ARCHITECTURE AFTER FEDERATION 1901–1920

After the declaration of Federation and Queen Victoria’s death in January 1901, Australian culture entered its Edwardian decade. This was characterised by increasing adoptions of American architectural ideas and engineering innovations; by continuing thrusts to create an Australian style of building that highlighted the continent’s natural marvels, and by a dawning awareness of Asian and South Pacific cultures.

Topics surveyed in Chapter 6 of Australian Architecture are:

—Debating a national capital

—Cleansing squalid slums

—Engineering transport infrastructure

—Designing fresh-air cities

—Post-Federation architectural shifts

—Nostalgic Art Nouveau

—Educating future professionals

—Pioneer women architects

—Imported designs for Australia’s capital

—Garden suburbs

—Sydney’s flat-roofed Federation houses

—Bring on the bungalows

—Refining the Queenslander

—Government architects

—Commerce on the high-rise

—Australia’s first picture theatres

—Stacks of flats

—Hail Professor Wilkinson