Recommendation of the Executive Director and assessment of cultural heritage significance under Division 3 of the Heritage Act 2017 NAME MERCHANT BUILDERS OH2 HOUSE (PRESTON) LOCATION 7 MAY STREET, PRESTON CATEGORY: HERITAGE PLACE HERMES NUMBER: 201279 This recommendation report has been issued by the Executive Director, Heritage Victoria under s.37 of the Heritage Act 2017. It has not been considered or endorsed by the Heritage Council of Victoria. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR RECOMMENDATION TO THE HERITAGE COUNCIL: • That the place/object NOT be included in the Victorian Heritage Register under Section 37(1)(b) of the Heritage Act 2017. STEVEN AVERY Executive Director Recommendation Date: 19 November 2018 Advertising period: Monday 26 November 2018 – Monday 21 January 2019
Transcript
Recommendation of the Executive Director and assessment of cultural heritage significance under Division 3 of the Heritage Act 2017
NAME MERCHANT BUILDERS OH2 HOUSE (PRESTON) LOCATION 7 MAY STREET, PRESTON CATEGORY: HERITAGE PLACE HERMES NUMBER: 201279
This recommendation report has been issued by the Executive Director, Heritage Victoria under s.37 of the Heritage Act 2017. It has not been considered or endorsed by the Heritage Council of Victoria.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR RECOMMENDATION TO THE HERITAGE COUNCIL:
• That the place/object NOT be included in the Victorian Heritage Register under Section 37(1)(b) of the Heritage Act 2017.
STEVEN AVERY Executive Director Recommendation Date: 19 November 2018 Advertising period: Monday 26 November 2018 – Monday 21 January 2019
Date that the nomination was accepted by the Executive Director 26 September 2018 Written extent of nomination All of 7 May Street within the title boundaries. Nomination extent diagram
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR RESPONSE SUMMARY
It is the view of the Executive Director that this place should not be included in the Victorian Heritage Register for the reasons outlined in this report.
REASONS FOR NOT RECOMMENDING INCLUSION IN THE VICTORIAN HERITAGE REGISTER [s.34A(2)] Following is the Executive Director's assessment of the place against the tests set out in The Victorian Heritage Register Criteria and Thresholds Guidelines (2014).
CRITERION A
Importance to the course, or pattern, of Victoria’s cultural history.
STEP 1: A BASIC TEST FOR SATISFYING CRITERION A
The place/object has a CLEAR ASSOCIATION with an event, phase, period, process, function, movement, custom or way of life in Victoria’s cultural history.
Plus
The association of the place/object to the event, phase, etc IS EVIDENT in the physical fabric of the place/object and/or in documentary resources or oral history.
Plus
The EVENT, PHASE, etc is of HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE, having made a strong or influential contribution to Victoria.
Executive Director’s Response
The Merchant Builders OH2 House (Preston) has a clear association with the work of Merchant Builders, project houses and the burgeoning interest in energy-efficient residential design that developed in Victoria during the 1970s. Each of these threads represents a phase that has made a strong and influential contribution to Victoria.
Criterion A is likely to be satisfied.
STEP 2: TEST FOR STATE LEVEL SIGNIFICANCE
The place/object allows the clear association with the event, phase etc. of historical importance to be UNDERSTOOD BETTER THAN MOST OTHER PLACES OR OBJECTS IN VICTORIA WITH SUBSTANTIALLY THE
SAME ASSOCIATION.
There are many other extant houses in Victoria that demonstrate the work of Merchant Builders, project houses and energy efficient design. It cannot be said that this house can be understood better than most other places in Victoria with substantially the same associations.
Criterion A is not likely to be satisfied at the State level.
Possession of uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of Victoria’s cultural history.
STEP 1: A BASIC TEST FOR SATISFYING CRITERION B
The place/object has a clear ASSOCIATION with an event, phase, period, process, function, movement, custom or way of life of importance in Victoria’s cultural history.
