Tech Climate Essay 5

7/31/2019 Tech Climate Essay 5

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Discuss the roles of climate and technological development in the design of architect-

designed houses of the 1950s and 60s in Australia. Refer to examples from, at least,

Queensland, NSW and WA.

Material and labour shortages, the increasing importance of consumer goods and the influence

of the International Style all meant that the residential architecture of 1950s and 60s Australia

was to break significantly from the past. Homes designed in the period by architects such as

Robin Boyd, Sydney Ancher, Harry Seidler and John Dalton displayed a willingness to

experiment outside the sphere of the mainstream. The new building styles trialed were

necessarily influenced by the Australian climate, and the unique Australian conditions saw

regional strains arise that deviated subtly but significantly from their overseas parallels, such as

the California Modern. Superficially, it would seem that the technological developments such as

the myriad of new paints and paneling options as well as the inescapable realities of the

Australian climate would play a primary shaping role. While these factors did influence designs,

they were often secondary considerations, or even afterthoughts. New technology was

employed mainly as a vehicle for realizing the modernist ambitions of the architects. Consumer

technology in the form of white goods had some role to play in changing plan layouts, an

example being the end of the washroom in favor of an integrated laundry. Some architects

embraced the regional climate as a defining design element, but many shrugged it off as much

as they dared, leaning instead towards dubiously practical aesthetics such as full length

windows and flat roofs, both of which are sub optimal in the Australian sun. Technological and

climatic concerns had an inevitable and important role to play in 1950s and 60s houses, but

only as secondary concerns.

In the years following the war and into the 1950s, shortages of materials and labour would

prove to play a defining role in residential architecture. There were governmental restrictions,

for example, limiting maximum floor space. There was a period in which the traditional

Queensland house with its generous veranda spaces was impossible to build even in modest

sizes, due to expense and the aforementioned floor space restrictions. Austerity drove

technological innovation as homeowners demanded cheap but respectable materials to build

and furnish their homes with. Some of the compromises necessitated by thrift and shortage


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developed into styles of their own. The most outstanding example of this is the use of brick

veneer, originally forced on builders due to brick shortages, but later becoming entirely

respectable1, as Robin Boyd disparagingly remarked in his famous 1960 book criticizing what

he termed featurism.

Despite austerity, the range of building materials witnessed an explosion in the post war years.2

The market was flooded with many types of cladding, roofing materials, paving, flooring

materials, paints, fabrics and plastic laminates3. Magazines such as Home Beautiful displayed

new types of doors and windows, and fashionable light fittings. Most impressive to the public

was the explosion in available paint types and colours4. New manufacturing techniques lead to

the creation of water based paint for the first time.

Timber frame housing was an affordable and thus popular housing choice, even for architect

designed houses. Fibre-cement asbestos sheeting steadily increased its market share as it had

been doing since the 30s5. 'Durabestos' from Wunderlich and 'Fibrolite' from James Hardie

dominated the market in the post-war era6.

One important area where emergent technology influenced design methodology, albeit

indirectly, was the impact of new household appliances. The increasingly automated home

meant old design principles no longer made sense anymore. The 1950s and 60s saw the

detached wash house become a thing of the past as washing machines replaced the wash

copper7. The relationships between the different rooms of the house were changing, and the

move was towards informality8. The introduction of commercial television in 1956 meant that

even more emphasis was being placed on the living room. Meals once served in the kitchen or

1 Robin Boyd, The Australian Ugliness (Melbourne: F.W. Cheshire, 1960), 21

2 Peter Cuffley, Australian Houses of the Forties & Fifties (Knoxfield: The Five Mile Press, 1993), 80

3 Cuffley, 80

4 Cuffley, 80

5 Cuffley, 80

6 Cuffley, 80

7 Cuffley, 157


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dining area were now eaten in the living room9. The introduction of goods such as dishwashers,

electric stoves, and washing machines meant it made sense to integrate appliances into wall

cavities in order to save space. The now ubiquitous stainless-steel kitchen sink mounted on a

built in cupboard base also began to appear in the 1950s for the first time10. The rise of built in

furniture was both a product of new modernist ideas about space, and a practical response to

an increase in the number of white goods in the average kitchen. Built in furniture remained

one of the few modernist ideas that found widespread acceptance throughout Australia11.

