MELBOURNE BACKYARD
MELBOURNE BACKYARD The Antipodes of the home – the suburban backyard as predicate
Benjamin Forster | The University of Melbourne | Masters of Architecture, Independent Thesis 2017 supervisors: Alan Pert & Paul Walker
The Antipodes of the home – the suburban Melbourne backyard as predicate, gardening for the mind The initial spark for this thesis was Bruegel’s painting Children’s Games (1560). In it the Flemish master depicts hundreds of children at play in a town’s streets. One of the remarkable things about this painting is that we no longer know what many of these games are; the painting is a cultural artefact and it brought to my mind the play of my own children in our backyard. This thesis is a response to the ongoing destruction of Melbourne’s backyards. It proposes a re-interpretation of the value of the backyard as a place of infinite ‘potential’. In my research for this thesis I have discovered that the backyard is dying, it’s being covered by buildings, mostly residential. The need to increase urban densification may be a truism, with so called suburban ‘sprawl’ often highlighted. But, there are many ways to do so; build up, build small, allow multiple stories on boundaries, allow building to the footpath; all typologies with precedents in other parts of the world. The word ‘sprawl’, has implicit negative connotations. But if ‘the burbs’ had the ‘character’ and excellent public amenity the inner suburbs enjoy would they still be sprawl? This thesis isn’t primarily about the densification issue it’s about emotional connection to place and what we lose if we lose the backyard. It is also a reflection on the arbitrariness of land use. The antipodal point is that which is on the other side of the world, and ‘antipodes’ is the term used to refer to Australasia. It is the ‘other’, the opposite, the negative to a positive, shadow to light, unconscious to conscious. The other of a dwelling, the negative space that surrounds a built form is as meaningful as the form itself. Not just as object but as predicate, idea, myth, the subject of this thesis.1 1 In the director Louis Buñuel’s autobiography (1983), My Last Sigh, the surrealist describes the search, that could go on for weeks, among his friends (Lorca, Dali) for the perfect turn of phrase. They searched for words, that in juxtaposition would create a surreal dance, shocking a reader’s preconception to reveal a greater truth. Ideas would arrive sometimes in dreams or by unexpected or
The Melbourne based architect Kiersten Thompson describes landscape as various forces — physical/intangible, permanent/ephemeral, cultural/historical. These qualities constitute place, a distilled Situatedness. She argues that an Australian architect, unlike say a European, labours under the burden of landscape.2 A landscape that D.H. Lawrence described in Kangaroo as, “biding its time with a terrible ageless watchfulness, waiting for a far-off end, watching the myriad intruding white men.”34 Melbourne and its suburbs, since their late inception, have long been contested ground, traded by land speculators since 1837. Aerial photography makes clear the extraordinary changes that have occurred in its development over the past 70 years. In 1945 the city ended 11km to the North in Reservoir/Preston, 8km to the West in West Footscray, 15km to the East in Box Hill and around the bay as far as Black Rock, 17km to the South. Now the city spreads 45km to the South East 27km to the North and 23 to the North East and I believe it a challenge for many Melburnians to name the outermost suburbs (Taylors Lakes, Mernda, Berwick, Carrum Downs). Melbourne spreads over 9,900 km2 with a population, in 2015, of 4.5 million and a population density of 453/km2. Compare that figure with our near neighbours in Asia and the Pacific; Kuala Lumper 7.2 million, density 6,581/km2, Auckland 1.6 million, density 2,700/km2. 5 What is different about Melbourne? What is it that’s taking up all that space? We predominantly live in single story bungalows with front and back yards on historically established lots. From aerial views one can see the spread of lo-rise housing, light industrial indirect means. Hence the description of the backyard as predicate and antipodal point. 2 Thompson, Kerstin. “The burden of landscape.” Architect Victoria February 2017 3 This is of course a British view and we can contrast it with our understanding of Aboriginal cultures interwoven landscape of myth and custody where no fences exist. Additionally, Melbourne’s seeming subjugation of landscape makes us forget the natural event’s potential for destruction, as happened in the fires of Ash Wednesday (1983) and Black Saturday (2009). 4 Lawrence, David Herbert. Kangaroo, 1923. 5 Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org.
