Natural materials and craftsmanship are both good things but they shouldn’t become ends in themselves. The image of Brisbane as a sleepy country town through the 1950s, 60s and 70s is sometimes hard to dispel. The first imported roofing material was corrugated iron sheeting. This State Library of South Australia guide explores the architecture of SA, characterised by six chronological styles, starting with Old Colonial to 1840, Victorian to 1890, Federation to 1915, Interwar, Postwar and the Late Twentieth Century from 1960 Interior design was fun and vibrant. It was a time when architecture could make a difference – until it wasn’t anymore. Everyone collectively breathed a sigh of relief. This is the contradiction of architecture. Of these fifteen styles, the following seven were normally used for residential architecture: A typical Victorian Georgian house of the 19th century was simple, elegant and formal in style. Timber detail around windows and gables were often painted- cheery red being one of the most popular traditional colours. Perhaps this is one reason the experiment remains unfinished. It’s a fascinating period in Australian architecture and I’m genuinely curious as to why the experiment ended in the hope that if we understand why we can perhaps kick start it again. Suburbs of Sydney that developed in the 1990s—such as Cherrybrook, Wetherill Park, Green Valley, Cecil Hills, Edensor Park, Castle Hill, and Menai—are notable in the sense that large tracts of these developments contain almost exclusively Federation revival homes. Until I was seven I lived up the road from this next house that was the first two-storey house I ever saw, as well as the first time I ever saw a house with a flat roof. Designed by Jorn Utzon, the 1973 Sydney Opera House in Australia is an example of modern Organic architecture. One of Australia's best examples of the residential filigree style executed in polychrome brick. Architects were thus in competition with other purveyors of designs but the point is that all these houses existed once and that there was a time that made them happen. Some partnerships were short-lived – the Sunday Telegraph’s plan service, offered with architect John P Ley in November 1953, lasted only a few months – but the Small Homes Service initiated by the NSW chapter of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects, and the plan bureaus established by Grace Brothers and The Australian Women’s Weekly, endured into the 1960s. The verandah sometimes had handsome wooden balustrade that was sometimes enclosed to make an additional room or sleep-out. 1950’s Architectural Styles : Mid-Century Modern. In the 1950s the scale of architectural advice available to home builders grew enormously, as architects, department stores, home magazines and the Sunday newspapers formed a series of partnerships to provide home-plan services. The Catalogue House]. Long rods of wattle (really Acacia, the floral emblem of Australia) were then interwoven and made more-or-less weatherproof with a mortar made of clay or loam with grass or horsehair. The Pavilion style hails from Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s famous Farnsworth House (1951). Mid-century modern. Being of light weight construction, the steel and corrugated iron approach is relatively cheap and suitable for both flat and steeply inclined land. I remember seeing better photographs of Douglas Gordon’s White House but you cannot find this house on the internet. 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