Historians such as John Freeland have argued12that it was mainly the post-war shortages that

drove the minimal style of the fifties with its lack of detailing. However, as Bridgeman argues,

economic rationalism alone cannot explain the transformation in form and spatial

organisation.13 Modernist design aesthetic gaining a foothold in Australia during the period is

the other explanation put forward. The truth is that these two went hand in hand. The use of

prefabricated components enabled by new modes of production was always an important part

of modernism, as was its anti-decorative stance that resisted anything stuck on that didnt

reflect a purity of form and materials. Modernism and prefabricated fibre-cement panels was in

many ways a match made in heaven. Architects would design modernist window walls, and not

long after manufacturers would start selling whole prefabricated window wall units as standard

components, when the look became popular14.

Window-walls were the ultimate, with different types of ventilation windows including casements, balanced

sashes, horizontal sliding sashes, awnings or hoppers and the ubiquitous louvres15.

8 Cuffley, 160

9 Cuffley, 157

10 Cuffley, 157

11 Cuffley, 155

12 Bridgeman, 83

13 Bridgeman, 83

14 Apperly, Irving and Reynolds, 218

15 Cuffley, 88


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Minimalism is not to be conflated with modernism, but it was the minimalist aspect of

modernism that found most traction in a post-war Australia that lacked the idealists of Europe

with their grand ideas and philosophies about the machine aesthetic. The type of thinking that

resulted in cerebral, highly abstract design philosophies developed by groups such as De-Stijl in

the 1920s and 1930s simply never happened in Australia. As such Australian modernism was at

best adaptation and at worst appropriation. The very idea of an Australian interpretation of

modernism was nonexistent until Robin Boyds 1947 book Victorian Modern was published,

which helped to encourage the style of building it described.16

Many Australian architects of the 50s found the pull of modernism irresistible, despite a largely

apathetic public. Some, such as Sydney Ancher and Frederick Romberg visited Europe where

the works of Walter Gropius and Mies Van Der Rohe made a deep impression17. Gropius himself

visited Australia in 1954. Harry Seidler was a student at Harvard when Gropius was lecturing

there, and was even invited to work in his office. Despite the enthusiasm to emulate Miess

style (Rose Seidler House, John Dalton House, Mocatta House by Gibson), the work of American

architect Frank Lloyd Wright turned out to be more palatable to the Australian public.

The desire to work with, rather than against, the indigenous landscape made Frank Lloyd Wright a more appealing

figure than the rationalists of Europe.18

The work of Bruce Rickard represents a fine example of an overseas style being adapted to

Australian climatic conditions, creating a parallel current without compromising the original

styles integrity. Rickard studied in the US, visited Europe in 1954, and counted Louis Kahn as

one of his tutors, even being offered a position by him. He found the work of Frank Lloyd

Wright deeply impressive, and many architects remarked that they owed much of their carreers

16 Richard Apperly, Robert Irving, and Peter Reynolds: A Pictorial Guide To Identifying Australian Architecture

(Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1994), 218

17 Cuffley, 94

18 Jennifer Taylor, Australian Architecture Since 1960 (Canberra: Australian Institute of Architects, 1990), 36


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to the slide shows on Wrights work that Rickard presented in 1957 on his return to Australia19.

Bruce Rickards houses had distinct Wrightian elements such as the emphasis on the central

hearth, the rich dark timber and brick tones, the emphasis on horizontality generated by the

floating roof. Rickard however placed greater emphasis on the outdoor living opportunities

presented by the constant Australian sun, mediating the interior and exterior spaces in a

manner quite alien to Wrights more contained buildings.20Where the Mies inspired houses

preferred to hover over the landscape, Rickards houses nestled comfortably into the site, in-

between the trees, preferring to complement the earths own natural brown tones as opposed

to creating contrast with pristine white panels.

