Have Canberra’s modernist houses been protected?

Although a number of houses and buildings are listed on the ACT Heritage Places Register, to what extent does this ensure preservation and prevent demolition?

The answer is, sadly, not much. In fact, it’s hard to recall a single occasion where demolition has been blocked or the genuine protection and preservation of a significant modernist house or building has been secured by the ACT Government or its Heritage Council.

A number of Canberra’s important mid-twentieth century houses and buildings have been extensively modified or demolished in recent years and as land values continue to rise the pace of urban redevelopment—and hence the pressure on mid-twentieth century modernist houses—will only increase.

As experience has shown elsewhere, the only thing that guarantees the protection of a significant house is the goodwill of the owner.

Some demolished houses and buildings

• The Civic Theatre, Mort Street, Braddon. Malcolm Moir, 1935. Demolished in 1970.
• Functionalist house at Hann Street, Griffith. Kenneth Oliphant, 1940s. Demolished in 1981.
• Garran Group Housing, Gilmore Crescent, Garran. Harry Seidler, 1964–68. Demolished in 1999.
• 73 National Circuit, Deakin. E J Scollay, 1958. Demolished in May 2001.

Extensively modified houses

• Whitley Houses in Griffith and Braddon. Cuthbert Whitley, 1939. Modified in 2003-2005.
• 15 Furphy Place, Garran. Anthony Pegrum, 1967. Modified in 2000.
• 24 Cobby Street, Campbell. Roy Grounds, 1963–1964. Modified in 2005.

Inter-war functionalism

Among the houses and buildings that have suffered most are the inter-war functionalist style houses and buildings from the 1930s. Examples of functionalist architecture in Canberra were never large in number to begin with: the ideas of mainstream modernism were relatively slow to reach Australia and Canberra experienced limited growth prior to 1960. Two of Canberra’s most notable inter-war functionalist buildings are the Forrest Fire Station and precinct designed by Government architects Edwin Henderson and Cuthbert Whitley in 1938 and the Civic Theatre in Braddon, designed by Malcolm Moir in 1935. The Forrest Fire Station precinct remains and is included in the ACT Heritage Places Register. However, the Civic Theatre was demolished in the early 1970s.

Perhaps less than twenty inter-war functionalist houses were built in total. About half of these were designed by Cuthbert Whitley in the Works Branch of the Commonwealth Department of the Interior and the remainder by Kenneth Oliphant, and the partnership of Malcolm Moir and Heather Sutherland. While some of these houses are included in the ACT Heritage Places Register, each demolition and botched addition can have a considerable impact on the number of remaining examples.

Kenneth Oliphant

Take the case of local architect Kenneth Oliphant. In 1981 an Oliphant designed inter-war functionalist house on the corner of Hann Street and Evans Crescent in Griffith was demolished. Oliphant designed the house in the 1940s and it was one of about four he designed in that style; the others being 13 Evans Crescent, Griffith, 24 Arthur Circle, Forrest and a house in Dampier Crescent, Forrest. The Evans Crescent, Arthur Circle and Dampier Crescent houses have been extensively modified, meaning that no original, well preserved examples of functionalist residential architecture in Canberra by Ken Oliphant survive.

Legislative protection

The ACT has in place a framework of identification and legislative protection for heritage properties. The ACT Heritage Places List and the RAIA’s Register of Significant Twentieth Century Architecture endorse the heritage significance of certain identified properties. However, by themselves they don’t ensure the conservation or preservation of heritage places and inclusion on one or both of these lists is not a guarantee against demolition. Not all important modernist houses are listed on the ACT Heritage Places Register.

The Whitley Houses

The Whitley houses (one is pictured above) in Griffith and Braddon are a good example. The houses were designed by Government architect Cuthbert Whitley in 1939 and represented the only surviving examples of functionalist style government housing in Canberra. The houses were the subject of a heritage assessment requested by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and were nominated for protection by the RAIA. The houses were gazetted to the ACT Interim Heritage Places Register on 26 October 2002.

Development applications for multi-storey additions to all the houses were approved and all houses have since been extensively modified. They are either overshadowed by or have unit developments attached to them—inexplicably the Heritage Council saw these additions as not adversely impacting on the heritage value of the houses.