 | RADARBOOKS Noting new books at Architext
World Architecture 1900-2000:
A Critical Mosaic, Vol 10. |
|
Edited by William S. W. Lim and Jennifer
Taylor. Springer-Verlag, $195.
This book surveys key architecture in the
regions of Southeast Asia and Oceania
(including Australia and New Zealand). It is
the tenth and final volume of an ambitious
project that attempts, in the words of general
editor Kenneth Frampton, to “assemble an
anthology of canonical work on a global
basis”. Frampton himself is understandably
wary about this undertaking, describing it as
“quixotic”, “injudicious” and “presumptuous”.
Surprisingly, this wariness is cast aside as he
moves on quickly to introduce the
“nomination method” by which the various
featured buildings were selected. It is a
method that involves dividing the globe into
ten “continental sectors” (one sector per
volume), and asking local architectural critics
and historians to “nominate” and “cast votes” for their favourite buildings of the past
century within each sector. It is a method
that has neither the rigour of an academic
work, nor the provocative quality of a
speculative survey – a kind of Eurovision
Song Contest without the camp.
Within this rather sloppy framework the
volume editors for Southeast Asia and
Oceania (William Lim and Jennifer Taylor
respectively) have worked hard to assemble
an account that might speak meaningfully to
the particular conditions under which
architecture is produced in the region. Both
write thorough introductory essays that draw
on source material that is not always widely
available. Much of the architectural material
from Australia and New Zealand, although
covered in other more comprehensive
sources, is usefully summarised and
contextualised here. The volume is
particularly valuable for its treatment of the
architectures of Southeast Asia and the
Pacific Islands, regions where relatively little
basic documentary work has been done.
This volume is to be welcomed for the rich
architectural material it documents. But the
question remains: how might this rich
material be framed in a more sophisticated
way? In an era when information, ideas,
expertise and technology circulate with
increasing autonomy from regional and
national boundaries, the idea of the region is
no longer sustainable as an organising term –
Frampton himself acknowledges this. A more
useful tack would be to take those trans-local
affiliations that have always intersected
in this part of the world seriously.
Stephen Cairns.
|
| The Queensland House: History and Conservation |
|
Ian Evans and the National Trust of
Queensland. Flannel Flower Press, $49.95.
Ian Evans has produced a series of valuable
handbooks for conservationists – The
Australian Home, The Federation House: A
Restoration Guide, and so on – mostly through
his own publishing firm, Flannel Flower Press.
This one is different, devoted to the houses of
a single state, and produced in association
with the National Trust of Queensland. Indeed,
and rather strangely, the personified Trust is
credited as the joint author of this book.
The explanation for this is that the second
section is based upon a series of brochures
published by the Trust, and it appears that the
principal author these is in fact Jinx Miles.
The book thus falls into two parts: a historical
section by Evans, and a conservation section
compiled from the works of Miles and others.
Queensland is the one state that can
genuinely claim a distinctive domestic
architecture, and Evans’s account is as
engrossing and as well illustrated as one has
come to expect, though with one or two slips,
such as the incorrect identification of a barn at
Grantham, Tasmania, as being at Brickendon.
This barn is discussed because of its use of
steddles, the antecedent of the antcap, a fact
first pointed out by this reviewer (and not
acknowledged by Evans).
The second part, dealing with conservation,
is in sections devoted to issues such as
restumping, roofs and gutters, the verandah,
and so on. One effect of compiling this from
earlier publications is that some advice, such
as that on white ants, reappears under
different headings. But it is all good, sensible
stuff, with only a few errors and deficiencies,
notably in the treatment of nail types.
An irritating aspect, although one with no
real bearing on conservation issues, is the
perpetuation of the myth of the Hills Hoist –
here said to have been an element of the
garden since the 1920s. In fact the Hills Hoist
patent dates from 1946, and it was only the
last of many rotary clothes hoists developed
in Australia over the preceding three decades,
Toyne’s being the most prominent. The myth
doubtless stems from the coincidence that
one of the earliest American hoists had been
produced by a Hills company, totally
unconnected with that in Australia.
This is a book that works as an amalgam
of interesting history and useful conservation
guidelines. It will probably also work at a
higher level, further raising the profile of
Queensland’s distinctive domestic architecture.
Miles Lewis.
|
| Australian Gothic: The Gothic Revival In Australian Architecture From The 1840s To The 1950s |
|
Brian Andrews. Miegunyah Press, $89.95.
The centre of almost every Australian settler
community was founded by churches and
pubs, and it would be difficult to find such a
settlement without a church in the Neo-Gothic
style. Yet the Gothic Revival period is still
difficult to judge, with most Australian historians
limiting their research to detailed studies of
individual architects and their works. In
contrast, Brian Andrews presents the reader
with a general framework for assessing the
Australian Gothic Revival – a regional response
to an international movement that dominated
ecclesiastical architecture for almost a century.
The chapter titled “Impressiveness and
Association” explores Australian ambivalence
towards European cultural traditions – the
“repugnance coupled with a nostalgia for the
familiar sights and sounds of England far
away”. “A Far Distant Country” follows with a
discussion about the impact of isolation on
Australian Gothic and the nature and extent
of the association with England. “Continental
Gothic” outlines the impact of German Gothic
on pre-war Lutheran architecture, furnishings
and fittings. The final chapter asks whether
there is an identifiably Australian Gothic. This
chapter is not as convincingly argued. Apart
from recognising Australian nationalism at the
turn of the century, and the individual genius
of architects such as Horbury Hunt, Andrews
leaves this question open to further speculation.
The late date of the 1950s in the sub-title
might puzzle some readers. Although the fire
had gone out of the Gothic movement by the
1860s, the style dominated ecclesiastical
architecture in Britain until the 1890s and
survived a decade or two longer in Australia.
Andrews includes buildings designed in the
nineteenth century, but completed later, among
the twentieth century works. (The west front of
Brisbane’s anglican cathedral, designed during
1885-1901 by John Loughborough and Frank
Pearson, is being completed even today.) The
book also includes later ecclesiastical works, by
architects such as Robin Dods, that other
scholars might categorise as Arts and Crafts –
a movement with roots deep in the Gothic
Revival – and other later buildings with Gothic
motifs that might better be termed post-Gothic.
Australian Gothic is generously illustrated
with full-page colour illustrations and black
and white photographs and drawings that are
carefully related to the text. It will appeal to
architectural scholars, but also offers highly
readable essays to all students of Australian
architectural history.
Brit Andresen.
|
|