areas, broad roads with footpaths and naturestrips. In a Preston development application at the turn of the last century, Tramways Heights, house lots were 50’ x 150’ or 700m2.6 These subdivisions were created by speculators who had bought lots, up to 1000 acres in size, in Jika Jika, as it was then called, surveyed by Robert Hoddle in 1837. The Jakka-Jakka or Jaga Jaga were a subgroup of the Wurundjeri people, the pre-European inhabitants of this area. Theirs is one of the names that appears as a signatory on John Batman’s ‘treaty’ of 1835. 78 Looking closely at the 1945 photographs at the fringe of the city one can make out the morphology and character of these new suburban blocks as they butt up against the land cleared to the north for farming and agriculture. It is difficult to imagine the area as it must have appeared 100 years previous. Heritage studies published in 2008 by the Darebin council describe a verdant grass woodland, rich in fauna and flora flourishing in basalt volcanic soils that flowed from the north and mixed with shallower Silurian sandstones and mudstones of the south. The area is described as dominated by River Red Gums, some over 2m in diameter and over 500 years old with the land cultivated and managed through burn off by aboriginal communities, whose staple food was Yam Daisy tubers.9 A settler in the 1840’s, Richard Howitt, describes the felling of trees: Then what curious and novel creatures, bandicoots, flying squirrels, opossums, bats, snakes, iguanas and lizards - we disturbed, bringing down with dust and thunder their old domiciles around their ears. Sometimes also we found nests of young birds and of young wild cats; pretty black creatures, spotted with white.10
Melbourne 1838 and 1988, source:https://www.slv.vic.gov.au
6 Heritage, Darebin. http://heritage.darebinlibraries.vic.gov.au. 7 ibid. 8 These Woi Wurrung clans shared common spirit ancestors united under the great eagle Bunjil and formed a confederacy, the Kulin Nation. That nation occupied all south-central Victoria. 9 Darebin, City of. “Heritage Study Volume 1 Draft Thematic Environmental History.” 2008. 10 Howitt, Richard. Impressions of Australia Felix, During Four Years’ Residence in that Colony. 1845.
That landscape did not last long. Batman’s ‘treaty’, created to benefit the fifteen members of the Port Phillip Association (squatters) was soon ruled illegal by Governor Bourke of New South Wales and the land was claimed for the British Crown using the doctrine of terra nullius. A rush of immigrants from Van Diemen’s Land followed the proclamation of the Port Phillip settlement in September 1835 and by 1839 migrants were coming direct from Britain.11 The relationship between settlers and local aboriginals, who numbered 3,000 in an 1861 census, was anything but easy. With the anti-slavery society succeeding, in 1833, in emancipating slaves in all the British colonies, there was a growing humanitarian consciousness that saw the appointment of an Assistant Protector of Aboriginals, William Thomas, to Port Phillip (as Melbourne was then known). But in the end despite efforts on both sides aboriginals were marginalised, disenfranchised and pushed off their land.12
‘bridges’ (where none had been built) and the area saw enormous expansion. Still predominantly Irish and British the areas north of the city became home to a growing assortment of people from as far afield as Germany and China, a multi-culturalism that exploded with Australia’s post-World War II immigration program. The postwar communities arrived to a housing shortage and The Housing Commission of Victoria (est. 1938) accelerated its program with the northern suburbs a major focus. Undeveloped areas of the Darebin Creek valley were chosen, notably the Olympic Village site, with further Housing Commission estates built in Reservoir, East Preston, and Merrilands, accommodating 10,000 people by 1966.14 These estates were low to medium density as promoted by British and American theories on garden suburbs – in stark contrast to the tower blocks of the 1960’s espoused by a later generation of planners and architects.
Preston’s first permanent farmer was Samuel Jeffrey, a farm labourer and bounty immigrant from County Tyrone and so popular was the area with the Irish that, for a time, it was known as Irishtown. The historian Forster wrote of the early settlers:
This legacy of change can be seen when comparing aerial photos of the Reservoir region from 1945 and 2017. Bitumen roads cover dirt tracks and hedge lines at paddock boundaries become the new backstreets. The nightman’s track still exists in places as a back alley and the easement for the old pipeline from Yan Yean to Melbourne is still visible. The setback of houses from the street edge has been retained as have the block sizes. Even some of the buildings from that time, particularly the duplexes have survived. However, the overwhelming impression is the incredible number of dwellings, and extensions to dwellings, that have been built and that have filled in the ‘gaps’. My grandmother’s long and popular horse ride in the 1940’s through open land to the billabongs of the Heidelberg flats, valued as meeting grounds by the Woi wurrung clans of the Kulin Nation, has been blanketed in a mixture of suburban and commercial development.
