UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE
CROSS-SECTION
Issue No. 171
1,1 Photos: Nigel Buesst
In Carlton (Melb.), not far from where the Housing Commission are doing their best to obliterate sub- standard housing and all the heterogeneous and fas- cinating qualities that go with it, three new art galleries have been attracted to the area, presumably not by the new H.C. megaliths, but by Carlton's proximity to the city, University, and professional offices which are beginning to filter northwards to escape the high rents of the more fashionable areas. The "Strines" Gallery shown above, is in a two-storey corner house which has had its exterior little changed apart from being painted and a courtyard entrance added to the rear, but the interior has been virtually gutted. A delightful eccentric pair of supports, one a cast iron column, one a brick pier, remain to support two interior brick arches. There are four different floor levels within the building. Floors stop short of the walls, walls stop short of corners, and there are many nicely contrived small glimpse-views from level to level (one of which can be either embarrassing or enchanting, depending on your state of mind) and for once the hackneyed old phrase "interpenetrating space" can be used as a complimentary description. McGlashan and Everist, archts.
¶ The Ian Buchan Fell Bequest is a $500,000 bequest made to the University of Sydney's Faculty of Archi- tecture. Mr. Barrie Dewhurst, architect on the Faculty staff, has been appointed by the trustees to lead group housing research financed by the bequest.
¶ Construction has commenced on a four-storey office building in Albert Street, East Melbourne, which will be the new headquarters of the Master Builders' Asso- ciation of Victoria. It will also relocate the Building Display Centre. Cost $600,000. Architects: Perrott, Lyon, Timlock and Kesa. Builders: E. A. Watts Pty. Ltd.
January 1, 1967
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The architecture section of the ANZAAS Congress in Melbourne next January, 1967, promises a good programme of papers, with many well-known pundits and performers taking part. The official timetable is as below:Monday, 16th January.
11.00 a.m. Official opening of Congress—Lord Casey, Prof. Sir Frederick Schonell.
2.00 p.m. Symposium: Suburbia—Dr. F. W. Ledgar (Chairman). New Concepts of Suburbia—Paul Ritter (City Council, Perth). New Towns and Techniques for Australia — Ray Archer (N.C.D.C.).
3.45 p.m. Symposium: Suburbia (cont.) "Slurb is—"
Harry Parsons (South Australian Institute of Tech- nology). A University in the Suburbs — Roy Simpson (Architect, Melbourne).
Tuesday, 17th January.
9.30 a.m. Symposium: Suburbia (cont.) Selected As- pects of Suburban Housing — John Toon (U. of Sydney). Change and Choice in Housing — A. J.
Gillisen (Adelaide University).
11.15 a.m. Symposium: Suburbia (cont.) Leisure in Suburbia — F. D. Wallace van Zyl (Adelaide University).
Suburban Open Space, its Value and Use—Margaret J. Hendry (NCDC, Canberra).
2.00 p.m. Excursion: Recent Suburban Developments.
6.00 p.m. Buffet Dinner, followed by films.
Wednesday, 18th January.
9.30 a.m. Symposium: Suburbia (cont.) Principle of Least Injury in Planning of Low Density Residential Quarters — P. Middleton (U. of W.A.). Adaptation of Traditional Housing — Gordon Appleby (U. of New- castle). The Realisation of Environmental Standards—
Robin Rockel (U. of Auckland).
11.15 a.m. Symposium: Suburbia (cont.) Migrants and Housing in Geelong — Femi Akinyemi (U. of Mel- bourne). The Local Street — A Study of Street Service
— B. C. S. Harper (Traffic Commission, Victoria).
2.00 p.m. ANZAAS Lecture: Complexities of Urban Change —J. J. Bayly (Dept. of Town and Regional Planning, U. of Melbourne).
3.45 p.m. Symposium: Suburbia (cont.) Panel Dis- cussion — selected speakers.
Evening: Presidential Address — Developing Trends — Mr. Eu Jin Seow (Singapore).
Thursday, 19th January.
9.30 a.m. Symposium. Environmental Design — Prof.
H. J. Cowan (Chairman).
Some Enquiries into Design Method—T. W. Chu (U.
of Melbourne).
Problems of Measurement in Engineering Asthetics — T. F. Heath (McConnell Smith and Johnson, Sydney).
11.15 a.m. Symposium: Environmental Design (cont.).
