Architecture, Building and Planning - Theses
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ItemThe modern house in Melbourne, 1945-1975( 1992)This dissertation reveals the method by which architects in Melbourne have designed the single family house in the period 1945 - 1975 and thus extends Robin Boyd's attempt in 1947 to describe a regional architectural manner for the state of Victoria. Critical to the study is an initial outline of a local tradition of condoned eclecticism in 1930s domestic architecture and the presence of an evolving housing stock that was mixed rather than predominantly that of the single family house. Modernism in 1930s Melbourne architecture is found to be part of a compositional tradition rather than emerging from ideological imperatives. Robin Boyd’s idea of a so-called Victorian Type is also found to be part of this compositional tradition. The study then examines the suppressive effect of World War 2 on this tradition and its eventual re-emergence during the ensuing three decades. The circumstances which encouraged the adoption of the language of modern architecture and its subsequent effects are examined via prevailing architectural themes. These include: the post-war Victorian Type; structural experiment; geometry; the influence of the East Coast Bauhaus and Frank Lloyd Wright; the continuing idiosyncratic assimilation and reformulation process (albeit under the guise of the Modern Movement) which described the modern house in Melbourne of the 1950s and 1960s; the renewed interest in texture, exposed materials and compartmented planning in the 1960s; and the eventual re-emergence of artifice in the composition of space, form and detail and a renewed variety and intricacy in choice of texture and materials. The three decades are shown to reveal a complex tradition in Melbourne domestic architecture concealed by the moral, aesthetic and industrial imperatives of the Modern Movement, the effects of World War 2 and subsequent shortages of materials and labour. This tradition is found to be an assimilation and reformulation of local and overseas sources into a distinctly regional domestic architecture based on Arts and Crafts ideals of honesty of structure and texture and has been perpetuated by the continued idealization of the single family detached house. Appendices relate to each chapter and describe: the use of period styles in the 1930s; the changing notion of house as commodity via the speculative house builder and the public housing authority; the machine made-house and the handmade house as circumstantial choices after World War 2; pre-war dreams of a modern Melbourne house as read through the architectural competition, and the changing image of the exhibition house in the 1950s. Four papers also examine the development of post-war domestic architecture in the United States (1945-1960) and Great Britain (1952-1969). The methodology of this dissertation has involved documentation, description and analysis. The study is inclusive and its framework has been deliberately broad to depict the era's previously undiscussed complexity and hence enable a more accurate portrayal of the period than previous selective histories have allowed.
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ItemResidential flats in Melbourne: the development of a building type to 1950( 1982)This work seeks to trace the development of residential flats designed in Melbourne before 1950. Particular emphasis is placed upon the earliest purpose built blocks which were built in about 1905. Two distinct types of flats evolved. The multi-story city type and the low rise suburban blocks which were built in response to an increasing demand for flats and as a result of the improvement of public transport. The quality of flat development varied with the location and class of the suburb and consequently the best blocks were generally built in the prestigious areas of Toorak and South Yarra. Flats not only varied markedly in quality but also in planning and this report makes a specific study of elements in flat design which differentiate them from any other building type. No overall view of architectural styles within flat design is made except when the adoption of a particular architectural philosophy affects the planning. The study reveals the remarkable variety in flat design and significant number of important individual buildings in what has generally been a neglected building type.
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ItemAn eclectic approach: rational eclecticism( 1997)This thesis was written for the Master of Architecture (By Design) course at the University of Melbourne. The course consisted of a Major and Minor Portfolio. The Minor Portfolio was done on the assumption that a collective architectural project existed. After completing the Minor Portfolio it became clear that such a collective project did not exist. An examination of the Minor Portfolio showed that the designs were eclectic and followed a particular pattern which could be called rational. Therefore rational eclecticism became the topic of investigation of this thesis. The result of this study is a statement of a rational eclectic architectural position in the Major Portfolio design projects and in the conclusions drawn in this written dissertation. The designs for the Master of Architecture (By Design) Major Portfolio (International Visitors' Centre and the Cardigan Street Housing) were produced by selecting ideas and forms as models for each design. In this design process, eclecticism was identified as the means by which forms or ideas are selected, and rationalism was identified as the development of an independent approach to design. The design process was organised as a syncretic project in which ideas and forms are associated by similarities rather than formed into a logically consistent system. An examination of recent examples of eclectic architecture showed that the value of eclecticism is in the insight that it offers to particular architectural questions, rather than in the development of a system of ideas or forms. These ideas were developed in the Major Portfolio designs. In the International Visitors' Centre design (Major Portfolio project 1), form was either the result, and representation of, an abstract idea distilled from an eclectic range of sources. In contrast, the Cardigan Street Housing (Major Portfolio project 2) design solution was free in its direct and literal use of forms based on an eclectic selection of architectural precedents. The rationality of the projects was a result of the way the precedents for the designs were abstracted to separate them from the authority of the systems they derived from. The conclusion of this thesis is that rational eclecticism is a design process suited to times when clear directions are not apparent. The opportunity for an eclectic designer in such times is to find the advantages of this lack of commonly accepted ideas. When an eclectic approach does take these opportunities it is an accepted and natural, though not encouraged or prominent, part of a pluralist architectural culture. Therefore, to have an eclectic position, it could be argued, is to hold a transitional position. However, a rational eclectic position that favours research so that the transition between positions results in a familiarity with, and ability to analyse, a wide range of other positions. It is this familiarity that is the strength of eclecticism since architectural pluralism is accepted as a success, rather than the cause of crisis.