Sydney Open Talks: House - lecture series
Sydney Open Talks: House is a special series of lectures exploring historical and contemporary perspectives in architecture, heritage, design and development. The series presents eight conversations in which eminent historians and writers will be paired with leading contemporary architects, social commentators and property specialists to examine different types of housing, from 19th-century villas and Californian bungalows, to McMansions and emergency shelters.
About Sydney Open
Sydney Open is a biennial event that returns in 2012 from Friday 2 to Sunday 4 November, taking you behind the scenes of your city to discover the secrets of its significant buildings.
In partnership with the NSW Architects Registration Board
Architects attending the Sydney Open talks could claim informal CPD pointsSpeaker bios, talk précis and audio files
Bungalow: Dr James Broadbent | Scott Robertson
Apartment: Dr Caroline Butler-Bowdon | Adam Haddow
Villa: Scott Carlin | Philip Goad
Mansion: Dr Charles Pickett | Jonathan Chancellor
Beach shack: Dr Michael Bogle | Peter Stutchbury
Terrace: Keri Huxley | Hannah Tribe
Project home: Dr Judith O'Callaghan | Tone Wheeler
Portable: Megan Martin | Drew Heath
Bungalow
Listen to the discussion [MP3 file, 80 MB]
Dr James Broadbent, historian, conservationist and author |
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| Bio |
| Dr James Broadbent's main area of study is the history of colonial houses in New South Wales, their furnishings, gardens, and the society that built and lived in them. A former Senior Curatorial Advisor at the HHT, his publications, often complementing exhibitions of the same theme and title, include: India, China, Australia, Trade and Society 1788-1850, 2003; The Australian Colonial House, Houses and Society in New South Wales 1788-1842, 1997. Co-authored: Francis Greenway, Architect, 1997, The Age of Macquarie, 1992 and Gothic Taste in the Colony of New South Wales, 1980. James Broadbent lives at The Cottage, Mulgoa (c1810), an important early bungalow which he has saved from dereliction. He has advised on the conservation and restoration of many significant Australian houses and gardens, most recently the recreation of the garden at ‘Glenfield’. James has led highly successful HHT Members tours of historic houses and gardens of England and North Wales in 2009 and 2011. |
| Précis |
| Myth or reality? “The pioneer squires chose serene summits on which to place their homesteads. They had no extremes of climate to contend with and feared no hostile invasions. Selecting the tallest hill upon estates presented by the Crown, they built with taste and imagination, settling their white-walled homes like snowflakes fallen on cushions of verdure. Tranquillity surrounded them...The sunlight, falling on worn stone-flagged floors, is reflected on white-plastered ceilings, as on spreading white eaves, and between the columns appear sunlit spaces and pools of grey where clouds cast shadows on the plains beyond." In: Hardy Wilson, Old Colonial Architecture in New South Wales and Tasmania, Sydney: published by the author, 1924, pp. 4,7 |
Scott Robertson, Director, Robertson & Hindmarsh Architects |
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| Bio |
| Scott Robertson has over 30 years’ experience as an architect in private practice, involved in projects ranging from residential alterations and additions, new houses, small commercial and institutional projects as well as heritage projects. As a heritage architect, he has been involved in projects ranging from conservation management plans, major research projects and the design, documentation and contract administration of a range of conservation building projects. Scott was also a casual lecturer in architectural practice at the University of New South Wales in subjects relating to management for architects. He has written a large number of articles for newspapers and journals, chapters in books on architecture and has translated architectural works from both French and Indonesian to English, as well as giving general lectures on architecture and conservation and speaking at specialist seminars and conferences. Scott was the founding president of Docomomo Australia, the Australian branch of an international organisation, founded in the Netherlands and now headquartered in Barcelona, concerned with the documentation and conservation of buildings and areas or modern architecture. |
| Précis |
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Bungalows in NSW in the Twentieth Century. This talk traces the development of the bungalow in NSW in the twentieth century. The developer Richard Stanton first introduced the American style bungalow to Sydney in 1906 and by 1912 this new type of compact servantless house was being erected across Sydney by speculative builders. The influence of the carefully crafted Californian Bungalows can be seen in the work of architects who had worked and travelled in America, particularly Alexander Stuart Jolly and James Peddle. The more geometric Chicago Style was introduced to Sydney by the Griffins. By 1915 the bungalow was being promoted as the ideal home, in contrast to the terrace house form popular in the nineteenth century. In the years immediately after World War I, an Australian variant of the bungalow emerged, a brick house with the characteristic series of low gables. In country towns a different palette of materials were used, timber or timber combined with fibrous cement sheeting. By the 1930s the popularity of the bungalow was declining and more austere forms emerged. Original talk date: 26 April 2012 |