Plus
The association of the place/object to the event, phase, etc IS EVIDENT in the physical fabric of the place/object and/or in documentary resources or oral history.
Plus
The place/object is RARE OR UNCOMMON, being one of a small number of places/objects remaining that demonstrates the important event, phase etc.
OR The place/object is RARE OR UNCOMMON, containing unusual features of note that were not widely
replicated OR
The existence of the class of place/object that demonstrates the important event, phase etc is ENDANGERED to the point of rarity due to threats and pressures on such places/objects.
Executive Director’s Response
The Merchant Builders OH2 House (Preston) has a clear association with Merchant Builders, project houses and with the burgeoning interest in energy-efficient residential design that developed in Victoria during the 1970s. This is evident in the physical fabric of the place, documentary resources and oral history.
During its first year of operation in 1965-66, Merchant Builders built sixty houses for private clients, and this increased to one hundred the following year. If one were to extrapolate this average annual rate across the firm’s subsequent 25 years in operations, the total number of Merchant Builders houses in Victoria would exceed 1,000.
The Merchant Builders OH2 House (Preston) is a representative example of a Merchant Builders project house designed along energy efficient/passive solar principles. It is not considered to possess uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of Victoria’s cultural history.
Criterion B is not likely to be satisfied.
CRITERION C
Potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Victoria’s cultural history.
relating to the place/object indicates a likelihood that the place/object contains PHYSICAL EVIDENCE of historical interest that is NOT CURRENTLY VISIBLE OR UNDERSTOOD.
Plus
From what we know of the place/object, the physical evidence is likely to be of an INTEGRITY and/or CONDITION that it COULD YIELD INFORMATION through detailed investigation.
The Merchant Builders OH2 House (Preston) does not contain physical evidence of historical interest that is not currently visible or understood. Merchant Builders project houses and energy efficiency techniques from the 1970s are well documented and understood.
Criterion C is not likely to be satisfied.
CRITERION D
Importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a class of cultural places and objects.
STEP 1: A BASIC TEST FOR SATISFYING CRITERION D
The place/object is one of a CLASS of places/objects that has a clear ASSOCIATION with an event, phase, period, process, function, movement, important person(s), custom or way of life in Victoria’s history.
Plus
The EVENT, PHASE, etc is of HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE, having made a strong or influential contribution to Victoria.
Plus
The principal characteristics of the class are EVIDENT in the physical fabric of the place/object.
Executive Director’s Response
The Merchant Builders OH2 House (Preston) is one of the class of place ‘project house’. It has a clear association with the work of Merchant Builders and with the burgeoning interest in energy-efficient residential design that developed in Victoria during the 1970s. Each of these threads represents a phase that has made a strong and influential contribution to Victoria.
The Merchant Builders OH2 House (Preston) demonstrates the principal characteristics of a project house of the 1970s, and of a project house designed along energy efficient principles. These principal characteristics are evident in the physical fabric of the place (modular, open plan, large windows, pergolas, simple materials). Criterion D is likely to be satisfied.
STEP 2: TEST FOR STATE LEVEL SIGNIFICANCE FOR CRITERION D
The place/object is a NOTABLE EXAMPLE of the class in Victoria (refer to Reference Tool D).
Executive Director’s Response
The Merchant Builders OH2 House (Preston) is a representative but not notable example of a project house. While it demonstrates a high degree of intactness (which is not uncommon for heritage places built within the last generation) it is not a fine, influential or pivotal example that warrants elevation to State Level significance above the large number of similar places across Victoria.
The Merchant Builders Open House (OH) Series was recognised by receiving an RAIA Citation in 1978. This applied generically to the design itself which is expressed in a large number of homes across Victoria (OH1, OH2, OH3, OH4, OH5 and adaptations) and is not limited to any one example.
A notable example of Merchant Builders project housing is the Winter Park Cluster Housing, Doncaster (VHR H1345). It was included in the VHR in 1997 for its outstanding landscape and architectural design evident in its site planning, building expression and hard and soft landscaping. Developed across a 2.43 hectare (six acre), site the landscaping for Winter Park was designed by noted landscape architect Ellis Stones. Winter Park is recognised as a fine and influential example of project housing in Victoria.
