alistair knox : an integrated approach to landscape + architecture, appendix five : eltham vs suburbia

Chapters

Abstract

chapter one : introduction

chapter two : organic architecture

chapter three : discussion of findings

chapter four : conclusions

bibliography

appendix one : collaboration chart

appendix two : attribute listing

appendix three : registration of influence

appendix four ; projects table

appendix five : eltham vs suburbia

Author: Clair Lee

'There is a fundamental movement in the hearts of many people to find an alternative to the tidy-tacky and pressed out plastic products that have neither sensuous appeal nor spiritual value.'
Knox. Living in the environment, pviii

A recurring theme in the writings of Knox is the promotion of the Eltham way of life as an alternative to suburbia. The following table comprises quotes taken from the books that refer to this juxtaposition - the alternative society of Eltham vs. the embalmed society of suburbia.

PAGE	ELTHAM SOCIETY	SUBURBIA	PAGE
We are what we stand on
5	hand & heart	housebound sherry-drinking loneliness	5
5	intimacy & separate valley	immaculately lighted, curbed & paved identity	5
5	nuances & variations of climate	buildings new, large & expensive	5
5	bushland surroundinos	perpetual bitumen surfaces	5
5	fluctuating & half-visible scenes	vast suburban wilderness	5
5	human alternative	social desert	5
5	glimpsed constantly changing & merging	rich & affluent eastern suburbanites casting sheep's eyes at the unkempt landscape	7
6	hilly terrain (noble swelling hillside) generated a united introspective community	welI-ordered English lawn, blue spruce, silver birch & Japanese maple gardens	7
6	colour & light landscape	affluent communities	8
6	atmospheric subtlety	diversion	8
7	indefinable sense of magic	sameness	8
7	unkempt landscape	anonymity	8
7	those who understand & believe in Eltham	continuing assaults from the manipulators & blind do-gooders	8
8	creative communities create creative lifestyles	affluent communities create dreary lifestyles	8
8	danger, risk	self-indulgence	8
8	ongoing enthusiasm	totalitarianism	8
8	eccentricity	confused world	8
8	head, heart & hand	technological systems of construction	8
8	eccentric people	totalitarianism	8
10	'Montsalvat' and the new life	dreary inhibitions & limitations of depressed middle class society	10
11	new & exciting prospects	stifled society we endured rather than lived in	11
10	Every new day was a day of new delights and practical freedom.	incarcerated in pre-war bank job	11
13	difference	conformity	12
20	spontaneity of mud brick buildings	unequivocal steadiness	14
20	flexibility of mud bricks - a modern building material	middle-class, amorphous mass	14
24	not completely finished but then few mud brick, home-built houses ever really are	unimaginative & dull population	14
32	Eltham had a wonderful embracing capacity. We were all one people - rich and poor alike. We all knew each other. There was a clear appreciation of everyone's place in our geographically isolated community.'	endlessly repeating, well-curbed bitumened roads, and footpaths that criss-cross precisely at right-angles for apparently limitless distances
35	intimate spirit	you know exactly what you will see at every corner	14
35	self-supporting community	polite Melbourne	14
44	changeability of Melb climate - encourages creativity	nothing can get out of place or become unkempt and wild	14
45	Eltham's dry resilient bush - crisp, sparse & survival conscious	immaculately cut nature strips ...lovingly trimmed at the edges with spring shears	14
47	unique place in Australia - to be cherished & defended at all costs	tamed nature	14
47	inspired by special bushland, low hilly terrain, unparalleled colour & light, no. of trees	exotic trees set at meticulous intervals	14
47	free native tree-plantings on nature strips	cautious inhabitants	14
65	without pretence	alternating prunus & flowering peach trees	15
71	embryonic house	neat & clean	15
76	socio-aesthetic centre of Melbourne	very pretty	15
83	veil of foliage & environmental continuity	rhododendron & gladioli flanked by pampus grass & flowering fruit trees in the desirable eastern suburbs	47
83	privacy & village intimacy	Suburban jingoism	65
84	mysterious landscape of hill, valley & secret place	curb & channel syndrome	86
86	linear parks of mystery & adventure for the young & relaxation & poetry for the old, & shortcut to schools, & a means of communication between members of the community - a form of Radburn development	gardening-type do-gooders types	86
86	mystery of the bush	lawns	91
86	environmental attitude to the land	herbaceous borders	91
91	tree planting consisted of the concealment of planting, the creation of instinctive masses and voids merging back into the wilderness	non-indigenous growth	91
94	sculptural buildings	suburban formalitv	91
101	mysterious & powerful landscape	suburban Melbourne matrons winced slightly when they had to mention the word 'Eltham"	113
101	an immediate, natural feeling	a threat to their sickly-sweet security	113
112	secret, carefree days	Doncaster & Templestowe - Toorak of tomorrow	113
112	wonderfully free from bureaucratic controls	seduced by the money & suburban comfort of Dame Edna Everage & Sandy Stone	118
113	individualists	setting off the a fixed job in the city every day	123
113	non-conformist character	pressurised city-suburban life	117
113	unique quality	a general sense of quiet exchangeability	137
117	non-city lifestyle - a retreat from suburbia	neatly cut lawns, bounded by privet and lambertiana hedges, and European trees dominating the verges	137
117	liberty it offers	insularitv	137
113	artistic dreamtime	low visual standards	139
