Experiments in modern living: scientists and the national capital private house 1925-1970

Abstract

"Experiments in Modern Living: Scientists and the National Capital Private House 1925-1970" examines how a group of scientists, brought to Canberra to take up leading roles in the establishment of national scientific institutions, commissioned private houses that rejected previous architectural styles and wholeheartedly embraced modernist ideologies and aesthetics. The dissertation compares the context in which these scientists commissioned their houses to the conditions identified by scientific writer Thomas Kuhn as being responsible for generating paradigm shifts in scientific theory.

It will be established that the scientists were in an ideal position to welcome paradigm change in domestic architecture. They were all relatively young when they came to Canberra. Confident and progressive in outlook, many had benefited from overseas experience and from recent exposure to new developments in architecture and the arts. Building new careers and new lives in a city that was still in its infancy, they were not overly committed to maintaining an existing worldview, and were ready to accept change in their living environments. Furthermore, they could see that existing houses in Canberra were technically and environmentally deficient, and that a new type of house was required. To address these shortcomings they provided their architects with detailed and specific briefs.

However the principal motivations that steered these clients towards modern architecture, and encouraged them to build the radical new houses that appeared on suburban Canberra sites in the post World War II years, were not pragmatic in origin. It was the presence of more subjective factors—the allure of the form, materials and colours of modern architecture, art and design, coupled with an attraction to abstract, conceptual thought - that seduced these scientist-clients into rejecting previous architectural styles and convinced them to embrace the cool aesthetic of modern architecture.

Throughout the dissertation the houses are considered as cultural artefacts: products of synergies between architects and clients who were all attempting to find the right forms and spaces to express their ideals and aspirations. The study will offer new insights into a number of aspects of mid-twentieth-century Australian domestic architecture: the dynamics that trigger shifts in attitude towards architectural design, the importance of clients to the design process, and the nexus between Australian architecture and science.