The History Of Design And Architecture

ASSIGNMENT TWO

THE HISTORY OF DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE

Find five images of Australian house styles or buildings from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. So five styles in total.

Your main objective is to develop an understanding of the different design periods that have influenced Architecture and Design since the first settlers arrived in Australia.

You need to identify the historical influences and characteristic features (exterior only) that are evident in these images.

Please make sure your images are clear and the details can be seen.

Pay attention to the architectural style, roof pitch, style of windows and doors, building materials, ornamentation and decorative features.

Through researching each in turn, you will quickly learn to identify certain historical influences from the architectural façade that are symbolic or iconic to that particular time period.

 VICTORIAN REGENCY  c. 1840 – 1890

Australian Youth Hotel, Sydney
Dalswraith, Victoria
The extent of this design is Australia-wide. This style is a continuation of the nineteenth century gothic tradition, influential of the modern gothic work of the United States such as the Washington cathedral. The modern ‘Functionalist’ movement had little influence on religious architecture leaving the Gothic style a common choice. Architects approach was free rather than ‘archaeological’. Ornament was less detailed than earlier periods and often had a hard mechanical quality. Churches and colleges continued to be free-standing.

Architect Unknown 

c. 1852

 v Parapet embellishments

 v Parapet concealing roof

    v Smooth, textured stucco 

 v Painted wall finishing’s

    v Corrugated roof covering

    v Stucco architraves

    v Cast iron columns

    v Cast iron railing

    v Cantilevered balcony

 v Sash windows with large plains

    v Medium pitched roof

The extent of the Victorian regency reached mainly to New South Wales and Tasmania, less common in other states. This particular style was an extension of the Old Colonial Regency, reaching its final expressions in the Victorian Period. This style being plain and elegant with simple forms and sparsely classical details.

Facades were characterised by recessions and divisions turning to panels. Stucco was a preeminent material. Fine exposed brick and stone masonry were popular, and roofs usually concealed parapets. Cantilevered was also a popular use on balconies. Many roofs that were covered by Old Colonial Regency shingles are shed for sheeted corrugated iron. Pediments were becoming increasingly uncommon while architraves and entablatures became a growing trend for the classical fashion. Louvered window shutters were sometimes evident as well as dormers. Cast iron verandas are featured on this hotel.

G. S. Kingston and William Weaver were the key practitioners of this style because of its simplicity, appealing to the speculative builders.

FEDERATION QUEEN ANNE c. 1890 - 1915

Ussher and Kemp – Architects   

c. 1900

   v Terracotta ridges

   v Marseilles pattern terracotta tiles

   v Ensemble of varied roof shapes

   v Half-timbered gables

   v Wall hung shingles

   v Oriel

   v Tuck pointed brick walling

   v Projecting bays

   v Bracketed flying gables

   v Dormer echoing gables

This period style was evident Australia-wide. This imported style was a combination of ‘Old English’ upper-middle-class rural vernacular and ‘Anglo-Dutch’ domestic housing. The styling was of picturesque, asymmetrical form with roof dominants and barge-boarded gables. Conical ‘tower-like’ elements were fashionable as well as dormers and tall chimneys. Verandas on more than one side were often widened to form a ‘pizza’ look. Bays and bay windows are still popular. Face-brickwork or red and painted timber detailing were a trend.

Cast-iron decorations were rare in this period, making room for Art-Nouveau inspired lead-lighting and double hung window sashes. Though regional variations included limestone or timber walls and corrugated iron roofs.

Elaborate terracotta ridges and gable end accessories were a trend as much as the growing use of Australian flora and fauna decorative motifs.

INTER-WAR COMMERCIAL PALAZZO c. 1915

Alcaston House Melbourne

A. and K. Henderson – Architects

   c. 1930

 

   v Attic floor above cornice

   v String course

   v Balcony

   v Smooth textured wall

   v Metal-framed windows

   v Chamfered/Round corners

   v Rustication

   v Florentine arch

A sensitively detailed palazzo that divides into three, extends mainly to capital cities. A design that is part of a world-wide trend that is seeing the end of its classical style, having strong influences from the United States. Essentially a façade expression, the details are free, simple and vertically stretched. The reinterpretation of an Italian Renaissance period suggests a load-bearing wall construction rather than a framed one. Its large scale usually has a strong relationship to the street alignment. A typical palazzo is constructed of a visually heavier metal, repetitive rectangular windows, a symmetrical design, florentine cornices and an upper part of the façade often subdivided by an occasional string course. The Renaissance detailing is inspired through the balconies, balustrades, consoles and the rusticated detailing effects.

The fire-protected metal frame and masonry infill makes these buildings strong but expensive, especially with the use of finishes such as stone or faience.

FEDERATION FREE CLASSIC c. 1890-1915

His Majesty’s Theatre, Perth

William Wolf – Architect

c. 1904

v Papet concealing roof

v Decorative accents on skyline

v Entablature

v Pilaster

v Giant order

v String course

v Pediment

v Non-semicircular opening

v Semicircular opening

v Deliberately asymmetrical façade

The extent of this design is known Australia-wide. This style was popular by the spreads in publications in Britain and the United States eventually reaching Western Australia through the 1890s and 1900s. The rising cost of urban land started the rain of taller buildings. An expression of society’s growing prosperity. This style was distributed widely, ranging from large urban structured housing but commercial and institutional was most common. Symmetry was preferred during this period but ‘freedom’ expressed asymmetry. Mannerisms were discernible, classical forms sometimes simplified and distorted while towers continued in popularity.

The concealed use of steel and reinforced concrete were an expression of freedom such as wide intercolumniation  large windows and greater heights. The appearance of traditional load-bearing construction was still maintained. Classical motifs from many periods such as entablature were evoked.

INTER-WAR GOTHIC c. 1915-1940

St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, Queensland

Dornbusch and Connelly

c. 1926

    v Vertical elements on skyline

    vSpire
    v Tower

    v Parapeted gable
    v Pinnacle

    v Tracery

    v Stoned mullioned window

    v Loggia porch
    v Wheel window

    v Asymmetrical massing

Massing in relation to the towers were often asymmetrical. Walls were built of stone, face brickwork or combinations of thereof and sometimes with a pattern. Medium to steeply pitched roofs, turrets and lanterns (for vertical accents) were fashionable. Towers rarely had spires. Pointed arches (from lancets to four-centred) used for openings in masonry walls and in arcades were popular. Buttresses, pinnacles, crochets and crenulations were also a part of this periods design.

Traditional load-bearing masonry walls, exposed timber roof trusses were constructed over large spans. Steel and reinforced concrete constructions (concealed from view) were used when necessary.