Climatic Design Data for Architects and Engineers—
A. H. J. Muffati (Bureau of Meteorology, Melbourne), and M. M. Singh (U. of Melbourne).
2.00 p.m. Symposium: Environmental Design (cont.).
Dust, its effects on the Human Environment — B. S.
Saini and G. C. Borrack (U. of Melbourne).
The Sonic Environment; Uses and Abuses — R. J. Carr (Carr and Wilkinson, Melbourne).
3.45 p.m. Symposium: Environmental Design (cont.).
Summary and concluding address—Professor B. B.
Lewis (School of Architecture, U. of Melbourne).
Friday, 20th January.
9.30 a.m. Excursions: (a) Housing Commission of Vic- toria, (b) Recent City Buildings of Interest. Enquiries and reservations should be directed to the ANZAAS Secretary, School of Architecture and Building, Univer- sity of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria. Telephone 34-0484.
¶ Cross-Section is now set in 8 point Helvetica type.
¶ Architect Mr. David Krantz has won W.A's. Clay Brick Award worth $3,000 for his design of a nine-storey block of 54 flats in Mill Point Road, South Perth, using structural walls in load-bearing brickwork.
¶ The $2,000 Copper Industry Scholarship for 1966 has been awarded to Sydney architect Mr. D. A. Briggs.
Photos: Kerry Dundas of Max Dupain & Assoc.
Clubbe Hall, Mittagong (N.S.W.), for Frensham Girls' School is built of load-bearing picked common brick- work. Several of the floors, including the stepped section of the auditorium, are paved in similar bricks.
The recesses in the auditorium walls are to break up sound reflections, and the ceiling is a series of folded planes, acoustically designed for reflection, in un- treated Radiata Pine boarding. Joinery generally is rough sawn. The original brief called for no natural light in the Auditorium but as the hall is used occa- sionally during the day, a small amount of natural light has been introduced. The ruggedness of the building suits the bush setting of the school, and the foyer space, with its continuity of brickwork, exposed timber truss and boarded ceiling, plus changes of level and boldly formed entrance openings, is a good exercise in the tough manner. The vocabulary is similar to MacKay and Cox's Sulman award schools for boys, though the use of the vocabulary is distinct, but if school girls and school boys are different, should we expect the character of the buildings which house them to be so much the same? Need we be limited to only one mood, caused by a predilection for a restricted group of materials and shapes? Allen, Jack & Cottier, archts; Alf Stephens & Sons, Bowral, bldrs; Consul- tants—Taylor, Thompson & Whitting, structural; Norman
& Addicoat, mechanical and acoustics. Sub-contractors
—Thos. Clarke & Sons Pty. Ltd., mechanical; Fred Hayes, Bowral, electrical; Aristoc Industries, movable seating; fixed seating designed by the archts in con- junction with Co-Ordinated Design and Supply Co.
Total cost $222,500, including mech. ($14,000), and fixed seating, wiring of stage lights but not the supply of spot lights or dimmer boards.
¶ Sydney Opera House: The State Government has appointed M. R. Hornibrook (N.S.W.) Pty. Ltd. as the controlling and co-ordinating contractor for the $20m.
plus third stage. Hornibrook will be paid a fixed fee of $720,000 for this. So far $23m. has been spent on stages one and two, the podium and the basic struc- ture and roof. The main elements of stage three are general electrical services, glass walls to the shell openings, interiors of the major and minor halls and other theatres, granite paving and cladding to the ex- terior of the podium, mechanical engineering services, and co-ordination of stage machinery and stage light- ing for which contracts have already been let. Mr.
Davis Hughes said he had set a target of 2,500 seats in the major hall for Mr. Ben Schlauger, New York architect with much experience in theatre seating de- sign, and Mr. Jordan, an authority on acoustics.
¶ The Housing Industry Development Association has become established as a registered national economy company. Under the direction of the resident council (Brisbane) Mr. Neil G. Crowley, economist, will plan and carry out studies in structure, capacity and market needs of future Housing Industry Association homes.
The company will operate in all States and will work with Government departments, University research* and town planning authorities.
* Footnote: The future of University Research is bleak but the proposed Federal Ministry of Education should prove a fruitful Government Department contact.
"Brut" concrete and bronze glazing sections gives this Sports Store in Brisbane a robust appearance. Oregon pine shelving and bush hammered concrete stair treads add up to the manifesto of the New Brutalists, circa 1968, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Even the fluorescent tubes are bravely exposed on the under- side of the concrete awning and it is refreshing to experience a modern shop without "false ceilings".