141	a wonderful flowering of talent and ability	mindless materialism	141
Living in the environment
vii	wonder & mystery	confusion that the perpetual flow of high technology products	vii
vii	stimulates a point of view & relationship with nature	planned obsolescence
vii	counteract confusion	pander to ... hysteria generated by the advertising media
vii	most universal & enduring of all building materials	ticky-tacky	viii
ix	natural environment	pressed out plastic products that have neither sensuous appeal nor spiritual value ... soon clog & clutter	viii
3	the greater the experience the greater the ability to decide the proper course & action for each individual job	man-manipulated environment	ix
4	earth building ... as the most flexible & interesting medium ... for any time or place	generality of habit that causes normal residential building to become repetitive ad nauseum	3
17	mysterious bushscape ... half obscured with mists in the morning	residential building - repetitive ad nauseum	3
54	free from man-imposed details	_suburban respectability	19
54	honest materials & true proportions	independence through possessions	19
54	fundamental (universal)appeal	privacy behind paling fences (paling fence psychology)	19
SB	readiness to embrace simple living	status type isolation	19
58	environmental inspiration	eastern suburbs - a vast garden competition with wide green lawns & herbaceous borders & exotic shrubs	20
59	integrated series of simple plantings & land shapes	hand lawnmowers move over the tracts of smooth English grass to reduce it to putting-green quality.	20
60	indivisibility of house and land	self-imposed discipline of the garden	20
60	subtle variety	society more mobile & more separated
60	observation of the surrounding natural countryside modified to accept the intrusion of the house	well-clipped lawns	30
60	never using two things where one will do	ceremonial rakings of leaves into heaps	30
64	structure identification with the land to give the sense of indivisibility	smugly regimented rows well-kept suburban plot	54
		endless flow of new innovations	54
		technological demagogery	54
		over-organised systems	63
		noise pollution of city & suburb ... filled with surging swish of automobiles & 24 hour flow on inane gabble from radio & tv	63
75	express surprise, wonder, originality & personality in the landscape & the community	correctly place the street lamps & perpetuate external bitumen roads & concrete gutters	75
76	nuance & magic	vertical & horizontal planes that cannot be inhabited by people at all, but are >exclusively for traffic & commerce	76
76	mystery & nostalgia	seas of paling fences	79
134	there was a vibrance about the building warts and all	standardisation of the ticky-tacky house design is soul-destroying ... conforming standards	79
96	sensible	sameness of a city planned by minds who see people as ciphers to be designed into an environment at the rate of_so many to the acre	88
96	objective	clutter of suburbia	96
97	simple confidence and modest content	gargantuan brick piles	97
98	fitted into the existing tree growth	Mrs. Everige[sic] society	109
101	simple bush landscape building	much less interested in what goes on underneath as long as it looks expensive on to	109
		a cautious district, full of prim business men	109
112	alternative society	mundane middle class	109
112	a new group of pioneers ... are identified with the total landscape in a total living way	fierce competitive lifestyle that exploits the natural creation for the profit of the few to the detriment of the many	112
112	more liberties of choice and of time	the corporate state is always in a rush and therefore it has no poetry.	112
112	close relationship with nature	hunger for mystery and the beauty of life ... lack the cultural training to attain it	112
112	watching the earth dry and the varying characteristics of its physical structure, immerse us in poetic deliberations that unites our hearts, heads and hands.	excluded the physical	112
112	identified with certain building materials that are subject to spiritual dimensions	merely materialistic society
		dreary repetitive suburbs	113
		Interminable terracotta tile	114
121	it is always stimulating to drive past that bend in the road where that feather of smoke is ascending out of the bush screen.	brought up on a diet of red terracotta tiled roofs, brick veneers and paling fences	119
121	here you belong to a time and a place indefinitely. In fact you yourself are making both that time and that place.	they dream of wall to wall carpets. They eat white bread, drink imitation fruit cordial drinks	120
121	'do it yourself' university	ramifications of the corporate state and the blindness of so-called advanced society	120
123	adventurous and liberty seekers	embalmed community	123
123	fearless urchins of the alternative society have sung and danced	pale faced students and sons of the rich have languished in university ghettos	123
		preoccupation with the means of financial manipulations that keep the moneyed class uppermost	123
124	sense of mystery and power and wonder and nostalgia and magic that the natural landscape gives	the perpetual smog of their well controlled activities pours its blanket of sulphur dioxide carbon monoxide, carbonblack and all the other by-products of the present GNP scene over city and suburb indiscriminately	124
124	natural society is designed to do precisely the opposite	greedy self-centred living habits where one stays inside all day and outside all night	124
126	ancient bushland	suburban habitats that have become overcrowded and polluted	126
128	environmental living is not opting out of, but re-embracing real life.
