Daniel Thomas : Newspaper writings

"TELEGRAPH" Sydney, N.S.W. 2 0 OCT 1963 .EGRAPH, OCTOBER 20, 1963 I i Archtecture over thirty years THE past thirty years of architecture in New South Wales, as illustrated The Week in Art by Daniel Thomas Dee Why; 1950. In fact, though it looks like a 1930 refugee from the Great West Road. There is brief Scan- dinavian diversion with University House, Canberra (1953), a rather better ex- ample Swedish Legation itself by the three local architectural (11*2)' But the breakthrough to awards, are a fascinating story of a direct and straight- ' ,'fctrd modern tentative advance in the thirties comes with 954 award dreadful decline to 1950, and sub- g Staff oradn d Moore z ilars" Boots Pure Drug Co.,' sequent respectable renascence. Roseville. The exhibition of photo- graphs at David Jones Is of outstanding Interest, both for Itself and because it fills a gap in our know- ledge that the existing briskly brief histories of Australian architecture hardly notice (there is, in- cidentally, an excellent catalogue, though it dales the awards only, not the design or completion of the buildings, which are some- times five years earlier than the award). The Sulman award covers the most buildings, having been given every year since 1932 except for two gaps in the dark ages of the 1940s. The RIBA award. intend- ed to be triennial, was awarded twice in the 'thirties, once again in 1947, and regularly since 1950 (it Is not clear whether there was nothing good enough, or whether the committee forgot about 1 gan only in 1901. With one exception-the dark ages again, 1948-It is the houses which set some standard of excel- lence In the Sulman. Until the Wilkinson be- gan, for houses only, the Sulman was for five or six different categories In turn, and there seems to have been little worthwhile in the public or commercial buildings of -- factories. Some duplication The RIBA award has al- ways gone to a major building, never a house, and It has several times duplicated the Sulman award. In 1932 we begin with a neo-Georgian office block by Peddle. Thorpe and Walker, perhaps bet- ter -looking of its kind than their current curtain - walling. I This phase is happier when It shifts to a more domestic Mediterranean vernacular with J. D. Moore's Frensham wing (1937) and, above all, with Professor Wilkinson's house at Double Bay (1934), A crypto-Georgian survives until the Orient Line building (1943). More Man a surprise Is to find that streamlined "Modern Gothic" actually used to win awards, e.g. the BMA Building (1933; or the Railways Building, Wynyard Square, by Sud- den and Mackey (1938). The latter admittedly sprouts finials at only one end, and its glassy horizon- tality wears quite well: it must have been one of the first Sydney buildings to express its frame construc- tion. not to pretend it had load -bearing walls. Another costume from the fancy-dress 'thlrities was P.omanesque, in a church, 194.3. The modern movement was going fairly promis- ingly, on English prece- dents, with the Newcastle City Incinerator, and the Manly Surf Pavilion, 1937 and )938, but commercial and factory building then descends to the am mod - IC in the missing years). Two years later Bunning and Madden's Anzac House The Wilkinson award be- gets the ,RIBA award for an equally sophisticated frame job, Itallanate both in its derivation, its lux- ury and its decidedly un- provincial quality. Sydney has few public buildings so appropriate for such a great city. Last year's Sulman award to the Fisher Library recognises a simi- lar achievement. Ken Woolley, of the N.S.W. Government Ar- chitect's office, was in- volved In the library (N.S.W. without any doubt has Australia's best Gov- ernment Architect), and his zwn house won the latest Wilkinson award. Close to nature The houses, except for Harry Seidler's 1951 land- mark at Turramurra, do not measure themselves against any international mainstream or any his- tode style. Fittingly, they keep very close to natural materials and to a deliberate sym- pathy with the local en- vironment-geological, bot- anic and climatic. It is in the houses that something peculiarly Syd- ney has evolved, visible as far back as G. H. B. Mc- Donell's house at Gordon (1940) triumphant in Syd- ney Anclissa's at Kithira (0145) and-rflonsolidated in Allen & Jack's at Wah- roonga (1957) and Bryce Mortiock's at Cronulla (1900). Ground-hugging, fond of outdoor living space, raw or bagged brick, lots of unpainted wood inside. One might call It the Woodsy style, nice but un- exciting. If its clean simple rectangUlar lines hadn't recently been given a bit of sculptural excitement,' either by way of Frank Lloyd Wright (much too iersonal and romantic to mitate, and this infitence, though present In Sydneyy. la absent from the exhibi- tion) or of the New Bru- talism (better, because closer to the local ten- dency anyway). 11 Don Gazzard's 1981 Wil- ern of Top Dog k enswear. andinson Kenat Woolley sHunters lateHillst win both show this angu- lar, sculptural tendency. So does the Tom Heath house (one of those beaten Woolley), which Mei- ...daily plays a wicked game of pretended con- formity with its neighbor- ing suburban bungs, while remaining d i a d a In:ally superior. Robin Boyd book Neatly coinciding with this exhibition Is Robin Boyd's The New Architec- ture (6/) the latest in Longman's series "The Arts In Australia." Nearly all the 10 build- ings illustrated are quiet Woodsy Sydney houses. Only three are from Mel- bourne, rather more from Perth, none from the other States, Clearly he finds this tendency significant; per- haps also he wishes to pro- mote it. However It is a weak- ness in such a book to ignore the wilder Brutalist fringe, and more larly almost to leave out commercial and public buildings. It certainly leaves room for other books. Ile does, however, ex- plain that he omits not only the vernacular or non -architect design, but also the merely profes- sional, in which he in- cludes work by large anonymous teams for large corporate clients. (Neither in his book nor In the ex- hibition is there a curtain wall glasshouse. This may be defeat by hot climate rather than lack of skill.) He Is concerned only with the creative. Within these limits It is an illuminating book, though one wishes it fol- lowed the scheme of books on painting and dated the buildings-and the architects, for one likes to know who taught who, and whether the man is a with -it oldster or only a youngster doing what comes naturally. Etchings and woodcuts The Norkshop Arts Cen- tre has some outstanding etchings and woodcuts by modern German artists, e.g. Kollwitz, Kirchner, Heckel. All these have only one week left. Even more essential Is to catch the great British Sculpture show which fin- ishes today at the Art Gal- lery of New South Wales. Early buildings Another recent booklet la Historic Buildings, Liver- pool and Campbelifown, the third in an excellent series prepared by the Cumberland County Coun- cil, and available free from its office on written re- quest only. Here one might mention that Sydney has a new museum, Experiment Farm Cot- tage, Ruse Street, Parra- nialta, is one of the two or three oldest buildings in the whole of Australia and is now open and furnished as a period museum after restoration by the National Trust. Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday 2-5 p.m: and Thursday 10-12.30, International child art An international exhibi- tion of child art is one of the main features of Uni- ted Nations Week this year. It win be shown at the Homan Town Hall on United Nations Day, next Thursday. The exhibition was col- lected by the International Society for Education Through Art, a section of UNESCO, It will be shown all over the world. The Sydney show will he officially opened by Mr. Adrian Ashton at 2 p.m. New exhibitions The new exhibitions at the dune (very interest- ing), Macquarie (realism for a change) and Artlovers (pleasant souvenirs of Europe) will be described next week.