Apartment
Listen to the discussion [MP3 file, 81.8 MB]
Dr Caroline Butler-Bowdon, Assistant Director, Creative Services, Historic Houses Trust |
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| Bio |
| Dr Caroline Butler-Bowdon has worked in the cultural/heritage sector for over 15 years, including posts at the Museum of Sydney, the Art Gallery of New South Wales and casual teaching roles at the universities of Sydney and New South Wales. She has published widely and curated exhibitions on many aspects of Australian architecture, urbanism and social history. In 2008 her book Homes in the Sky: Apartment Living in Australia, co-authored with Dr Charles Pickett (MUP, 2007), won both the Australian Institute of Architects’ Bates Smart Architecture in the Media Award and Energy Australia National Trust Heritage Award for Interpretation and Presentation. |
| Précis |
| The history of apartment living in Australia is a parallel housing story to the more commonly told one of the house and garden. Since their arrival in Sydney in 1900 and for most of the twentieth century, apartment living has formed a popular alternative to the suburban cottage but nonetheless has always been a minority dwelling form in Sydney. That is until today when we see more apartments constructed each year than houses. Across key periods, this talk will cover the major shifts in apartment type, location, architecture and governance, apartments for middle-class owners and those for renters, against a background of debates for and against apartments. To illustrate the development of the apartment, particular attention will be given to the different apartment types – especially the tower, the slab and the walk-up – from the ice-breakers to the generic with an emphasis on individual buildings that promoted and/or exemplified change. |
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Adam Haddow, Director, SJB Architects |
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| Bio |
| Adam Haddow was awarded a 40th Anniversary Churchill Fellowship to study alternatives to conventional models of urban design and housing. The Fellowship took him to the United States, Columbia, Denmark, Germany, Holland, the United Kingdom, France, Austria and Japan. This sabbatical allowed the seeding of collaborations within both professional and academic Built Environment circles, focusing primarily on issues of density and liveability. Adam is a Councillor of the NSW Chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects where his emphasis is furthering the discussion and debate about the future vision of our cities. Adam has written for a number of publications and has appeared on radio and television. He is a Director of SJB Sydney which he helped establish in NSW in 2000. He is a registered Architect in Victoria and NSW and has tutored at the University of Melbourne and the University of Technology Sydney. Adam holds a Bachelor of Architecture with first class honours from the University of Melbourne, being awarded the Penelope and Edward Bilson Scholarship for Design. Adam has been exhibited in a number of exhibitions and has designed sets for both stage and television productions. |
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Development is not a Dirty Word: The delight and surprise of apartment living. As Australia’s most populous city, and arguably the one blessed with the greatest natural beauty, we have a responsibility to investigate more compact living environments - to save our landscapes, deal with our changing demographics and provide opportunities for more.There are no simple answers to the issues confronted by increasing densities. We are ‘comfortable’ and it is probable that an increase to the density of our city will be confronting, challenging and potentially painful - at least emotionally. It will however be through an investment in ideas by the private sector, facilitated by the active support of risk taking by government(s), by which we will arrive at new and exciting living environments.These new environments will not replace those that we have grown to love and loath, the suburbs and the high density core depending on your personal position, but will capture the imagination and spirit of new communities in an overlay of under-utilised places.This talk will investigate the seismic change that we need to breach and the statistics around the challenge we are confronted with, while offering some light at the end of the tunnel; the delight and joy that is emanating from out multiunit sector. Original talk date: 3 May 2012 |