Many architect designed homes of the 1950s and 60s ventured into unexplored territory. Some

experimental design types as seen in Iwan Iwanoffs bizarre brutalist houses in Perth were

simply too radical to have any hope of catching on. Other architects such as Harry Seidler

managed to introduce aspects of the Australian brand of modernism successfully into the

mainstream. Harry Seidler went on to enjoy huge success, building high rise office blocks in

Perth, wider Australia and Malaysia.

An interesting example of modernism trickling slowly into the mainstream from its original

niche of architect designed homes is that of the Melbourne Regional Style. Robin Boyd wrote

extensively on the style, designed houses in the style (Hillary Ross House, 1954) and is in many

ways its patron. Roy Grounds was also a key founding figure. Nagging always in the back of

these architects minds was the tension between regional concerns and dedication to the tenets

of the Modern Movement.21 Melbourne Regional was modernism boiled down into elements

simple enough for the average Australian to understand.22

19 Architecture Bulletin November/December 2011

20 Taylor, 36

21 Taylor, 13



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The Melbourne Regional Style aimed to provide south-eastern Australia with a kind of modern architecture that

would not provoke fear and loathing.23

The style managed to avoid this fear and loathing perhaps because its primary habitat wasthe Australian bush site and the outer suburban block, from where it slowly advanced on

civilization.

The archetypal Melbourne Regional House was to be found in an outer suburb or in the bush. It was single storied

and had a narrow, linear plan. It gained an unassertive horizontality from its low-pitch gabled roofs of corrugated

asbestos cement with exposed rafters at the wide eaves and with slim bargeboards. Where necessary, the walls of

bagged and painted brick or varnished boarding gave way to large glass areas which were rhythmically articulated

by timber mullions spaced about a meter apart. Window walls like this soon became available as standard framed

components. Colour- generally smoky and muted but occasionally strong, was carefully considered throughout24.

Many architect designed houses in the 1950s and 60s made prominent use of interesting

construction technology, but the desire to realize modernist ambitions came first, and

technology was merely a means to an end. Giant A frames (Kew House, McIntyre) and

impressive cantilevers (Richardson House, Boyd) were certainly unusual, but were not exactly

groundbreaking technological achievements. New technology, sometimes as simple as the

aluminium window frame, helped to realize a preoccupation with geometry fostered initially by

Roy Grounds with his triangular and circular houses. Again, the architects had a core idea

(geometry) and the new components of the day merely served to make this vision somewhat

easier to achieve.

The Boyd house employed a tensile roof strung between vertical supports, and the unusual

structure was visible from both the inside and the outside. The individual spaces were

differentiated primarily through changes in floor lever rather than walls.

In the 1950s Australia was one of many countries to conduct research into the optimal design

and construction methods for the climate. In Queensland, CSIRO findings saw the creation of




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the axial, one room deep house. This long narrow house was to have windows on both sides to

capture the prevailing breezes,25 it having been decided that air movement was the primary

factor in determining physiological comfort in humid climates.26 By the late 1950s, however, the

emphasis had shifted from airflow considerations to sun control.27

The type of modernism that many Australian architects wanted to emulate after seeing the

work of their European and American contemporaries was in many ways ill-suited to the

climate. Still, they could not resist implementing full length windows and glass curtain facades

without the generous overhangs needed to prevent harsh sun penetration.

