Decaying Deco - North Caulfield
Although partially obscured by an overgrown garden of roses and hibiscus, this villa in the Melbourne suburb of North Caulfield has been designed in Streamline Moderne style.
The villa's rounded portico with simple banding using a mixture of different types of bricks and stucco are typical design elements of Streamline Moderne. The portico and rounded bays to either side give the impression of a flat roof, which was also quite common in Streamline Moderne buildings, yet if you look very carefully you might just notice the tip of a standard gabled roof peeping from behind. This suggests that perhaps this Streamline Moderne facade was a retrofit to an older style villa. It's neighbours are both Arts and Crafts villas. The villa features beautiful wrought-iron grilles over the entrance and windows of the portico, as well as an ornamental balconette along its parapet. The clean uncluttered lines of this villa and the overall low slung design of it are also very Streamline Moderne in design. Even the low garden beds that flank the front entrance, and the stairs leading up to it have been created in the rounded style of Streamline Moderne architecture.
Sadly, the villa is falling slowly into decrepitude as decay sets in, yet it still has elegance and the great bones of well considered architecture.
As in London, there was a huge expansion in Melbourne after the Great War in 1918, with ribbon development estates with names like "Oakhill" and "Golf Links" popping up seemingly overnight along rail lines and tram lines. These quickly became suburbs where the newly created and newly moneyed middle classes chose to settle, away from the crowded inner city with its dark Victorian houses and slums. These suburbs gained the mocking title of "Metroland".
Representing modernity the inspiration of these "Metroland" houses were derived from the Reformist and Arts and Crafts movement in England as well as the more modern lines of the Art Deco and Streamline Moderne architectural styles that were in vogue in the 1920s and 1930s.
Decaying Deco - North Caulfield
Although partially obscured by an overgrown garden of roses and hibiscus, this villa in the Melbourne suburb of North Caulfield has been designed in Streamline Moderne style.
The villa's rounded portico with simple banding using a mixture of different types of bricks and stucco are typical design elements of Streamline Moderne. The portico and rounded bays to either side give the impression of a flat roof, which was also quite common in Streamline Moderne buildings, yet if you look very carefully you might just notice the tip of a standard gabled roof peeping from behind. This suggests that perhaps this Streamline Moderne facade was a retrofit to an older style villa. It's neighbours are both Arts and Crafts villas. The villa features beautiful wrought-iron grilles over the entrance and windows of the portico, as well as an ornamental balconette along its parapet. The clean uncluttered lines of this villa and the overall low slung design of it are also very Streamline Moderne in design. Even the low garden beds that flank the front entrance, and the stairs leading up to it have been created in the rounded style of Streamline Moderne architecture.
Sadly, the villa is falling slowly into decrepitude as decay sets in, yet it still has elegance and the great bones of well considered architecture.
As in London, there was a huge expansion in Melbourne after the Great War in 1918, with ribbon development estates with names like "Oakhill" and "Golf Links" popping up seemingly overnight along rail lines and tram lines. These quickly became suburbs where the newly created and newly moneyed middle classes chose to settle, away from the crowded inner city with its dark Victorian houses and slums. These suburbs gained the mocking title of "Metroland".
Representing modernity the inspiration of these "Metroland" houses were derived from the Reformist and Arts and Crafts movement in England as well as the more modern lines of the Art Deco and Streamline Moderne architectural styles that were in vogue in the 1920s and 1930s.