Villa
Listen to the discussion [MP3, 76.2 MB]
Scott Carlin, Curator, Historic Houses Trust |
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| Bio |
| Scott Carlin has been a curator and property manager with the HHT since 1990 at properties as diverse as Rouse Hill House & Farm, Government House, Sydney, The Mint, Hyde Park Barracks, Elizabeth Bay House, Vaucluse House and Throsby Park, a property of the HHT’s Endangered Houses Fund. He is an architectural historian with an extensive record of publication and public programs. He has project managed many building and garden conservation projects including reinstatement of Greenway’s domes on the Hyde Park Barracks gate lodges and the external restoration of the Châlet at Government House, Sydney (an important 1890s Arts & Crafts Movement house by Walter Liberty Vernon). His exhibitions include Kings Cross - Bohemian Sydney (2003), based on original research into Elizabeth Bay House’s 20th century history, which reconnected the property with its local community. |
| Précis |
| ‘My villa is where I feel relaxed enough to take off my toga’ wrote Pliny the elder in c60AD. He and other Romans reveled in their villas where they could pursue intellectual and ‘country’ pleasures isolated from the business of the city. In the 16th century the architect, Andrea Palladio (1510-1580) illustrated a translation of Vitruvius’ Ten Books of Architecture (c15BC), based on study of ancient Roman buildings. This influenced Palladio’s own villa designs for Venetian nobles, then acquiring lands and titles in the Veneto. Palladio’s designs were in turn adapted by Lord Burlington and his followers for 18th century English country houses. In 1820s Sydney, Kings Cross and Potts Point were laid out as ‘villa allotments’ for the colony’s leading civil servants. While aware of the villa’s classical precedents, their owners embraced the modern cult of the suburban villa described by British writers such as J. C. Loudon. The villa, associated with Sydney’s earliest suburban development, has been the origin of Australia’s love of the quarter acre block and Sydney’s urban sprawl. |
Philip Goad, Professor of Architecture at the University of Melbourne |
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| Bio |
| Philip Goad is Professor of Architecture and Director of the Melbourne School of Design at the University of Melbourne. He has worked extensively as an architect, 20th-century-heritage consultant and curator. Known internationally for his research on modern Australian architecture, he is also an expert on the life and work of Robin Boyd. He was co-editor with Ann Stephen and Andrew McNamara of Modernism & Australia: Documents on Art, Design and Architecture 1917-1967 (2006) and Modern Times: the Untold Story of Modernism in Australia (2008). With Julie Willis, he is the editor of the Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture (Cambridge University Press, 2011). |
| Précis |
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In 20th century Australia, the spiritual and moral values associated with agrarian country life, and hence the image of the villa, became associated with the suburban idyll. A refuge from the city became available through the quarter-acre block and the polarity between villa and city blurred to almost nothing. But the dialogue between nature and culture was not forgotten. Two forms of contemporary Australian villa have since emerged, based on conceptions of landscape as either pastoral or wilderness. From Glenn Murcutt and Gabriel Poole to Guilford Bell and Denton Corker Marshall, the form and ideology of the villa persists as a resilient and romantic ideal. Original talk date: 10 May 2012 |
Mansion
Listen to the discussion [MP3 file, 66.3 MB]
Dr Charles Pickett, Curator of Design and Built Environment at the Powerhouse Museum |
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Dr Charles Pickett's books include The Fibro frontier: A different history of Australian architecture and Homes in the Sky: Apartment living in Australia. Charles is currently working on an exhibition about Le Corbusier and a book about designer project homes. |
| Précis |
| The trophy house is not a 21st century phenomenon: Australia has a long tradition of big, show-off houses. Once occupied by the wealthy and their servants, the mansion has recently been democratised. The Australian Bureau of Statistics has confirmed that new homes in Australia are now bigger than anywhere in the world. Whether built for battlers or arrivistes, the mansion is today a source of controversy. Charles Pickett will look at the Australian desire to dwell in excess, tracing the history of the big house from the colony to contemporary Australia. |
Jonathan Chancellor, Managing Editor, Property Observer |
| Bio |