The roof pitch dropped to become as flat as the architects dared to leave large areas of external walls exposed to

the sun. The short east and west walls were similarly exposed while shading to the long walls was further

compromised if the optimum east west orientation could not be achieved. With large areas of glass louvres in the

walls to maximize ventilation, there was little to protect the internal spaces from direct solar radiation, except

curtains that blocked the breeze.28

An example of an attempted use of technology to respond to the Australian climate can be

found in Architect John Daltons own house built in Brisbane, 1959. The house used sprinklers

to achieve evaporative cooling on the roof, made extensive use of adjustable louvres, and had a

central ventilating clerestory that generated a stack effect. In these regards it was far ahead ofits time. The louvres shading the north faade can be interpreted as a return to the shaded,

screened verandas of the traditional Queensland home which were originally stripped away by

the anti decorative modernists at the expense of adequate shading for the new, large

windows. It was only slowly, through trial and error, that the architects began to remedy the

impracticalities of the glass box in an Australian setting29.

25 David Bridgeman, Acclimatisation: Architecture at the top end of Australian (Canberra: The Australian Institute of

Architects, 2003), 8

26 Bridgeman, 74

27 Bridgeman, 75

28 Bridgeman, 85



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Another house that responded to local weather conditions, but only as an afterthought, was

the Paspaley House, designed by Harry Seidler and constructed in 1959. The house is roughly

box shaped with a series of cross walls dividing the space into rooms. The high masonry end

walls act as heat sinks, while the living room is naturally ventilated. The bedrooms were

however not adequately provided for and air conditioning had to be installed. Bridgeman sums

up not only the Paspaley house but the halfhearted attitude of the architects of the 1950s in

general succinctly with the following statement.

The house is uncompromisingly modern in its aesthetic with a passing acknowledgement of the climate.30

The architectural profession in the 1950s and 60s was tasked with mediating the tensions

between post-war shortages and a radical new approach to design. As architects wrestled withthese primary concerns, the unique conditions of the Australian climate remained in the

background. Technology was utilized, sometimes with enthusiasm but without ever being given

the status of driving force. In Europe, Le Corbusier developed the concept of the Unite

dHabitation, the grand idea of the interlocking home designed as a kit of parts given impetus

by new mass production techniques. In Australia, architects imitated Mies Van Der Rohe, which

amounted in the end to little more than the public receiving window-wall units as standard

components. The legacy that modernism left in Australia was of designers either dawdling at

the edge of public acceptance or making such bold, uncompromising gestures that they were

unable to find footing. David Bridgeman sums the issue up succinctly when he states: climate

and environmental considerations have always been adapted to the dominant architectural

language of the time, with varying degrees of success. Architects started with a design

philosophy and tweaked it just so much that the climate and the available technology would

allow it to be built.

30 Bridgeman, 87


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Abstract

Many Australian architects of the 1950s and 60s were keen to put modernist design principles into practice at

home after being influenced by the work of their European and American contemporaries. Two factors, however,

stood between them and the realization of their visions. The first was the post war shortage of labour and

materials which resulted in austerity measures. The second was the Australian climate, which made the imitation

of overseas modernism impractical without modification. Despite austerity, a huge variety of new building

materials swamped the market, including many types of cladding, roofing materials, paving, flooring materials,

paints, fabrics and plastic laminates. Neither climatic concerns nor technology were ever the primary drivers

behind Architect designed houses in the 1950s and 60s. Some architects (Roy Grounds) were motivated by a

fascination with geometry, some imitated Mies van der Rohe (Harry Seidler), or Frank Lloyd Wright (Bruce Rickard)

or drew inspiration from Walter Gropius. Architects such as Mcintyre and Boyd made bold statements with huge A-

frames and giant cantilevers, but even then the preoccupation was on creating strong architectural gestures and

the technology retained the role of facilitator, being essentially merely construction techniques scaled up to fit

newfound roles. Examining the architect designed homes of the period reveals a three way balancing act between

available technology, the Australian climate, and modernism. By examining the influential designers of the period,

the role of technology both directly and tangentially related to design, and the response of the architects to the

climate we can see that the balance tipped clearly towards style. Architects started with a design philosophy and

tweaked it just so much that the climate and the available technology would allow it to be built.

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Tech Climate Essay 5