UNIVERSITY_ OF MELBOURNE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE

Issue No. 95

g Acting on 2 independent reports on Melb's inner areas by Hous'g Comm'n senior arch't & slum research officer, Vic minister Horace Petty has come up with a national scheme for the redevelopment of run down areas in Aust'n cities. He recommends a 10 yr slum abolition project in which Federal & State govts should acquire slum properties, clear them & sell the land to private bldrs for cons+'n of modern units. In Melb such a plan will affect between 40,000 & 50,000 people living in & near city settlements. As present values stand, it would involve nearly £50m to buy 1,000 acres of depressed land. If this could be used to build about 40 flats to the acre, & a sum of £400 was allowed as a land cost for each, the sale of land for rebuilding would return about £19m leaving a net loss of £34m. Petty proposes that the financial responsibility should be shared by the Federal & State govts. It is doubtful whether the former will go as far as the minister suggests (the plan has already received a cool reception in Canberra); but since the slum evil is a national matter, some way must be found to start the programme. One method might be thru adjustment of Com'Ith-State hous'g agreement on a new & wider basis so as to include slum reclamation when the current agreement expires at the end of the present financial yr. The State Govt could also possibly enlist the aid of private enterprise & adjust hous'g & land resumption legislation to establish a climate favourable for an attack by private enterprise.

There is an accent on ventilation in these new Council chambers & library under const'n at Millmerran Q'land. Wide eaves & sun baffles suspended from the legs of the steel portal framing are two of the many features that help protect the walls from the direct tropical sunlight. (J Ure McNaught & G O Cowlishaw, Brisb arch'ts; R J McWilliam & ptnrs, struct'l engrs; Cost £30,000)

5 A 14 ft high fence has Woollahra (NSW) Council baffled. Built up of 2 Ige screens, the fence is a trellis type device on 4 wheels — something like the sight-brds at a cricket oval. The owner, Syd psychiatrist Dr. I A Listwan who erected it on one side of his Pt Piper home "to preserve his privacy", claimed the screens did not constitute a "fixture" in the legal sense. To prove his point Dr Listwan moves the fence from time to time.

The pleated, windowless wall of this new Presbyterian Church at Gosford, NSW is faced with marble chips & visually rests on a pierced conc block screen with meeting rms behind. Seating 180 the bldg's distinctly unified character is obvious-ly achieved by the guiding hand of one man, or at least governed closely by one mind. It is, in fact, the work of a small office. The result is a bldg where everything is care-fully considered in relation to everything else & to the whole. It may not be entirely successful — the entrance does not somehow welcome or 'invite', & more could perhaps have been made of the drama of the folds in the wall — but it certainly possesses a strength of consistency generally absent in many similar new schemes. (Loder & Dunphy, arch'ts; D W Berry, bldr; Cost £15,000 incl furn're). By contrast the Chapel of the Convent of Sta Sabina, Strathfield NSW (left) is disappointing. Its character is weak; its detail at times — look at the brick dwarf walls & their relation to the column bases of the cloisters — inept. It is neither unified nor consistent, nor is the detail related to the quality of the whole. Perhaps this is the result of one of Syd's largest firms — perhaps the principal had an idea which gradually became distorted & watered down as it passed through the hierarchy. (Kevin J Curtin, arch't; W B & R D Rudd, bldrs; W Allan Smith, light'g designer; Cost £92,000).

¶ SA Public Bldg Dept is sending its Chief arch't (Mr. H F Malkin) overseas in an attempt to recruit up to 60 arch'ts & other professional men. Staff shortage is certainly a major problem for a Dept. already under heavy pressure in preparing plans & estimates for a record no of schools & other bldgs.

"I never had the courage to build a church before. I probably will not do so again" said Pier Luigi Nervi — 1960 RIBA Gold Medallist — who designed this New Norcia Perth Cathedral (CS — June '60) in assn with A Nervi, F Vacchini & C Vannoni. Perhaps the humility of the great engr-designer is well in keeping with the spirit of the Spanish Benedictine Monks who hope to make his deeply symbolic conception a reality. Working drawings are already in WA but Abbot Gomez is not yet certain when his community will be able to finance the project. Most of the work will, no doubt, be executed in Aust by Aust'ns except the Cathedral dome the patent of which is held by the designer himself.

Entirely built by day labour this Brisb City C's Elect'l Sub Stn cos+ £6,500. (James Birrell, city arch't)

¶ NZ's Radiata Pine, a native timber with good struct'l properties, will be the main raw material for a new laminating plant which has already introduced 2 technical advances — a catalysed resin finish & the country's largest bowstring truss. Spanning 98' 6" the trusses shelter Taupo Totaro Timber Co's new 15,000 sq ft storage shed at Newmarket, Auckland. With the raw materials in good supply & the rapid progress in timber research, NZ designers now have the mechanical facilities available for some exciting structures.

