One of my columns.
Okay: Here's one of my regular columns, on the history of different property types found around Sydney - it appears every Sunday in Australia's biggest selling newspaper, so it's written with a mass audiencew in mind. The column always starts with a year that is relevant to the property type. I'll post it in two slabs.
Time and Place
A history of Sydney property
Suburban cool
With Pettit and Sevitt, the architect designed project home became a reality.
1961
It?s early into a new decade?a decade that would see enormous social and technological changes, one of the biggest being the advent of the contraceptive pill, which goes on sale in January 1961. Also in 1961, the singing chin - Dame Joan Sutherland - is named Australian of the Year. And tennis great, Rod Laver wins the Men?s Singles title at Wimbledon.
But in the midst of this scientific and cultural revolution, most Australians are still living in the kind of outdated brick or weatherboard bungalows their grandparents called home.
Few could afford a one-off architect designed home (as remains the case today).
So, Sydney builders, Brian Pettit and Ron Sevitt hit on an idea. What if they could provide affordable, architect designed project home instead?
They weren?t the first to hit upon the idea. Both had previously worked with Sun-Line, one of Australia?s first project home companies (founded in 1958). Sun-Line also boasted that its homes were architect designed, something no other project home builders could claim at the time.
Pettit and Sevitt formed their own company in 1961 and utilised the extraordinary talents of Michael Dysart and Ken Woolley to come up with several designs.
The cheapest model was the Gambrel (it won a 1968 RAIA Award for project housing) and sold for around three to four thousand pounds in 1965. It was the simplest and smallest in terms of design.
Pettit and Sevitt were able to achieve these prices by standardising their designs, assembling portions of the houses off-site and purchasing their materials in bulk.
All of the Pettit and Sevitt houses had a distinctive ?look?, which was often copied by other builders. Design details such as white-painted bagged brickwork, exposed beams, and dark stained timber became de rigueur. Pettit and Sevitt were also amongst the first builders to use native gardens around their homes.
Next bit...
The Lowline was the most popular of all the Pettit and Sevitt designs, with around 1500 being built all over Australia. The standard Lowline was a flat-roofed single level house with three bedrooms, a spacious family room, galley-style kitchen, a main bathroom and ensuite. There was also a screened in verandah on the rear and a carport at the front. All this ? 14 squares - for 5,990 pounds in 1965.
Pettit and Sevitt homes were showcased in several purpose built display villages in areas such as St Ives (see breakout); Duffy Avenue and Wyndam Place, Thornleigh; Westleigh Drive, Westleigh; Showground Road/Fishburn Crescent, Castle Hill; and Tuckwell Road, Baulkham Hills. By the time the company folded in 1978, around 3,500 Pettit and Sevitt houses had been built.
Sometime this year, Pettit and Sevitt will be relaunching a new range of homes, again using Ken Woolley as the designer.
On the Market.
23 Richmond Avenue St Ives.
Classic 4 bedroom Pettit and Sevitt.
Auction March 1. More than $775
Phone James Levy (McGrath) on: 0414 474 868
St Ives
Most of the early Pettit and Sevitt houses were constructed around St Ives, because this was where land was relatively inexpensive and available. The first display village was built in Richmond Avenue, in 1964-65.
?It was one of the first of it?s kind,? Ken Woolley says. ?Like today?s Homeworld but on a much smaller scale and showcasing only one builder.?
The village presented most of the Pettit and Sevitt designs ? the Courtyard, Two-Level Split, Three-Level Split, Gallery, Gambrel, Courtyard and Lowline. It was typical of the Pettit and Sevitt display villages which were to follow, in that most only featured a handful of homes. But that didn?t stop the punters from jamming the streets trying to catch a look.
To seduce eager design addicts, Woolley furnished the display houses in the finest designer furniture from the likes of Eames, Saarinen and Aalto. A design environment was dedicated to each model. The ?Danish Look? featured an egg chair, swan chair, Kjaerholm sofa and Poulsen light fittings.
?It revolutionised the way people shopped for houses,? Woolley says. ?There were Sunday morning traffic jams in Mona Vale Road.?
Thanks !
Good stuff. Wish there were pictures. The description of white-painted brick, exposed structure and dark-stained wood, matches some of the tastiest of British modernism of the same era -- sort of a cross between Tudor half-timbering and modern Danish work ? Patrick and Alix's house has that quality. . .
What is "bagged" brickwork ?
What will the newly-designed houses look like ?
They
just posted it the other day -- right above your house -- on the "living quarters" thread. . .
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