Original post 17 Jan 2018:
Yes that is a Chinese style roof, which you’ve probably noticed on the east side of #PuntRoad, cnr Gordon Grove (snapped from the bus). It was designed by #ArthurPurnell as his own house in 1928, which he called Shan Teng. Purnell lived and worked in Hong Kong, then Canton (now #Guangdong) from c1900 to 1910, where he designed factories, warehouses, offices, houses, and the customs house, many on #Shamian island, the European enclave which is still pretty much intact. Mostly three storeys, western style, with multi-level shading porticos. Back in Melbourne, he went the other way for a few designs, this and the 1917 Taoshaan flats cnr Malvern & Irving Roads. He went on designing loads of stuff into the 1950s, when he designed the now demolished MCG Olympic stand. His Chinese period was researched by Melb Uni academic Derham Groves; ive got the booklet published to go with an exhibition of his drawings from the Baillieu Library collection in 2007.
Storey of Melbourne 