Julie Borgelt Architect)
to illustrate these points.
Modernism and the Games Village: suburban experimentation at the
VIIth British Empire and Commonwealth Games, Perth 1962
Lee Stickells, University of Western
Australia
Bearing the influence of the English Garden City movement, the Garden
Suburb was translated to Perth in the early 20th century. The subsequent
verdant landscape and detached, single-family homes, realized in the
antipodean villas of the early twentieth century garden suburbs, were
understood to influence the way people conducted their lives. As an
affective mechanism, the form and arrangement of the dwelling, and its
position within the landscape could help foster ideal models of private
behaviour, familial relations, and their extension into the wider community.
In the design of the Athletes’ Village for the 1962 Empire Games,
this predominantly 19th century conception of suburban form intersected
with the local strain of post-WWII modernism. Altered approaches to
architecture and planning, along with wider changes in the notions of
citizenship and domesticity, gained expression in the form of the Village.
This paper will examine the process of planning and designing the
Athletes’ Village, particularly addressing the manner in which
Modernist planning and architectural ideas interacted with contemporary
cultural shifts in Australia, and the dominance of the Garden Suburb
form in Perth. It will be argued that the Village became the site for
an incomplete experiment where the residential landscape was projected
as the means to structure new concepts of community.
The Self-Build Housing of Men and Others: researching gender and vernacular architecture in Australia
Caroline Denigan, The University
of Adelaide
This paper highlights questions of women’s roles in the creation
of vernacular architecture and applies that emergent critique to women’s
self-build housing research in Australia. The paper draws on preliminary
results from the author’s own research.
Holland’s 1979 research into Registered Owner-builders in the
Sydney area, which used a sample that was 99% male, allows comparison
to be drawn with a sample of male and female owner-builders from across
Australia. The preliminary results of the author’s research showed
substantial differences in levels of education of males and females,
other differences in the amount of construction undertaken and time
taken for completion and small differences in the range of ages and
average age at the time of construction. When women build, they do so
in a range of circumstances and their experiences are different from
those of men.
Preliminary analysis also shows the contingent nature of people’s
self definition as a ‘builder’. Men more readily identify
with this description. For women the picture was more complex and framing
by the researcher would seem to be at least as important as the individual’s
own attitudes.
The New Suburban Dream: the marketing of Pettit & Sevitt project houses 1961-1978
Judith O’Callaghan, Faculty
of the Built Environment University of New South Wales
During the late 1940s and early 1950s the Australian suburban environment
was shaped by owner-builders, small contract builders and speculative
development. By the late 1950s and early 1960s, that situation was changing
and an affluent and selective market for housing was emerging. Pettit
& Sevitt, established in Sydney in 1961, was one of the first building
companies to successfully tap this new market. It offered home-buyers
the option of a customised, project home designed by an Australian architect
such as Ken Woolley, Michael Dysart, Harry Seidler, Russell Jack or
Neil Clerehan. While the significance of Pettit & Sevitt’s
architect-designed project homes has been acknowledged in a number of
studies of Australian architecture, beginning with Robin Boyd’s
Australia’s Home (1968), no attempt has been made to analyse the
basis of its success in marketing itself and its product. Drawing on
original research, the paper examines Pettit & Sevitt’s promotional
strategies in the context of its identified market. The paper argues
that while Pettit & Sevitt may not have invented the idea of architect-designed
project housing, it contributed significantly to the shaping of its
identity within the popular consciousness.
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