23 January 2021:

Got my copy of ‘Winning Homes’, the result of Tim Reeves’ PhD on Australian ‘ideal’ home competitions – and interesting to see that many of the winners of the 1934 Victorian Centenary Homes Exhibition held at Myer (!) were ‘Modern’, a style which was rarely actually built in the 30s. None exactly open planning, but the living and dining spaces merge in the smaller houses. 1. Concrete House for £1200 pounds won by Donald Ward; 2. 4th place for a £1550 house by Ballantyne & Wilson; 3. 2nd place same category also B&W; 4. 2nd place for an asbestos cement house was by #MewtonAndGrounds. They did actually build a few houses in this mode, but only ‘The Ship’ in Mt Eliza from 1937 survives, and that’s attributed to Grounds alone; they also did a house in Aphrasia Street Geelong in 1934 (2nd last pic, demolished) completed about the same time as the competition that looks like the first design by Ward.

• Uncategorized