The members of both old and new establishments who first purchased Preston land, the soldiers, administrators, merchants and speculators, left little mark on the area.… It was left to men who arrived in the colony almost penniless, but who obtained a little capital on the goldfields, in carrying or in hired labour, and to some who arrived here with moderate capital, to set the pattern of small individually-owned farms and gardens that was to be noticed in Preston in the 1850s and 1860s.13
The land boom of the 1870s and 80s on the back of the gold rush saw the urban boundaries pushed out and the people of Melbourne seek new residential areas. There was vacant land to the North of the city and although disadvantaged by a lack of good transport facilities and access, property advertisements showed 11 Darebin, City of. “Heritage Study Volume 1 Draft Thematic Environmental History.” 2008. 12 Shaw, A.G.L. “The 1996 Redmond Barry Lecture, Aborigines and Settlers in the Port Phillip District 1835–1850.” The LaTrobe Journal Autumn 1998 13 Forster, Harley W. Preston: lands and people, 1838-1967.1968.
We can look at this landscape through the lens of biologist R.V. O’Neill who, in A Hierarchical Concept of Ecosystems, posits that ecosystems would be better understood by observing the rate of change of different components.15 Using his method we can iden14 Heritage, Darebin. http://heritage.darebinlibraries.vic.gov.au. 15 Brand, Stewart. How buildings learn: What happens after they’re built. Penguin, 1995. p17.
tify those elements that are less mutable than others. The Darebin, Merri and Edgars creek were shaped by laval flow 400 million years ago and have remained essentially unmoving for the past 100 years. Roads follow the course of older dirt tracks. The plots of Hoddle, subdivided by speculators, form the suburban grid with which we are familiar. These outlines too remain essentially stable. Where we observe frequent change is in the extension of buildings and the subdivision of blocks. More dwellings are squeezed between existing structures on existing sites. This cellular like individual subdivision is argued as positive by Moudon: Small lots will support resilience because they allow many people to attend directly to their needs by designing, building, and maintaining their own environment. By ensuring that property remains in many hands, small lots bring important results: many people make many different decisions, thereby ensuring variety in the resulting environment. And many property owners slow down the rate of change by making large-scale real estate transactions difficult.16
The outcome of this fast-pace local-scale change is described in a 2009 paper by Tony Hall The death of the Australian backyard – a lesson for Canberra: Before the 1990s, suburban form incorporated back gardens of substantial size, useful shape and a significant coverage of trees. After this period, these attributes are absent … Many suburban developments still incorporate medium size, and sometimes quite large, lots. What is significant is the way the houses are getting bigger in comparison to the lot size.17
The idea of a private garden for every house was new in the 19th century. Pioneered in British suburban developments during the industrial revolution, a rising middle class with a rural fantasy ideal and a desire to escape crowded cities, and with improvements in transport technology, expanded the city fringes with garden cottages. Gardens became fashionable and English manufacturers created garden suburbs for their lower-class workers.18 Planning
Melbourne 1922, source:https://www.slv.vic.gov.au
16 Moudon, Anne Vernez. Built for Change. 1986. p188. 17 Hall, Tony. “The death of the Australian backyard–a lesson for Canberra.” Sustainable Future workshops, ACT Planning and Land Authority (2009). 18 Barrett, Helena, and John Phillips. Suburban style: the British home, 18401960. 1987.