Criterion D is not likely to be satisfied at the State level.
Importance in exhibiting particular aesthetic characteristics.
STEP 1: A BASIC TEST FOR SATISFYING CRITERION E
The PHYSICAL FABRIC of the place/object clearly exhibits particular aesthetic characteristics.
Executive Director’s Response
The physical fabric of the Merchant Builders OH2 House (Preston) clearly exhibits particular aesthetic characteristics. It has the visual qualities of a project home from the 1970s. It is one of many examples from Merchant Builders Open House Series (OH1, OH2, OH3, OH4, OH5 and adaptations) that were built in Victoria during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Criterion E is likely to be satisfied.
STEP 2: TEST FOR STATE LEVEL SIGNIFICANCE FOR CRITERION E
The aesthetic characteristics are APPRECIATED OR VALUED by the wider community or an appropriately-related discipline as evidenced, for example, by:
• critical recognition of the aesthetic characteristics of the place/object within a relevant art, design, architectural or related discipline as an outstanding example within Victoria; or
• wide public acknowledgement of exceptional merit in Victoria in medium such as songs, poetry, literature, painting, sculpture, publications, print media etc.
Executive Director’s Response
As an individual house, the Merchant Builders OH2 House (Preston) has never been lauded for its aesthetic characteristics, nor subject to any critical recognition or wide public acknowledgment. See comments under State Level Test for Criterion D.
Criterion E is not likely to be satisfied at the State level.
CRITERION F
Importance in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period.
STEP 1: A BASIC TEST FOR SATISFYING CRITERION F
The place/object contains PHYSICAL EVIDENCE that clearly demonstrates creative or technical ACHIEVEMENT for the time in which it was created.
Plus
The physical evidence demonstrates a HIGH DEGREE OF INTEGRITY.
Executive Director’s Response The Merchant Builders OH2 House (Preston) does not demonstrate a high degree of creative or technical achievement for the time in which it was created. The energy efficient and passive solar design principles embodied in the design of the house had already been explored in a number of houses already completed by 1978. These include earlier project houses by Merchant Builders, and other dwellings designed by architects such as John Baird, Cocks & Carmichael and Williamson Span, as well as an experimental dwelling developed by the CSIRO.
Strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons. This includes the significance of a place to indigenous people as part of their continuing and developing cultural traditions.
STEP 1: A BASIC TEST FOR SATISFYING CRITERION G
Evidence exists of a DIRECT ASSOCIATION between the place/object and a PARTICULAR COMMUNITY OR CULTURAL GROUP.
(For the purpose of these guidelines, ‘COMMUNITY or CULTURAL GROUP’ is defined as a sizable group of persons who share a common and long-standing interest or identity).
Plus
The ASSOCIATION between the place/object and the community or cultural group is STRONG OR SPECIAL, as evidenced by the regular or long-term use of/engagement with the place/object or the enduring ceremonial,
ritual, commemorative, spiritual or celebratory use of the place/object.
Executive Director’s Response
The Merchant Builders OH2 House (Preston) does not have strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group.
Criterion G is not likely to be satisfied.
CRITERION H
Special association with the life or works of a person, or group of persons, of importance in Victoria’s history.
STEP 1: A BASIC TEST FOR SATISFYING CRITERION H
The place/object has a DIRECT ASSOCIATION with a person or group of persons who have made a strong or influential CONTRIBUTION to the course of Victoria’s history.
Plus
The ASSOCIATION of the place/object to the person(s) IS EVIDENT in the physical fabric of the place/object and/or in documentary resources and/or oral history.
Plus
The ASSOCIATION:
• directly relates to ACHIEVEMENTS of the person(s) at, or relating to, the place/object; or
• relates to an enduring and/or close INTERACTION between the person(s) and the place/object.
