The Architecture of East Australia. An architectural history in 432 individual presentations (eBook)

Bill MacMahon (Hrsg.) (Herausgeber)

eBook Download: PDF

2001 | 1. Auflage
252 Seiten
Edition Axel Menges (Verlag)
978-3-930698-90-5 (ISBN)

Infos

In 1840 Sir Thomas Mitchell, Surveyor General of the British Crown, chose a rocky promontory on Sydney harbour for his home. He built a cottage in the style of Gothic Revival, popularized in England by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin and documented in popular copy books shipped with his baggage from his home country. The house perfectly expresses the imaginative dislocation of European culture into the romantic wilderness. Whether they came out of duty, like Mitchell, or in the hope of opportunity, the European immigrants viewed Australia as a »terra nullius«, as an empty land, a vacant space waiting to receive a model of Christian civilization. It took a century to realize that the dream did not comfortably fit the continent. The story of Australian architecture might be said to parallel the endeavours of Australians to adapt and reconcile themselves with their home and neighbours. It is the story of 200 years of coming to terms with the land: of adaptation, insight and making do. Early settlers were poorly provisioned, profoundly ignorant of the land and richly prejudiced towards its peoples. They pursued many paths over many terrains. From the moist temperate region of Tasmania with heavy Palladian villas to the monsoonal north with open, lightweight stilt houses, the continent has induced most different regional building styles.

The buildings included within this guide extend from the first examples of Australian architecture by convict architect Francis Greenway to the works by today’s rising generation. It covers not only buildings by such famous architects as Walter Burley Griffin, Harry Seidler, Jørn Utzon, John Andrews, Philip Cox and Glenn Murcutt, but also many high-quality works by less known exponents of the profession.

Photographs by the renowned Max Dupain and the present proprietor of his firm, Eric Sierins, including many especially commissioned for this book, support the text. Contributing authors have supplied material where vital local knowledge is essential.

Bill MacMahon is an architect practising in Sydney, a lecturer at the University of New South Wales and a contributor to various Australian architectural and design journals. He is best known for his work with D4Design whose projects included the Rockpool Restaurant and the Regents Court Hotel.

Inhalt

Contents 5
Abbreviations 6
Foreword 7
The architecture of East Australia 9
Sydney 14
Newcastle 108
New South Wales 119
Canberra 136
Melbourne 152
Victoria 191
Brisbane 194
Queensland 211
Adelaide 214
South Australia 225
Hobart 228
Tasmania 237
The photographic journey 245
Index of buildings 246
Index of architects and designers 248
Photo credits 252

Textauszug

The architecture of East Australia (p. 9)
»The future was dark and the past was dead As they gazed on the sea once more But a nation was born when the im mi grants said Good-bye! as they stepped ashore! In their lone li ness they were parted thus Because of the work to do, A wild wide land to be won for us By hearts and hands so few.

The darkest land ’neath a blue sky’s dome, And the widest waste on earth, The strangest scenes and the least like home In the lands of our fathers’ birth, The lone li est land in the wide world then, And away on the fur thest seas, A land most barren of life for men And they won it by twos and threes!«

Excerpt from How The Land Was Won by Henry Lawson (1867–1922)

The story of Australian architecture is the story of the European expansion into and gradual possession of the Australian landscape. The story commences with European settlers who held the firm conviction that Australia was terra nullius, empty place. Their story is of migration, taking possession of and making do in a new land. The continent’s original people could tell an alternative story, a story only recently listened to by architects, but it is not the story of this book.

The architecture of these recent arrivals is the story of the individuals with an ambition to make a new place in the world. The buildings they left are the trace that tells the story of their successes and some times their deprivations. It al most al ways speaks of their aspirations.

The European settlement of Australia commenced with the arrival of the first fleet in 1788. This was during the great period of European expansion that on one hand brought Christianity and European culture to the world and on the other opened up new commercial opportunities to the Europeans. As the British plied their ships across open oceans look ing for new lands so they crossed the open plains of the continent of Australia on foot, horse back and bul lock dray. Lit tle thought did they give to the rights of the in digenous population as they pushed out along the shores of the continent and then into the main land. Their fortune lay the way of accumulating farm lands and open ing up trade routes.

Long would they toil to make the landscape economically productive.

Yet the first fleet were merely the first of successive waves of migrants who continue to this day to arrive at Australian ports. Like the first set tlers today’s migrants share a similar burden of having to make a place for them selves in a new world.

A central theme of Austra ian architecture is this making do orvigorous adaptation of old ideas to new settings. Migrants to Australia, up until the 1970s, came mainly from Europe or were of a European origin. The ideas on which Australian architecture is based are still largely of a European or American basis. While not every good Australian architect was born or studied else where it is evident through a brief survey of the history of Australian architecture that, so far at least, the main events that make up the story of Australian architecture can be told by reference solely to architects born else where.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 1.1.2001
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Technik ► Architektur
• ISBN-10: 3-930698-90-0 / 3930698900
• ISBN-13: 978-3-930698-90-5 / 9783930698905