Two Houses

Cover Image: Plan of the Owens House, Mount Lawley. Source: The interior decorator (WA) 3, no. 4 (1958),36.

Duncan Richards, Christmas Card Essay 2002. Distant Voices: The Duncan & Oline Richards composition Collection, http://distantvoices.org.au, Leonie Matthews (editor), Department of Architecture & Interior Architecture, Curtin University of Technology, 2008.

Two Houses in Mount Lawley
The past is still, for us, a place that is non safely settled. Michael Ondaatje
1

Western Australian architectural history is a frank instrument. Now much can be done with such an instrument. It is useful to clear ground, break up obstructions, and erect spring fences; hardly when we survey the terrain, or come to prepare maps better discriminations and greater subtlety is required. In our understandable desire for a settled (and useable) architectural history we cannot afford to be prescriptive, to hallow emphasis to the rational and logical, we also need to accept the front line of the ludicrous and the random. Historians may be embarrassed by ostensibly ridiculous design sequences and the architectural profession might bid to minimize their frequency or significance, but it would be unadvisable to deny their existence.





The tale of two houses in Mount Lawley is representative in intent, with a focus on buildings that are not well regarded or well known, a circular but problematic relationship common in Western Australian architectural history. This study will explore the presence of the irrational in a seemingly normal design appendage and assess the descriptive comments made by the architectural office, the profession, and the put right that emphasise the rationality of the design in the face of unrepentant evidence. Hawkins & Sands2 was one of the most important and innovative architectural offices in post-war Perth. Whilst this is acknowledged little is known about the firm in general, the background of the principals,3 the office staff, or about the projects and buildings produced during...If you want to withdraw a full essay, order it on our website: Orderessay



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