Executive Director’s Response
The Merchant Builders OH2 House (Preston) has a direct association with Merchant Builders, a ground-breaking project housing company that made a strong and influential contribution to the course of Victoria’s history. However, as one of thousands of houses that were effectively mass-produced for public consumption, this particular house does not demonstrate a close or enduring interaction with Merchant Builders.
RELEVANT INFORMATION LOCAL GOVERNMENT AUTHORITY City of Darebin HERITAGE LISTING INFORMATION
Heritage Overlay: No (identified in heritage study but not assessed)
HISTORY
CONTEXTUAL HISTORY
Merchant Builders
Project housing, in its modern sense, was first introduced into Victoria in the mid-1950s and gained in popularity during the following decade. In 1965 the industry was transformed with the establishment of Merchant Builders, co-founded by businessmen John Ridge and David Yencken. They engaged the services of eminent and award-winning architects who gave consideration to site planning, landscaping and furnishing, seeking expert input from leading landscape designers, interior designers and other design professionals.
The first Merchant Builders display village was constructed in 1965 in Glen Waverley. This was followed by a series of acclaimed suburban developments that comprised flats or townhouses arranged on the then-innovative cluster housing principle. Notable examples include Elliston in Rosanna (1968-71) and Winter Park in Doncaster (1969-81) (VHR H1345). Both projects attracted considerable acclaim, publicity and architectural awards.
During the 1970s Merchant Builders hit the peak of its success. Input was sought from emerging architects such as Terry Dorrough and Cocks & Carmichael, and their new designs were showcased at display villages in Frankston, Vermont and Templestowe. Towards the end of the decade, the Merchant Builders range offered dozens of house plans, representing a series of standard designs that were available in many different variations, and could be further customised according to a client’s whim.
During the early 1980s, Merchant Builders lost some of its momentum due to economic downturn, and the resignation of David Yencken. Following successive changes in ownership in the late 1980s, Merchant Builders finally ceased trading in its original form when it was acquired by A V Jennings in 1991.
Merchant House OH2 Series
The Merchant House OH2 (Preston) was built to one of five variations of a standard design which Terry Dorrough had introduced into the company’s range in 1971. The series was conceived as a low-cost three-bedroom dwelling with modular planning and rationalised construction systems to provide flexibility. The five variations were quite different in layout. The OH1 and OH2 were compact in plan, with living, dining and kitchens areas grouped along the full-height window wall, and the bedrooms, bathrooms and laundry along the opposite side. The main difference between OH1 and OH2 was that the latter was bigger, with an enlarged living/dining area and a separate study. The other three variations in the series (OH3, OH4 and OH5) were larger still, and planned differently with master bedroom and en suite bathroom separated from the other bedrooms by a central living zone with open-planned kitchen, living, dining and family room.
The Merchant House OH2 (Preston) was built to a standard plan OH2, but slightly adapted to suit the modest needs of a two-person father/daughter family unit. Instead of a third bedroom, that space was subdivided to create a storeroom with narrower space alongside that, fitted out with benches and small sink, which would serve as a photographic darkroom. The other change was the incorporation of the optional attached garage, which was placed at the western end of the plan (requiring the original recessed front door to be reconfigured to become the connecting door from the garage). Work on the landscaping of the house commenced soon after completion, and included the laying out of brick paving and pathways using recycled red bricks.
CONSTRUCTION DETAILS
Architect name: Terry Dorrough for Merchant Builders
Architectural style name: Post War Period 1945-1965
06 Building towns, cities and the garden state 6.3 Shaping the suburbs 6.7 making homes for Victorians
09 Shaping cultural and creative life 9.3 Achieving design and artistic distinction
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Occupying a north-facing block on a suburban street largely characterised by pre-war dwellings, the Merchant Builders OH2 House (Preston) at 7 May Street, Preston, is a single-storey brick veneer house on an elongated rectangular plan. Along the north (May Street) elevation the living areas have full-height bays of windows and sliding glass doors. The kitchen, situated between them, has a narrower bay with a half-height window with horizontal timber boarding below. The windows along the south and east side of the house are similarly treated, with half-height windows over timber spandrels. At the far (west) end of the house is the attached garage, which has a tilt-up metal door.