This is at St Ives, NSW — a 2 level Com'ty Shop'g Centre most of the shops of which face inward to a mall. Covering a handsome 6= acres site the Centre induces customers to drive under shelter, walk up wide & gently sloping ramps to the shop'g area & return without being exposed to the rain. 8,000 sq yds of U-beam decking is supported by a 9 ft grid of precast columns & prestressed beams spanning 36 ft. (Peter Gilmour, arch't; Mercantile Const'ns, bldrs; Suburban Centres, owners; Cost £4,000,000)

"Australia Builds". This is the title of an exhibition designed by RAIA for Qantas Empire Airways. The neat collection of photos would be displayed in Qantas offices in several European capital cities. ( Melb City C agreed to appoint a Town Planner to the Town Hall staff at a salary range of £2,450 to £2,578 a yr. ¶ This yr's Sid Luker Memorial lect will be delivered by Sir William Hudson, Comm'r Snowy Mtn Hydro Elect Authority, on 18th Nov '60. He will discuss "past & future work of the Authority & its role in the national development programme." Cumberland County C's chief planner Mr R. D. L Fraser will receive a medal on the occasion. (One of the pioneers of T'Plan'g movement in NSW, late Sid L Luker was Cumberland County C's first chief planner

(( Sth Perth will soon have its own City Hall. Par+ of a Civic centre the £78,000 bldg actually includes 2 — an upper main hall & a smaller hall at grd level. But both are self contained with their independent kitchens, toilets & waiting rms. Salmon bk exterior will match the existing council chambers. (Duncan, Stephen & Mercer, arch'ts; A Doubikin, bldr)

This sgl storey office bldg in Perth WA is distinguished for its direct, well proportioned & neat exterior. A Ige 'mural' enlivens the main foyer where a judicious arrangement of sculpture, works of art & planting is displayed. Water heat-ing is by a Solar heater. (F G B Hawkins & Desmon Sands, arch'ts; A R G Kateiva, struct'I engr; Cost £43,500)

¶ SA National Trust recently launched a £30,000 appeal to restore & maintain the Grange Home of Aust Explorer Capt Charles Sturt who lived in it from 1840 to 1853.

¶ NSW State Govt declared 5 old houses "places of historic interest". The bldgs; Elizabeth Farmhouse (Aunt's oldest, in Parramatta), Elizabeth Bay House, Roseneath Cottage (Parramatta), Fernhill (Mulgoa), & Kelvin (Brin-gelly) are the Ist to be declared under clause 38 of the County of Cumberland Plan'g scheme ordinance.

Projecting white balconies admirably match perforated cream bk screens over bath rm windows of this 'Highway Lodge' - a block of 12 Home Units recently compl'd on a dominating site at Morphettville SA. Offered a choice of one bed rm (£3,500) or 2 bed rms (£4,000) the buyers exhibited a general preference for flats above grd, the most popular being the intermediate flat at Ist flr level. John Chappel, arch't; R P Brimblecombe & Sons Ltd, bldrs)

If A 10' x 12' inflatable hut complete with flr & weighing 88 lbs, aroused considerable interest at a recent Indust'I Convention in London. Made from a tough but It wt proofed nylon fabric, the cover is held up by a 'skeleton' of inflatable tubes. Using a small electric blower operated by a car battery, one man can put it up in 4 mins. Cunningly con-ceived compensating bags make up for air losses caused by changes in temp. The idea is already attracting popularity with police, fire services & civil defence.

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Roebourne — a little WA township has many problems. Situated in a region where dust storms & cyclones add variety to almost desert conditions the town's hostile climate is amply supplemented by lack of pure water & power supply. This is the background in which arch'ts were asked to design a new 5 class rm school. Their answer; a £56,000 bldg raised 7' 6" off the grd to give an "undercroft" for student shelter & activities. Built around 3 sides of a court yd the bldg's corr iron roof sheets are bolted down to tubular steel storm battens to hold down in a cyclone. An independent elec generator will run refrig'd drinking units, film projectors & elec ceiling fans in the class rms. (PWD Arch Dept, arch'ts; Master & Bohan of Geraldton, bldrs)

TV has certainly a place in modern society. As proof we quote a survey taken recently of 200 homes in a town in England. It revealed that 3 of the homes had bath-tubs, 6 had hot water, 4 had their own toilets & 125 had TV sets.

—Melb Age.

