More recent activity at the ACT Heritage Unit, as several places have been provisionally registered under the Heritage Act 2004. Among buildings included in the latest batch are works by Frederick Romberg, Enrico Taglietti, Ken Woolley and John Andrews.

The latest provisional registrations are for:

• Ken Woolley’s Woden Library and Phillip Health Centre (1977)
• Frederick Romberg’s Lutheran Church in Turner (1961)
• Enrico Taglietti’s Dickson Library (1969)
• The UC Student Residences designed by John Andrews (1973)

Recently included in Canberra’s Top Twenty, the UC Residences are the only houses among the latest additions. They have been provisionally registered for their significance as relatively rare examples of 1970s student accommodation constructed of off-form in situ concrete and for their association with the development of tertiary education in Canberra during the Whitlam years, with the establishment of the Canberra College of Advanced Education—now the University of Canberra.

They are also regarded as important examples of work by the internationally recognised architect John Andrews and are significant examples of brutalist architecture, with their strong, boldly composed shapes, expressed reinforced-concrete and large areas of blank wall. The way the residences are stepped down the sloping site is also a characteristic of the Sydney regional style of architecture.

The design also represented a new type of student residential planning called studenentheim, where modules comprising six student rooms were linked with a separate sitting room, kitchen area and shared toilet facilities. This was an ideal use for John Andrews’ additive style of architecture, where the basic building element of the student rooms is grouped around the shared facilities. The success of this studenentheim was such that the ANU then built Toad Hall following these principles, also with John Andrews as the architect.

This housing group is unusual, since there are very few residential examples of the brutalist style in Canberra or, indeed, Australia. The contrasting textures and patterns formed by the arrangement of the modules makes for a group of residences that are still quite startling in appearance, thirty-five years after their design.

So, Canberrans, if you haven’t seen these fine examples of late twentieth century brutalism, I highly recommend a trip over to Bruce, where the group can be viewed from Aikman Drive.

Further reading

• Canberra’s Top Twenty
• Brutalist architecture
• Sydney regional style architecture

The University of Canberra Student Residences were designed by John Andrews in 1973, for the Canberra College of Advanced Education (CCAE), construction being completed in 1975. The CCAE became the University of Canberra in 1990. They can be accessed from the University of Canberra campus off College Street or viewed from Aikman Drive, Bruce.

Significance

The residences are listed on the ACT Chapter of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects RAIA Register of Significant Twentieth Century Architecture. In July 2008 they were provisionally added to the ACT Heritage Register.

The buildings are a rare residential example of the late twentieth century brutalist style with their strong shapes, boldly composed in off-form reinforced concrete and diagonal orientation with the strong curved element of the roof. With their planning over five levels and roof following the slope of the north facing site, they also display characteristics of the late twentieth century Sydney regional style. The group represents the ideal of innovative modern architecture and planning—clean, functional and well sited.

The group is a relatively rare and well-preserved example of 1970s student accommodation. They are one of only two examples of on campus student residential accommodation designed by John Andrews in Canberra, one of Australia’s internationally acclaimed architects of the latter half of the twentieth century. The construction of off-form in situ concrete was also innovative for its time.

The buildings have significance for their association with the development of tertiary education in Canberra during the 1970s, in particular for the provision of housing for large numbers of students in the early 1970s as a result of the introduction of free tertiary education by the Whitlam Labor Government.

Description

Built on a north facing hillside, the group faces north and overlooks the College Park with its plantation of eucalypts and casuarinas and is framed by well-established native woodland. The complex consists of 156 student study/bedrooms set out on a 3.05m square grid, arranged in six tiers of five levels, which follow the natural slope of the site. There is approximately a two-metre change in floor level between each unit as they step down the site, a climb of 13 rises to the street/stairway, while there is a small step down in floor level across the whole residence from the east to the west. Each tier is connected by an access stairway and the interlocking, staggered layout provides all rooms with a north-east orientation. The rooms are arranged in groups of six, with common lounge, dining, cooking and bathroom facilities.