The low gabled roof is clad in metal tray decking, and the rafters and top plate remain exposed along the eaves line. To the south (rear) side, the rafters are linked by a continuous bargeboard, forming eaves. On the north (street) side, the rafters project even further to define a pergola, with a screen of timber battens above the windows. There are no eaves along the east and west sides of the house.
The tall metal fence that runs along the front property line, the inside of the driveway and the three other property boundaries, was installed in the 2010s. The original timber gates and timber letterbox have been retained.
OBJECTS AND INTERIORS
The interior of the house is characterised by a simple and consistently-applied palette of finishes. Walls are of plasterboard and the low-pitched cathedral ceilings have exposed timber beams, rafters and lining boards. The concrete slab floor is carpeted, except for wet areas (kitchen, laundry and bathrooms), which have polished cork tiled flooring. Sliding doors throughout the house, which are recessed into wall cavities, retain original metal closers, while the few swinging doors (eg pantry) retain their original wooden knobs. Timber windows retain their original unpainted finish, and some still have original sill-mounted roller blinds. Curtains are also original, including the full-length beige curtains to the north-facing windows of the living areas, and printed curtains in the bedrooms.
All of the wet areas retain the original fitouts. The kitchen benches and cupboards have an olive green laminate finish. Bathrooms have ceramic oval-shaped vanity basins and white ceramic-tiled finishes to shower recesses and bathtub splashbacks. Showers have mosaic tiled bases and aluminium-framed sliding doors. Toilet pans and cisterns are all original. Similarly, the bath, showers, basins, kitchen sink and laundry trough all retain original tapware. Other original fittings to remain evident include the wall-mounted gas furnace heaters and ceiling fans in the two living areas, the kitchen stove, and all of the light fittings.
LANDSCAPES, TREES & GARDENS
The front and rear gardens contain a number of plantings typical of any suburban garden. There are a few mature trees that appear to have been retained when the original house on the site was demolished for the present building in 1979. A large wisteria grows along the front pergola. The brick paving along the front of the house, and extending to form a pathway to the front gate, was laid out at the time the house was completed, and used recycled red bricks salvaged from the chimney of the family’s pre-war bungalow that formerly occupied the site.
This place has not been identified as having potential for containing archaeology of State Level Significance.
INTEGRITY/INTACTNESS
The house is highly intact and of a high degree of integrity, both inside and out. Very few changes have been made to the house since it was completed in 1979. Alterations to the exterior include two changes that continue the energy-efficient theme of the original house. In 1983, a solar gas hot water system was installed and in 1999-2000, a renewable power generation plant (with six photovoltaic solar panels) was added. In more recent years, the only other changes to the exterior have been the cutting back of some rafters defining the front pergola (due to the rotting of the timber) and the replacement of the original timber-plank front fence with a sheet metal version sometime between December 2009 and June 2014. Two original timber plank gates (to the street frontage and the driveway) have been retained along with the original letterbox.
Exterior
The exterior is virtually unaltered. The brickwork, timber cladding and timber joinery all appear to retain original finishes, and the doors and windows retain original hardware. The garage door is original. The only major changes to the exterior are the installation of solar panels on the roof (which remain discrete and, as noted elsewhere, are otherwise indicative of the theme of energy efficiency inherent in the original house) and the truncating of the rafters along the street façade. (August 2018)
Interior
The interior of the house is similarly intact. The kitchen retains original laminate benchtops, cupboards, kitchen sink and stove, and the bathrooms and laundry still have their original ceramic tiling, bathtub, vanity units, shower recesses, laundry trough, WC pans and cisterns, and even tapware. Floors retain original carpet or polished cork flooring, and even the curtains, roller blinds and light fittings are all original. (August 2018)
The place demonstrates a high degree of integrity and can be easily read for its cultural heritage values.