| Jonathan Chancellor has been writing about property since the mid-1980s, and is the managing editor at Property Observer, which aims to be an important source of independent news, commentary and analysis for property investors and astute buyers. The site also appeals to those who are passionate - or just curious - about property, irrespective of whether or not they are currently in the market. His real-estate reporting began with the Herald in Melbourne, and for 25 years until 2011 Jonathan was a fixture at the Sydney Morning Herald as its longest-serving property editor. Title Deeds was begun by Jonathan in 1987, becoming one of Australia's longest published columns. He now publishes a column called Title Tattle. |
| Précis |
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Mansions are the palaces of mortals - displays of extraordinary self-made wealth. The Latin word, mansio had more functional origins, a place to spend the night. Somewhere along the way mansions came to be commodious permanent abodes with many bedrooms and the obligatory ballroom. Or nowadays home cinema. Of late there's been been the derisive term, McMansion as the display of residential monumentalism came to be viewed as outstripping sensible use. Never a term truly embraced by the populace, the mansion has seen its best days. At least outwardly. Original talk date: 17 May 2012 |
Beach shack
Listen to the discussion [MP3, 79.6 MB]
Dr Michael Bogle, Design Historian |
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| Bio |
| Michael Bogle, design historian, specialises in Australian architecture and design. His books include Design in Flight, a treatment of the Marc Newson design of the QANTAS A380 airbus interiors (2009); a book of essays, Designing Australia (2002) and Design in Australia 1880-1870 (1998). Michael has a PhD from RMIT’s School of Architecture and Design with a thesis on Arthur Baldwinson and regional modernism in Sydney. |
| Précis |
| Shack Therapy. The Australian beach shack represents the finest South Sea traditions of architecture without architects. The Australian beach shack that Bogle describes is a self-supporting collage of found objects and materials assembled with an innate system of reasoning; the first priority is shelter from the elements. All else follows. The shack responds to the site, materials are used in an economical way and the interior architecture confidently displays the eccentricities of its occupants. The true shack has a louche quality that positions it outside the censorious boundaries of the conventional community and well beyond the reach of Council inspectors. |
Peter Stutchbury, Peter Stutchbury Architects |
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| Bio |
| In 2004, Peter was awarded the University of Newcastle Convocation Medal for his contributions to the profession of Architecture. Peter's recognition has seen him as a member of over ten design juries. Peter has given over 150 lectures worldwide and has been keynote speaker at several international conferences. In 2004 he delivered the ‘Barnstone Lecture’ in Houston, Texas; the Luis Barragan Address in Mexico City in 2008; the Dalhousie Guest Lecture in Halifax, Canada in 2010; and spoke at RIBA in London and the Irish Institute of Architects in March 2011. A monograph of Peter’s work was published in 2000. A public exhibition of drawings and models was held in Melbourne in 2001, and in Sydney in 2006 and 2008. A second book of the firm’s work was published in 2010, and another published by the Architecture Foundation Australia in 2011. Peter sees buildings as rooms of education - the bridge between walking in the bush and wandering through the mind. Ultimately people are the act of integration within a true work of architecture. |
| Précis |
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A Beach Shack has numerous iterations. It derived from a history of coastal occupation from tents to town homes. The coast of Australia is one of the most extensive and variable beach landscapes throughout the world. It is no wonder that nearly 90 % of our population occupy this land. Is there a sensible way to occupy this mighty foreshore? Original talk date: : 24 May 2012 |
Terrace
Listen to the discussion [MP3, 84.1 MB]
Keri Huxley, social and political scientist and former mayor of Woollahra Council |
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| Bio |
| Keri Huxley, political scientist and former councillor and mayor of Woollahra, has worked at the federal level of government as a senior adviser, as well as over thirteen years in the public service, with a personal commitment to the public interest and the conservation of heritage. As a mayor and councillor Keri became keenly aware of the pressures of development and adaption as they impact on the terrace house. Keri has been an executive member of a heritage organisation for several years.The experience she has gained in public office has enabled her to reach across many aspects of planning for communities, and she is widely consulted in regard to complex socio-political projects and is focused on probity, and full transparency in decision making. The experience gained in the field gives her a ready appreciation of the many legal and technical issues, often complicated by political considerations, which arise, making her more than suitably qualified to present on heritage conservation topics. Keri combines a wide vocational understanding of process with a love of innovation, design, contemporary architecture and new ideas. |
