Projects - Centre for Settlement Studies
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Project
highlights of the Centre for Settlement Studies include:
- The Adelaide Parklands: A balancing act
- Patjarr Visitors Centre
- South Australian Home Builders Club
- Jackman Gooden Pilot Study
- Woomera Village Plan
- Placecards
- Individual projects
The Adelaide Parklands: A balancing act
UniSA's Centre for Settlement Studies, the Hawke Centre and the Adelaide Parklands Preservation Association (APPA) hosted The Adelaide Parklands: A balancing act from 10-12 November 2006.
The three-day program comprised a full-day symposium, parkland tours and a free public forum opened by the Lord Mayor at the Adelaide Town Hall. Media release
Patjarr Community Arts Centre
David Morris
Late
Nick Opie
The Patjarr Community Arts Centre project commenced in 1999 and involved the design and construction of a Visitors Centre and Gallery for the Patjarr community near Warburton in the Gibson Desert, Western Australia. The building was designed in consultation with community members and prefabricated in Adelaide in the School's Workshop. Students assembled the Centre over a four-week period in mid 2002 under the supervision of project coordinators David Morris and Nick Opie. The project was funded by a grant from the Western Australian Lotteries Commission and involved collaboration with the Faculty of the Built Environment, University of New South Wales. See Community and industry for more information about this project.
South Australian Home Builders Club
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, multidisciplinary study identified and interviewed 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 were 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 comprised Centre for Settlement Studies 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. As well as architectural themes, the study investigated meanings of home, garden design and issues of gender in the climate of postwar home building. The project's funding was secured from several sources: a Division of Education, Arts and Social Sciences internal grant (2001), City of Mitcham Community Cultural Development Grant (2001) and an Australian Technology Network grant (2002).
Jackman Gooden Pilot Study
Julie Collins
Christine Garnaut
Donald Langmead
Industry Partners Jackman Parken Evans and the State Library of South Australia funded a pilot study (2002) that surveyed the Jackman Gooden architectural firm (South Australia's longest surviving continuous practice) to:
- locate, record and analyse the content of extant documents including the Jackman Gooden collection (approximately 450 drawings) held by the State Library
- prepare an overview of the scope and nature of the practices contribution to South Australia's metropolitan and rural development including its architectural, social and cultural aspects
- undertake case studies of selected buildings representative of the practices repertoire
- design the methodology for a more extensive project.
Woomera Village Plan
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 involved Centre for Settlement Studies member Christine Garnaut and UNSW colleagues Paul-Alan Johnson and Robert Freestone. The research focused on the design origins and influences on the plan for Woomera Village (1946-7), the residential facility associated with the Joint United Kingdom-Australia Long Range Weapons Project. The inquiry included an investigation of international postwar planning theory and its application to a remote Australian service settlement.
Placecards
Funded by a Centenary of Federation grant (2001), Placecards investigated 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 factors that include 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.
Individual projects
Walter Burley Griffin and Knitlock construction
Donald Johnson
The role of Griffins knitlock concrete construction system as developed in Melbourne, 1916-9, its use in Australia and its influence on Lloyd Wrights knitlock and Frank Lloyd Wrights textile block system in California 1922-5.
Neighbourhood unit
Donald Johnson
The origin of the neighbourhood unit in Chicago, 1912-6, and its possible role in city planning in postwar England Australia.
House plan sources
Donald Johnson
A study of the Italian and English sources of selected architects and builders house plans in England, Australia and America from circa1790 to the 1930s; Palladian formalised plans of circa1570, the English single and double pile plan, each considered up to 20th century South Australian bungalows.
Frank Lloyd Wright bio-bibliography
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.
Charles Reades design projects: South Australia 1916-20
Building on her doctoral research and funded by a Royal Geographical Society of South Australia grant, Christine Garnaut is compiling an annotated and illustrated report comprising case studies of SA Government town planner Charles Reade's projects from 1916-20. 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.
Architecture Museum
The Centre for Settlement Studies is associated with a major research
resource, the School of Art, Architecture and Design's
Architecture
Museum
Dickson & Platten
Using the extensive archived collection donated to the School of Art, Architecture and Design's Architecture Museum 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