CONDITION
The house remains in excellent condition, both inside and out.
Currently, there is one Merchant Builders place included in the VHR.
Winter Park Cluster Housing, Doncaster (VHR H1345)
The Winter Park Cluster Housing Estate is of architectural, social, historic and aesthetic importance to the State of Victoria as a prototypical example of cluster housing, for associations with Merchant Builders (and more specifically with co-founders John Ridge and David Yencken, architect Graeme Gunn and landscape designer Ellis Stones) for outstanding landscape and architectural design evident in its site planning, building expression and hard and soft landscaping. The estate is a cluster housing development of twenty individual dwellings on a 2.43 hectare (six acre) site. Realised in several stages between 1970 and 1974, it is an early and influential development of cluster housing in Victoria, the estate attracted considerable publicity and received a citation in the RAIA (Vic) awards for 1975.
Winter Park is significant as a pivotal and influential example of the work of Merchant Builders in the emerging typology of cluster housing. One of the firm’s most prominent and acclaimed projects of the era, it encapsulates many of its philosophies in terms of the totality of design, consideration of the relationship between buildings, site planning and landscape, and the engagement of top-level design professionals.
Typical dwelling, Winter Park, Doncaster Solar House, Rosco Drive, Templestowe
Comparison Summary Winter Park is different in scale and typology to the Merchant House OH2 (Preston). Nonetheless, Merchant House OH2 (Preston) does not demonstrate the outstanding qualities evident in Winter Park, nor is it a pivotal or influential example of a project house or the work of Merchant Builders.
Merchant Builders Projects (Not included in the VHR)
Merchant Builders had a prolific output, and many of its projects have been identified in local heritage studies and/or included in Local Heritage Overlays
Elliston Estate, Rosanna (City of Banyule, HO92)
Developed by Merchant Builders from 1969-71 on a former golf course at Rosanna, the houses in the Elliston Estate were designed by leading residential architects of the day. They were designated by codes that referenced their names: GB (Graeme Gunn), ME (McGlashan & Everist), J (Daryl Jackson), JE (Daryl Jackson & Evan Walker) and D (Charles Duncan). The estate itself was named after Ellis Stones, who was responsible for the landscape design. The Elliston houses comprised a range of forms and types: single-storey and split level, with flat, pitched or lantern roofs, and many with private courtyards. Designs were informed by passive design principles, and the estate included such innovations as underground electrical services.
Example of an Elliston estate home, Rosanna (Source: realestate.com.au)
Display Houses, Olympus Drive, Templestowe (City of Manningham, HO220)
Merchant Builders established a small display village in Olympus Drive, Templestowe by 1969. Two of the remaining houses, at No 20 and 22, have been added to the City of Manningham’s heritage overlay schedule. They represent two standard designs by Graeme Gunn: the Courtyard house (No 20) and the Terrace house (No 22). Two other dwellings in Olympus Drive, at No 37 and No 66 are representative examples of the work of Merchant Builders. Both are examples of Graeme Gunn’s Terrace house, with No 37 representing a specific variation designated as TD.
Display Houses, Exford Place, Donvale (City of Manningham, HO61)
Merchant Builders developed a cul-de-sac display village of three dwellings in Exford Place, Donvale 1971. These included examples of the Cellar house by Graeme Gunn (1 Exford Place) and the Patio house by Charles Duncan (3 Exford Place), both of which had also been built at the Winter Park estate. By contrast, the third display house was an entirely new prototype: the Modular house by Keith & John R Reid (2 Exford Place). This was an adaptation of the Reids’ prize-winning entry in the System Built Housing competition sponsored by the Age newspaper in 1971 (the same competition in which Terry Dorrough won a prize for what was later adapted to become the Merchant Builders Open House series).