Here the central trunking duct belts right down the centre of the shop, hanging tight under concrete off- the-form ceiling. As a neighbour to sleek Qantas House (by the same archt, R. F. Gibson), this shows that convictions of "STYLE" may answer the old conun- drum of shop designers— "how shall we please them today". Or maybe it is just image making like "Marl- boro Country" masculinity versus "Peter Stuyvesant"
sophistication. Whatever the argument — this is a sig- nificant building for Brisbane and the definitive study for young architects hell bent on keeping up.
Photo: John Gollings.
This house in Kew (Melb.) sits towards the back of a long north and west facing corner suburban site. Ex- ternal and internal walls are clinker brick, floors are h.w. block parquetry and vinyl tile. The roof form is a hybrid: with a skillion lifting to catch early morn- ing sun, a hip sloping down from a mezzanine studio to reduce single storey volume in the kitchen, and a cut-off gable to the west. Within the open planned living volume there are three levels: gallery, kitchen- common room and studio above. Construction: cavity brickwork, timber rafters lined directly underneath with untreated plywood, foil insulation and white concrete roofing tiles. Neville Quarry, archt-owner.
The client asked the archts Brine Wierzbowski Asso- ciates to design this ladies' hairdressing salon within a Collins St. (Melb.) bldg to reflect the "mod" attitudes of his customers, and the happy result (above) fairly bubbles with lively colours (orange and brown) and black vinyl. All fittings, showcases, etc., were designed by the archts. Costs of the renovations $5,000, all inclusive.
"The Australian Pub" by J. M. Freeland (Prof. of Arch, U. of N.S.W.), Mlb. University Press, $7.00, is as much a social as an architectural history. As well as giving scholarly treatment to the development of a uniquely Australian institution, pub-type anecdotes are re- counted and the strange mixture of the Australian character which has so often legislated publicly against those things which it likes to do in private, is recog- nisable time and time again is observed in operation from 1788 to now. Eight pubs shown in photographs between pages 178 and 179 epitomise the hipped roof, low-verandah image of the pub as an Australian build- ing type. There is too much information in the Aus- tralian Pub for it to be gulped down in time-honoured manner, but it is rewarding sipping.
If Following hard on the heels of A.M.P's. announce- ment of a 26-storey office block in Melbourne comes their announcement of a 16-storey office block in Hobart to be that city's tallest. Cost $3,000,000.
Architects: Johnson, Crawford and de Bavay of Hobart.
Melbourne's A.M.P. is designed by S.O.M. in associa- tion with B.S.M. Does this mean that Melbourne's local firms are less capable of designing their city's largest structure than Hobart's, or if overseas firms really can produce a better design, does this mean that in Hobart it doesn't matter what it looks like?
¶ As an alternative to high-rise flat redevelopment, architects David Saunders in association with Gerd and Renate Block have designed flat development which has the terrace house form on the ground and first floor, topped by a floor of bachelor flats, which make the terrace houses more economically viable. The
$170,000 project is sponsored by the Combined Parish of Collingwood and North Richmond and is to be con- structed by Construction Engineering Pty. Ltd. on church land, Page Street, Clifton Hill, an inner suburb of Melbourne.
¶ Messrs. Clarke, Gazzard and Partners, architects and planners, of Sydney, have been awarded a $15,000 contract to prepare a planning scheme for Battery Point, Hobart. The area contains many buildings of historic interest and one of the terms of reference for the scheme is to preserve, reinstate and revitalise the area without inhibiting new development. The scheme is to provide redevelopers with incentives to maintain old buildings, and so avoid excessive costs for the council in acquiring and preserving historical sites.
Photo: Nigel Buesst
"Thesaurus", in Malvern (Melb.) is a new and very much "in" shop for furniture, fabrics and kitchen im- pedimenta, mostly Scandinavian and British, ranging from classical modern design to near "pop". In this photo the architecture of the shop (a renovation job) is almost obliterated by exotic pre-Xmas display, but the interior finishes and spaces designed by architect John Bish provide a crisp and sympathetic back- ground. The party wall between previously separate shops is penetrated by brick archways, and the shop- fronts are glazed floor to ceiling with no intermediate framing except for the entrance door. Ceiling is sprayed vermiculite, walls painted brick. The renovation, in- cluding lettable office space on the first floor, and a new toilet block, cost $17,000. R. Daniels Pty. Ltd., bldr.
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