129	environmental building primarily sculptured building that utters a poetic concept for life
129	natural foods, home made breads, vegetables and the whole gamut of the return to a sane life style
	bread made from stone ground wholemeal flour makes a meal that doesn't distend our stomachs yet satisfies our hunger	sliced wrapped white breed from the huge bakeries leaves our appetite unsatisfied, our stomachs distended and our livers angry.	129
130	conflict between a progressive and a primitive life style that is a refreshing contrast	most of the Australian suburbanism and the embalmed society	130
130	genuine seeking after a worthwhile life style	unfortunate physical planning to make life unimaginative and repetitive in the city	130
	the tragedy of the embalmed society	133
133	welcome to the community school	goodbye to the elitist school system	133
136	Ivan Illich 's voluntary poverty philosophy	that group known as physical planners ... their freeways and corporate state psychologies	136
136	humble mud brick ... catalyst to stimulate co-operative living	competitive destruction	136
Alternative housing
9	the most creative local community in Aust	large, uninteresting suburban deserts	26
18	natural building	a form of quiet, uneventful Journeying from the cradle to the grave	28
29	those who took the risk and got out	those who funked out and stayed in their jobs	29
33	felt to be hillbilly and second-rate	natural qualities were regarded by the suburban psyche as a hindrance	33
32	mysterious bushscapes	hipped tile roof, set twenty-five foot from the frontage ... repeated through whole suburbs with religious fervour	33
33	open hillsides have been turned back into dense bushscapes ... scarcely a hilltop dominated by a building	easy-growing lawns and beds of snapdragons and petunias	33
34	those who have become hooked on the Australian flora and find themselves getting deeper into its wonders and mysteries every year	imported flavours	34
38	pick-up society	throw-away society	38
49	radiates a human quality	what a city building cannot do	49
52	simple lifestyle	fruitless money game	52
		Melbourne, one of the largest and most banal middle-class areas in the world	64
73	alternative lifestyle	South Burnley ... freeway ghetto	65
81	natural	the false civilisation which so many Australians have been 'duped' into	73
81	pleasant landscape	building bigger and more blatant houses which, from a distance, seemed to coagulate and blend into a great open sore exposed on the dying body of the countryside	81
81	mild pink colour and light of the Yarra Valley bushland, with the backdrop of the dark blue Dandenongs beyond	ugly square form of red bricks	81
83	sound construction and an economical use of materials under the control of ordinary people	the materialistic empire of the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, who cling to their possessions as if they believe they can save them from death itself.	95
104	It depends on the development of the existing native growth ... There would be no place for the herbaceous border and the hardy annuals - not to mention the blue spruce and the Japanese maple.	enclosing front fence and high side and back fences that attempt to isolate each family from the next door neighbours	99
106	the proposed dam was placed so that the water could be seen through the native grevilleas from the house ... We then ... located several shallow water-holding pools around the house site and the pergolas.	the private pool is ... closer to the refrigerator and the alcoholic drinks that can be elegantly dispensed from the cabana. This fashionable institution also doubles as a repository for the exercising bicycle, the dumb-bells and the spring-loaded muscle developers	100
106	the building could extend out in any and every direction once it went beyond the outer walls of the original square shape ... such a structure would require pergola posts and overhead connecting members, which would pass through and around tree clumps and over the water garden. Such a structure however would unite the house and the land into an indestructible whole.	the mandatory postage stamp allotment is divided into the front garden, the house and the rear garden. The resultant areas are fitted out by immaculately cut lawns not more than one inch high, neatly trimmed at the concrete edges with a special circular cutter.	101
140	the whole mud-brick building process is a grand adventure that leads into a fuller and more interesting life.	fetid glass-house atmosphere of suburbia, with all of its excessive protectiveness and self-centred affluence	122
148	the finished character of walls treated in this manner will vary from building to building and reflect the character of those who have built it. It becomes a concrete expression of how they think and feel.	heavily-featured manufacturing bricks and expensive, dressed timbers of minimum dimensions that prevail in the suburban scene	148
148-149	Mud-brick buildings have strong community elements in them. They respond to people, and embrace widely varying personalities with ease and grace when they remain unaffected and natural	feature bricks. walls, timbers, plastics ... appeal to the unthinking individual who wants to be one step ahead of the Jones'. It all makes for an ego trip that divides us from each other and develops excruciating bad taste in architecture.	148

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alistair knox : an integrated approach to landscape + architecture, appendix five : eltham vs suburbia

Chapters

appendix five : eltham vs suburbia

Author: Clair Lee

We are what we stand on

Living in the environment

Alternative housing