Display Houses, Porter Street and Beverly Hills Drive, Templestowe (City of Manningham, HO17)
This former Merchant Builders display village comprises two groups of dwellings and was built between 1981 and 1987. The houses represent numerous standard designs from the company’s range, prepared by a number of different architects. There are examples of the Terrace House (6 Beverly Hills Drive), Studio House (5, 7 and 12 Beverly Hills Drive) and Atrium House (410 Porter Street) by Graeme Gunn, the Garden House (408 Porter Street) and Open House (3 Beverly Hills Drive) by Terry Dorrough, the Two Storey House (4 Beverly Hills Drive), Gallery House (414 Porter Street), Gable House (416 Porter Street) and Trombe House (1 and 8-10 Beverly Hills Drive) by Barry Gray, the Link House (418 Porter Street) by Peter Sandow, and the Melbourne House (412 Porter Street) by Cocks & Carmichael.
Vermont Park, Burwood Highway, Vermont South (City of Whitehorse, HO118)
Following on from the success of its cluster housing estates of Winter Park and Elliston, Merchant Builders commenced development of Vermont Park in 1977. Laid out on a substantial four-acre site at what was then addressed as 531 Burwood Highway, the estate expanded to include 43 individual dwellings arranged around a series of cul-de-sacs, centred on a communal open space with swimming pool and barbecue area. The original eleven houses at Vermont Park represented a number of standard designs from the Merchant Builders catalogue, and variations thereof. They include examples of the Corner House, Courtyard House and Studio House by Graeme Gunn, the Long House by Cocks & Carmichael, and the Pavilion House and Open House by Terry Dorrough. Specific examples from Dorrough’s Open House series, which have been tentatively ascribed through desktop research, include the following: OH1 (14 Nicholi Walk) OH2 (2 Maculata Court), OH3 (11 Maculata Walk, 40 and 42 Saligna Walk), OH4 (12 Maculata Walk, 24 Miniata Walk, 30 Citriodora Walk) and OH5 (32 Cornuta Walk, 38 Saligna Walk).
The Merchant Builders project houses in Local Heritage Overlays tend to be included in the form of clusters or estates. It is estimated that there were at least 160 such developments in Victoria. The Merchant Builders OH2 House (Preston) is single dwelling which does not have the benefit of interpretation within a broader estate or purpose designed landscape. It is noted that there are examples of OH2 houses in Merchant Builders Estates (for example Vermont Park and Templestowe) and that there are likely to be more in estates and individually across the state.
Buildings using energy efficient design (Included in the VHR)
Currently, there is one building on the VHR that is demonstrative of the burgeoning post-war interest in energy efficient design and the incorporation of passive solar design principles.
Solar House, Templestowe (VHR H1312)
This place is of historic, technical and architectural significance to the State of Victoria. It is historically important for associations with the emergence of energy efficient residential design during the 1970s, and of technical and architectural importance as the first commercially available solar energy project house in Australia. It was built in 1978-79 as part of a display village of three different energy efficient dwellings available from a project housing company known as Landmark Solar Homes Pty Ltd. Designed by architects Cocks & Carmichael, the Solar House incorporated passive solar design principles such as north-facing glazing and thermal mass (in the form of bluestone walling), as well as a ducted central heating system with roof-mounted solar air collectors, and a solar-powered hot water system (since removed). The innovative design won a number of plaudits including the Herald/Housing Industry Association Award (1979), an RAIA (Victoria) citation for new housing and energy efficient buildings (1980), and first prize in the Gas & Fuel Corporation Energy Management Awards (1980).
Comparison Summary
The Solar House in Templestowe not only predates the Merchant Builders OH2 House (Preston), but is otherwise a more robust and sophisticated expression of energy efficient design principles. While the Merchant Builders OH2 House (Preston) demonstrates passive solar design principles merely through its north-facing window wall and batten screens, the Solar House goes even further, combining north-facing orientation with the incorporation of thermal mass and specialist equipment such as roof-mounted solar air collectors and a solar hot water system.