| Précis |
| The Terrace - accidental beauty in the 21st Century. Since communities clustered together around the core of the town for convenience, opportunity and security the terrace form has withstood economic and social challenges and has proved itself a charming and resilient heritage housing form. This presentation on the ‘terrace’ will focus on the history of the terrace in the English and international context and will draw comparisons with the development of the terrace in Australia. In Britain and in Australia expression of the terrace had largely humble origins delivering economic benefits for builders and developers. In 1960s Australia Victorian forms were despised by some; Professor JM Freeland (1968) described terraces in Sydney and Melbourne, as “acres of crowded one or two - storeyed hovels jammed hard against each other” despite that the terrace “found ready buyers and made quick profits for their builders”. Freeland and fellow ‘modernists’ believed the wholesale replacement of the inner city terraces by multi-storey flats set in parkland was in the public interest. Some such as writer Ruth Park, once an advocate, came to realize that the terrace offered better land use, community lifestyles and accommodation than most high-rise residential buildings preferred by ‘modernists’. The terrace, once home to ‘working class’ families, now ironically and perhaps accidentally, houses the ‘new gentry’ who appreciate their visual charms, compact amenity, and urban convenience. Ideally in the 21st century, new generations - respectful of past human history - will cherish these resilient social, urban and historical remnants of earlier times - as fragile and beautiful architectural items worthy of restoration, adaption and reuse. |
Hannah Tribe, Founding Principal, Tribe Studio Architects |
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| Bio |
| Hannah Tribe studied architecture at Sydney University and Cornell University, graduating with First Class Honours and the University Medal, the RAIA NSW Chapter Prize and prizes for design, history, theory and construction. Before starting Tribe Studio, Hannah worked for award-winning architects in Sydney and New York where she was involved in art museum design, urban design and high-end houses and apartments. Hannah has taught at the University of Sydney, UTS and UNSW. She has tutored in design and lectured in design and design communications. She also lectures on Tribe's work to her peers at the Institute of Architects and has participated in the national architecture conference as a moderator and presenter in 2008 and 2010. She is a member of NAWIC and sits on the NSW Chapter Council of the Australian Institute of Architects. She has been an invited juror on awards panels, including the Australian Institute of Architects Awards and the IDEA Awards. |
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Sydney's historic terraced houses were typically built to standard plans by developers on spec. Creating consistent, repetitive street rhythms, terrace-rich areas of Sydney create engaging places to be and compelling geometries as they march in straight rows across the uneven topography. Contemporary terrace occupants have very different needs from their historic counterparts, and while terraced houses may appear uniform, they offer up a myriad of opportunities to meet specific briefs. Exploring the tension between a repetitive, uniform housing type and our desire to express our individuality, Hannah will discuss recent terrace house architecture in Sydney's inner city. She will show three case studies: a Victorian terrace, a Federation terrace and a Georgian terrace. Original talk date: 31 May 2012 |
Project home
Dr Judith O’Callaghan, Senior Lecturer, The University of New South Wales |
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| Bio |
| Dr Judith O’Callaghan is a Senior Lecturer in the Interior Architecture Program of the Faculty of the Built Environment at The University of New South Wales. Previously, she was Senior Curator of Contemporary Design at the Powerhouse Museum and, before that, Curator of Decorative Arts at the National Gallery of Victoria. Major exhibition and publication projects have included The Australian Dream: design of the fifties and Absolutely Mardi Gras: costume and design of the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras. Judith has also contributed chapters to Modern Times: the untold story of modernism in Australia and Robert Baines: metal. A book on architect-designed project housing, co-written with Dr Charles Pickett, will be published later this year by UNSW Press. |
| Précis |