The new Office block for the Electricity Trust of SA will look like this when built. The 10 storey bldg will be located at Park Terrace, Eastwood. (Caradoc, Ashton, Fisher, Wood-head & Beaumont Smith, arch'ts)

II Below is the recently compl'd Nuclear Science Institute & Canteen at Lucas Hts estab'mt of Aust'n Atomic Energy Comm'n. Planned as an outdoor eating area the conc patterned court'yd links the Canteen at rt to the study & admin block culminating into a wedge shaped lect theatre the ramped flr slab of which forcefully cantilevers its way past the supporting walls. The canteen serves 300 & is essentially a barrel vaulted roof suspended from a series of curved 10" x 6" RSJ's span'g 72 ft & supported on conc buttresses at each end. Its alum'n ribbed roof takes the curved form of the steel arches. Use of different 'functional' forms for 3 distinct depts is logical enough but their pre-dominantly linear grouping does suggest a certain lack of overall unity. The links are weak & the units dispersed. As a result the court'yd receives the worst treatment. With its 2 entire sides open, it loses its essential role of providing protection & pleasant enclosure so necessary for its function as an outdoor gathering place. (Bunning & Madden, arch'ts; Crooks, Mitchell & Peacock, struct'l engrs; Taylor Woodrow Pty Ltd, bldrs; Cost £110,000)

This ES&A bank branch in Elizabeth St Melb promised exciting possibilities during const'n but the finished product came as a tre-mendous anti-climax to all +hose who expected a re-freshing change from the expresso-bar-treatment of many new banks erected during the last decade. Maybe the fault lies in the basic problem which required finished designs for 2 stages both of which had to be com-pletely individual solutions within a sgl structure. Maybe it is the choice of materials, forms & details or scale & proportion of its facade elements, treatment of which seems entirely out of key with the rest of its city neighbours. The bldg, no doubt, attracts a great deal of attention but the purpose is achieved at the expense of urban harmony. The bldg is a steel & conc structure with pile foundations extending 48 ft into the grd. Designed to support additional 9 firs (see rt) the deep pile foundation is also a reminder that Elizabeth St, in the early days of the city, was a creek. The new bank is the first for many yrs in which stone work has had such a Ige place in design. But far from being judicious the massive rock faced cnr sections are not only heavy but rise irritatingly close enough to the roof overhang without actually touching it. The resulting small horizontal 'gap' is visually uncomfortable suggesting the unpalatable truth that the real main struct'l supports lie elsewhere hidden behind. It is comforting to note that in this age of curtain walls & exploitation of max'm possible office space there are clients who can be persuaded to accept such generously deep projecting balconies as are incorporated in the final design stage. With all its faults, there seems to be, however, a determined effort, to design for the climate. Basically 'massive' materials including +hose elaborately 'decorative' precast conc sunshades will no doubt considerably reduce load on the air conditioning equipment. (Chancellor & Patrick, arch'ts; Clements Langford Pty Ltd, bldrs)

Above: Central circulation space on the ground floor, with light wells highlighting indoor plant islands and attractive expanse of Dunlop Vinyl Tile Flooring.

EULL.MARKS __T_O__DUNLOP VINYL TILES__FOR_V.ERS_ATUIY_ AND _VALUE_

When Perth Modern School was extended recently the Architectural Division

of the Western Australian Public Works Department chose Vinyl Asbestos

Floor Tiles to withstand, pleasantly but effectively, the onslaught of 1,400 pairs

of student feet. Dunlop Vinyl Tiles were selected. Dominant feature of the

new 2-storey block is the big central circulation space. Dunlop Vinyl flooring was

laid through this maximum traffic, multi-purpose area as well as classrooms.

DUNLOP FLOORING SERVICE

MELBOURNE: Dunlop Floorings Pty. Ltd., 96 Flinders Street. MF 0371 SYDNEY: Dunlop Rubber Australia Ltd., 27-33 Wentworth Ave. 20969

BRISBANE: Dunlop Rubber Australia Ltd., Centenary Place. 31 0271

ADELAIDE: The Dunlop Flooring Centre, 131-133 Pirie Street. W 1467

PERTH: Dunlop Flooring Centre, 473 Murray Street. 213085

HOBART: Dunlop Rubber Australia Ltd., 27 Argyle Street. 2 6581 LAUNCESTON: Dunlop Rubber Australia Ltd., 18 Paterson Street. 2 2067

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We regret :;iii in tlic riugust issue the Architects of the Gas & Fuel Corporation Building, St. Kilda Road, were printed as — Keith Mackay. This should have been Mackay & Potter, Architects and Civil Engineers.

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Library Digitised Collections

Title:

Cross-Section [1960]

Date:

1960

Persistent Link:

http://hdl.handle.net/11343/24054

File Description:

Cross-Section, Sept 1960 (no. 95)