Division of Education, Arts and Social Sciences
Louis Laybourne Smith School of Architecture and Design
Louis Laybourne Smith School of Architecture and Design
The Centre for Settlement Studies' current projects include:
Patjaar
Visitors’ Centre
David Morris
Late
Nick Opie
This project commenced in 1999 and has involved the design and construction of a Visitors’ Centre and Gallery for the Patjaar community near Warburton in the Gibson Desert, Western Australia. The building was designed in consultation with community members and prefabricated in Adelaide in the LLS School’s workshop. Students are assembling the centre over a four-week period in mid 2002 under the supervision of project coordinators David Morris and Nick Opie. The project has been funded by a grant from the Western Australian Lotteries Commission and involves collaboration with the Faculty of the Built Environment, University of New South Wales.
Donald Langmead
Gini Lee
Christine Garnaut
The South Australian Home Builders’ Club functioned in
metropolitan Adelaide between 1945 and 1965. The Club was a cooperative
venture in which people came together to assist other members in the
construction of a home. In the postwar years, with building restrictions and
labour, materials and money in short supply, the Home Builders’ Club was an
appealing option for those prepared to share and acquire building skills. In
its heyday there were approximately 400 members.
The collaborative, multi-disciplinary study is identifying and interviewing
a selection of former Club members, locating and photographing surviving
houses, recovering records and compiling data for dissemination in a series
of scholarly journal articles and conference papers. Interviews are being
conducted in collaboration with the Oral History Association of Australia
(SA Branch) and the Oral History Unit of the State Library of South
Australia.
The research team comprises CSS members Donald Langmead, Gini Lee and
Christine Garnaut and cultural and social historians Jean Duruz and Alison
MacKinnon from the School of Communication and New Media and the Hawke
Institute respectively. As well as architectural themes the study is
investigating meanings of home, garden design and issues of gender in the
climate of postwar home building. The project is in its second year with
funding secured from several sources: a Division of Education, Arts and
Social Sciences (DEASS) internal grant (2001), City of Mitcham Community
Cultural Development Grant (2001) and an ATN grant (2002).
Julie Collins
Christine Garnaut
Donald Langmead
Industry Partners Jackman Parken Evans and the State Library of South Australia (SLSA) have funded a pilot study (2002) that surveys the Jackman Gooden architectural firm (SA’s longest surviving continuous practice) with a view to:
Locating, recording and analysing the content of extant documents including the Jackman Gooden collection (approximately 450 drawings) held by SLSA
Preparing an overview of the scope and nature of the practice’s contribution to SA’s metropolitan and rural development including its architectural, social and cultural aspects
Undertaking case studies of selected buildings representative of the practice’s repertoire\
Designing the methodology for a more extensive project.
This collaborative research project commenced in 2000 with funding from an internal grant from the Faculty of the Built Environment, University of New South Wales (UNSW). It involves CSS member Christine Garnaut and UNSW colleagues Paul-Alan Johnson and Robert Freestone. The research focuses on the design origins and influences on the plan for Woomera Village (1946-1947) the residential facility associated with the Joint United Kingdom-Australia Long Range Weapons Project. The inquiry includes an investigation of international postwar planning theory and its application to a remote Australian service settlement.
PlacecardsFunded by a Centenary of Federation grant (2001), Placecards has been investigating historical traces left behind in the buildings and layout of South Australian towns ‘off the beaten track’. The architectural development of towns reflects settlers’ responses to any number of factors including geography, climate, local industry, availability of materials and residents’ resourcefulness. The outcome of their endeavours is depicted in a series of quality colour postcards illustrating local architecture and other features of the built environment in twenty towns throughout the state.
Gini Lee in conjunction with
Liz Ho, Director, Hawke Centre, UniSA)
The Everycity symposia series has four themes: Terrace, Square, Edifice, River. Each deals with the contemporary city and with the multi-disciplinary nature of urban design, architecture, landscape and art practices. The Terrace seminar, held in October 2000, had an invited audience and panel comprising academics, design and art practitioners and government and business personnel. Further Everycity seminars are planned for 2002. The series is supported by a DEASS internal grant.
Donald Johnson is engaged in developing his existing research and recently has submitted articles to refereed journals on the following subjects:
The role of Griffin’s knitlock concrete construction system as developed in Melbourne, 1916-1919, its use in Australia and its influence on Lloyd Wright’s knitlock and Frank Lloyd Wright’s textile block system in California 1922-1925.
The origin of the neighbourhood unit in Chicago, 1912-1916, and its possible role in city planning in postwar England Australia.
A study of the Italian and English sources of selected architects’ and builders’ house plans in England, Australia and America from ca.1790 to the 1930s; Palladian formalised plans of ca.1570, the English single and double pile plan, each considered up to C20th South Australian bungalows.
Donald Langmead
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) bibliography comprises approximately 600 annotated entries on publications by and about Wright. The book is contracted to Greenwood Press, Westport, CT.
Building on her doctoral research and funded by a RGSSA grant, Christine Garnaut is compiling an annotated and illustrated report comprising case studies of SA Government Town Planner Charles Reade's projects from 1916 to 1920. These include private, corporate and local government commissions for residential subdivisions; workers' housing; children's playgrounds; recreation parks; soldiers' memorial gardens; and town improvement schemes in metropolitan and rural areas of the state. Each case study includes a project history, design outline, summary of current status and bibliographic information.
The CSS is associated with a major research resource, the Louis Laybourne Smith School of Architecture and Design Architecture Archive. Please visit the Architecture Archive website.
Dickson
& PlattenUsing the extensive archived collection (Architecture Archive) donated by Robert Dickson and Newell Platten, Rachel Hurst is researching the work and influence of this prominent Adelaide practice.
Contemporary architectural history research: Dickson & Platten