Buildings using energy efficient design (Not included in the VHR)
From the early 1970s, as awareness of dwindling fossil fuel resources became a growing concern, many architects (and homeowners) became interested in energy efficient design, and how various principles such as self-sufficiency and passive solar design, could be applied to domestic architecture. Victoria’s first energy-efficient houses emerged in the second half of the decade, variously representing experimental projects, private commissions, competition entries or project house prototypes. By their very nature, they tended to generate a certain degree of press attention, and a selection of examples was profiled in a seminal monograph on the subject, The Australia and New Zealand Solar Home Book, published in 1979.
Baird House, Flinders (1975)
Located on a large site fronting Musk Creek Road in Flinders, this house was designed and built by architect John Baird, then in partnership as Baird, Cuthbert & Mitchell. For some years, the architects had developed an interest in energy efficient design and, after completing several such houses in South Australia, proposed this one in Flinders – their first in Victoria.
Versteegen House, Kangaroo Ground (1976)
Another project by Baird, Cuthbert & Partners, this house was erected for Joseph Versteegen, a member of a prominent family of builders that worked for many leading architects of the 1960s and 1970s. Built on a large bush block, the house was designed to respond to views as well as energy-efficient principles. Of timber and concrete block construction, the sprawling five-bedroom dwelling had suspended concrete slab floors and large areas of north-facing glazing. Other energy-efficient features included a solar hot water system (with twelve double-glazed collectors and 650 litre tank), rainwater storage and its own sewerage treatment plant.
By the late 1970s, the incorporation of energy-efficient design principles had become widespread and no longer remained in the realm of experimental architecture. A number of energy-efficient dwellings, commissioned by private clients, continued to generate press attention, such as the wholly ‘autonomous’ (ie, off-grid) Bos House in Pearcedale, near Frankston (Cocks & Carmichael, 1978-79) and the Butt House in Ararat (Baird, Cuthbert & Mitchell, 1979). Also in 1979, two master builders from Bendigo, Bob Mathrick and Cliff White, erected an energy-efficient house in Retreat Road, as a one-off speculative venture.
From 1978, more and more project housing companies introduced energy-efficient houses into their range of standard designs. Examples include Fasham Johnson’s Low Energy House (Charles Duncan, 1978), Haggerty Homes’ Low Energy House (John Rouse, 1978), and two different designs from Landmark Solar Homes: the Solar House (Cocks & Carmichael, 1978-79) and the Sun House (Williams & Boag, 1979).
Comparison Summary
The Merchant Builders OH2 House (Preston) built in 1979 to an existing Merchant Builders design was not the earliest energy-efficient house in Victoria. It is predated by at least five other examples which incorporated a larger number of more sophisticated energy efficiency features. Many earlier Merchant Builders houses, as far back as Winter Park and Elliston estates, incorporated passive design principles. These were more explicitly apparent at the Vermont Park estate, where examples of Terry Dorrough’s Open House series were already on display by 1978, including the OH2 House.
‘Merchant Builders Open House’, Architecture Australia, November 1978, pp 71-72.
S V Szokolay and R W Sale, The Australia and New Zealand Solar Homes Book: A Practical Guide. Brookvale [NSW]: Australia & New Zealand Book Company Pty Ltd, 1979.
Jack Greenland and Steve Szokolay, Passive Solar Design in Australia. Red Hill [ACT]: RAIA Education Division, 1985.
Anne Gartner, ‘Death of the Project House? Reflections on the History of Merchant Builders’, in Graeme Davison et al (eds), The Cream Brick Frontier: Histories of Australian Suburbia, Melbourne, 1995.
Merchant Builders: Towards a New Archive. Parkville: Melbourne School of Design, 2015.
2018, Merchant Builders OH2 House (Preston), Kitchen
A plan for the Merchant Builders OH2 from Terry Dorrough’s Open House Range. This formed the basis for the Merchant Builders OH2 House (Preston).
Note how the plan includes recessed entry porch in top left corner. This was altered from the original design to become connecting doorway for attached garage as an optional extra.
The other four variations in Terry Dorrough’s Open House series (Note that plan designated as OH5 was an adaptation of another of his designs, the Garden House)