| Suburban living is at the crossroads, widely viewed as a culprit in a potentially severe crisis of urban environment, aesthetics, affordability and livability. The environmental and urban failings of Australian project homes, on average the largest new homes in the world, are central elements of this debate. In contrast, the project homes produced by Sydney's Pettit & Sevitt and Melbourne's Merchant Builders during the 1960s and 1970s enjoy a kind of legendary status, setting a standard against which more recent project homes are measured. Their achievement was the successful integration of aesthetic values and innovation with the demands of economy and efficiency. This lecture will investigate the key factors that contributed to that outcome, most notably the direct involvement of architects and other design professionals with these enterprises. It will also reveal that the involvement of architects with project builders at this time was not limited to one or two prominent companies but extended broadly throughout the industry at various levels |
Tone Wheeler, Principal Architect, Environa Studio |
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| Bio |
| Tone Wheeler is an architect, author, educator and consultant with an abiding interest in environmental architecture and sustainable design. Tone founded the architectural practice Environa Studio 25 years ago and has designed individual and multiple housing projects, commercial buildings and urban design schemes, all with a strong emphasis on social and environmental concerns. He has won numerous awards and competitions, is a former chair of the AIA National Sustainability Committee, is a frequent speaker at architectural conferences and seminars, has been on faculty of three universities, has been a judge on The New Inventors program on ABC Television, and is a regular ‘woodie’ and ‘homie' on ABC 702 Radio. He is on the NSW Building Professionals Board and the Board of ABSA (Association of Building Sustainability Assessors). |
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Australian houses have traditionally been delivered in two ways: from a draftsman’s standard design, built by a builder or by an architect’s design built in a custom way. Whilst the former is much cheaper, the latter usually has better planning, and response to site and climate. For the last few years Environa Studio has sought a middle way: customised architect’s plans with high design values, built by a volume builder using more cost effective construction techniques. We have developed two types of houses: ‘Concept Homes’ built using traditional construction, and ‘Su.pre.mo Homes’ which are built using prefabrication techniques. The talk will explain how these two houses extend the tradition of project houses in Australia. Original talk date: 7 June 2012 |
Portable
Listen to the discussion [MP3, 62 MB]
Megan Martin, Head, Collections and Access |
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| Bio |
| Megan Martin, as Head, Collections & Access at the HHT, is responsible for developing a specialist collection of publications and documentary materials relating to the history of houses, domestic interiors and gardens in NSW and has worked as a consultant historian in the heritage field. |
| Précis |
| Portable houses in all their variety, fully pre-fabricated or merely pre-cut - not to mention tents or transportable buildings - have been a continuous part of Australian housing history. Their materials have included oilcloth, papier mâché, slate, zinc, timber and iron; erected as two-room cottages or ten-room villas; designed to house governors, bishops, new settlers, gold miners or boundary riders. In the nineteenth-century they were imported from Britain, Sweden, Germany, India, Singapore, New Zealand and the United States and they were exported too, within the Australian colonies and to California. The nineteenth-century market for portable houses was driven by British colonial expansion, military adventure and gold discovery - meeting a shortage of local building materials or a shortage of local skilled labour. This lecture will focus on the portable house in nineteenth century Australia, with particular reference to New South Wales including some surviving examples. |
Drew Heath, Drew Heath Architects |
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Mention the name Drew Heath in the architectural world, and chances are most people either know of his designs or buildings that he has constructed. Drew is an extraordinary Architect and also holds his building license. He has been in the industry for over 15 years and has won countless awards from his industry and peers. Drew first started with a box of Lego at age 10. He studied architecture at the University of Tasmania and then moved to Sydney to experience the big city and the heart of Australian culture. Drew has a passion for projects that explore low environmental impact building. He also specialises in handmade and handcrafted materials. Not being a large commercial architect, he prefers the intimate detail of a small project and ability to be in control. He jumped at the chance to design and construct the Arkiboat prototype and has since put his name to several new designs that Arkiboat will offer to its market. His original design was featured in the Sydney Morning Herald Domain and Vogue Living magazine. Original talk date: 14 June 2012 |