Australia's Home by Robin Boyd

Author:Robin Boyd
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Melbourne University Publishing
Published: 2013-08-12T04:00:00+00:00

14

Architects, Clients, Critics

THE influence on Australian home life of architects, as a profession, was not great. The few architects who were in politics at various times were not noted for radical proposals. The few who helped municipal officials to frame building regulations from time to time seldom anticipated or encouraged change. Regulations were made to secure for the poorest houses standards of health and structure which were in common practice in the average house when they were framed. They varied only in minor details from state to state and from decade to decade.

Most big architectural offices touched the domestic field only as a favour to a managing director of a large establishment for which they were building or to encourage a junior partner who brought in the job. Big offices normally redirected to the office of some beginner any home-seekers who wandered through their doors. Few architects sought to specialize in houses. Most opened practice with a few small domestic commissions but as rapidly as possible turned to factories, shops, offices or churches — any of which were more likely to promote professional success. The administrative and supervisional work entailed in an average-sized house, done thoroughly, was about the same as required for a small factory, which would cost perhaps four times as much. Architects’ fees being payable on a percentage of building cost, factories and other commercial buildings involving repetition of a unit were the most profitable.

The few architects who specialized in domestic building were either semi-qualified men operating from the suburbs, or had made such a name for themselves with prominent people’s homes that they could command fees higher than the normal rate.

There were many of the former type. At frequent intervals through each century sensitive laymen, appalled by suburbia, advocated more employment of architects; but the problem was not quite as simple as that. Dozens of legally entitled architects in every state and every generation had no real training, interest or ability in creative design. In effect, they merely translated what was essentially the owner’s own design into terms which the builder could comprehend. They also acted, often with honesty, as agents for the owners in dealings with the builders, and supervised construction. They had no influence on the course of popular fashion; they were instruments of it.

There were not many of the latter type — three or four prominent domestic architects per generation was the most that the biggest city could support—but among their number were the men who promoted the building progress of the nation, These men indirectly influenced the home life of families which had never heard of them.

Most imaginative experiments in building were made in the domestic field. Expensive houses led the shops, offices, factories, churches and theatres — in something like that order. Finally the small house of the builder-designer adopted each move some twenty years after it had first been made.

Most of the irresponsible fashion changes were also promoted by house designers. Through the nineteenth century churchmen were happy with Gothic, public builders with Renaissance.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.