The design represented a new type of planning for on campus student accommodation called studenentheim, where modules comprising six student rooms were linked with a separate sitting room, kitchen area and shared toilet facilities. This was an ideal use for John Andrews’ additive style of architecture, where the basic building element of the student rooms is grouped around the shared facilities. The success of this studenentheim was such that the ANU then built Toad Hall following these principles, also using John Andrews as the architect.

Most internal walls are masonry, with the end wall to the wet areas painted externally. All external surfaces are off-form concrete except for the painted masonry walls to the rear entries and the bull-nosed corrugated roof. The concrete surfaces and roofing material combine to provide a uniform effect to the construction and visual character of the building.

The residences are described in Canberra: An Architectural Guide to Australia’s Capital, RAIA ACT Chapter, 1982:

Ground slope and diagonal orientation have been used to give character to both forms and spaces. Curved fascias and internal/street stairways which provide separate entrance to each cluster of bedrooms are noteworthy.

— RAIA, ACT Chapter

The residences can be compared with other buildings in Canberra designed by John Andrews:

• Cameron Offices (1972)
• Toad Hall Student Residences, Kingsley Street, Acton. (1977)
• Belconnen Bus Interchange (1978)
• Woden TAFE (1981)

John Andrews

John Andrews was born in Sydney in 1933 and graduated from the University of Sydney in 1956. In 1957 he entered the Masters of Architecture program at Harvard University. After graduating Andrews worked in Toronto until 1962, when he established John Andrews Architects in Toronto. He returned to Sydney in 1972, renaming the company John Andrews International.

John Andrews is a key practitioner of the late twentieth century brutalist and late twentieth century late modern styles. His key buildings in Australia are the Cameron Offices and the American Express Tower, Sydney (1976).

John Andrews designed other student residences in North America and two in Canberra: these and Toad Hall at the Australian National University.

Sources and further reading

• Royal Australian Institute of Architects RSTCA Citation No. R59
• Profile of John Andrews
• The late twentieth century brutalist style
• The late twentieth century Sydney regional style.
• Toad Hall Student Residences, Kingsley Street, Acton. (1977)

The original inspiration for the brutalist style came from Le Corbusier’s French buildings of the early 1950s. They demonstrated an uncompromising attitude to materials and construction that influenced architecture for several decades. Buildings in the international style had a certain lightness of style, with plain, smooth wall surfaces.

In contrast, brutalist buildings demonstrated an aggressive largeness of scale and a strong, muscular character, often with services exposed or contained in a featured semi-cylindrical element. Reinforced concrete showing the imprint of its formwork was the material of choice. English architects Alison and Peter Smithson were among the first to articulate the ‘new brutalism’ in their Hunstanton School, Norfolk (1949-53).

The first brutalist style building in Australia was the Hale School Memorial Hall in Perth, designed by Marshall Clifton and completed in 1961. It was greeted with a mixture of praise and outrage. The style became more common—if not popular—by the mid 1970s.

One of the best examples in Australia can be found in Canberra—the Cameron Offices by John Andrews. The most outstanding example in Australia of a house in the brutalist style is probably the Harry and Penelope Seidler house at Killara, which can be seen on the Seidler and Associates website. The CCAE (now UC) Student Residences are the most notable example in Canberra.

Features

• Strong shapes, boldly composed
• Reinforced concrete structure expressed
• Largeness of scale, strong, muscular character
• Off form concrete construction
• Large areas of blank wall
• Strongly textured brickwork or stone
• External sun control in the form of pre-cast fins
• Diagonal, sloping or strong curved elements contrasting with horizontal and vertical members

On this site

• CCAE Student Residences, Bruce. John Andrews, 1975.

Other examples in Australia

• Hale School Memorial Hall, Perth. Marshall Clifton, 1961.
• Seidler House, Killara, NSW. Harry and Penelope Seidler, 1967.
• Union Building, Macquarie U. Ancher, Mortlock, Murray and Woolley, 1968.
• Sydney University Law School. McConnel, Smith and Johnson, 1969.
• Cameron Offices, Belconnen Town Centre, ACT. John Andrews, 1972.
• High Court of Australia, ACT. Edwards, Madigan, Torzillio and Briggs, 1980.
• National Gallery of Australia, ACT. Edwards, Madigan, Torzillio and Briggs, 1982.