theories grew around this new morphology which were taken up in America, Australasia and parts of Europe spurred on by the arrival of the motor car. By the mid 20th century, a standard model of city form had emerged. A city centre holding businesses, shopping areas and some wealthy households surrounded by dense low-income housing. After which lay a zone of middle class suburbs with houses and gardens beyond which, at the fringes, lived the very wealthy in very large houses and gardens. In 1948, Sir Patrick Abercrombie toured Australia, preaching the lessons of his 1944 London Plan. “Decentralisation,” “satellite cities,” “green belts” and “model suburbs” which became part of Australian public discourse.19 By the second half of the 20th century the motor car had hugely influenced this form with those cities that had the space, particularly in North America, South Africa and Australia, developing vast road networks. The roads and cheap fuel had enabled the development of land even further from city centers.20 This city model and expansion are obvious in Melbourne From the outset, critical views of suburbs have been essentially negative. In 1855 William Thackeray in The Newcomes satirized London’s suburb Clapham and in 1865 Dickens in Our Mutual Friend critiqued the Veneerings.21 In 1912 the Australian Louis Esson wrote, ‘In the suburbs all is repression, stagnation – a moral morgue’.22 A bleak picture of suburbia was conjured (by William Morris in 1883) with the word ‘sprawl’ coming to represent the evils critics ascribed to that part of a city. In 1909 Unwin published the influential Town Planning in Practice and the House of Commons debated the first British Town Planning Bill. The book describes “that irregular fringe of half-developed suburb and half-spoiled country which forms such a hideous and depressing girdle around modern growing towns”.23 19 Davison, Graeme. The war on sprawl . 31 August 2016. 20 Hall, Tony. “The death of the Australian backyard–a lesson for Canberra.” Sustainable Future workshops, ACT Planning and Land Authority (2009). 21 Davison, Graeme. The war on sprawl. 31 August 2016. 22 Esson, Louis. The time is not yet ripe. Sydney: Currency Methuen Drama. 1973. 23 Davison, Graeme. The war on sprawl. 31 August 2016.
A view elaborated in Johnston’s 1964 My Brother Jack: What was so terrifying about these suburbs was that they accepted their mediocrity. They were worse than slums. They betrayed nothing of anger or revolt or resentment; they lacked the grim adventure of true poverty; they had no suffering, because they had mortgaged this right simply to secure a sad acceptance of a suburban respectability that ranked them socially a step or two higher than the true, dangerous slums of Fitzroy or Collingwood.24
In 1995 Christos Tsiolkasdescribes the suburbs as an interchangeable “shithole” in his novel Loaded. And Courtney Barnett sings, in her hit single Depreston: We went to see a house in Preston We saw police arrest’n, a man with his hand in a paper bag How’s that for first impressions, this place seems depressing It’s a Californian bungalow in a cul-de-sac
Ironically the footage for Courtney Barnett’s video clip was taken in Reservoir, the next suburb north, a fact residents of Preston were quick to point out. The suburbs of Melbourne, for all their perceived ills, still exist and are demonstrably growing. During 2014-15 1,760 people a week immigrated to the city.25 They arrived to a social landscape that has changed dramatically over the past century; with first the industrial then the gender revolutions, economic restructure, communication restructure and a cultural identity revolution about who we are as Australians. One in four Melburnians are born overseas,26 35% of marriages now end in divorce, the birth rate has fallen to 1.7 (2.1 is needed to stay level) and many households have dual incomes. The gap between the wealthy and poor is ever widening and 30% of all households are now single person only.27 Yet the notion of house and garden is enduring. A house is one embodiment of home; “home is where the 24 Johnston, George. My Brother Jack. 2013. 25 Australian Bureau of Statistics. http://www.abs.gov.au. 26 Monash University. http://monash.edu. 27 UNSW Gandhi Oration. By Hugh MacKay. Perf. Hugh MacKay. Sydney. 2017.
2016
1945 Preston/Reservoir
heart is,” a feeling state of belonging, safety and contentment… Home is the sacraments and rituals of relationship, conjunction, solitude and nakedness, enacted in the house’s kitchen, bedroom, bathroom.28
The symbolic resonance of home is found in stories and dreams, where is represents the psyche: In mythologies, all over the world our first home is a paradise of oneness, a time before consciousness and its conflicting discriminations. Home can be a prison or a haven of avoidance. One is homebound, or a homebody. In house and home are domestic harmony and domestic violence. Home can represent the nurturing of the self, and also its violation. We escape http://maps.au.nearmap.com/print?north=-37.721056692534724&east... home, outgrow home, return home, seek home. Home is the goal of epic odysseys, spiritual quests and psychic transformations.29
y nearmap
Notes:
2017 Preston/Reservoir
House and home are rich in meaning and in Melbourne, our attachment to home, suburb and the working-class is celebrated in the film The Castle: Reservoir (Woi wurrung), 1945 and 2016, source:http://1945.melbourne
Wed, 08 Feb 2017
“My name is Dale Kerrigan, and this is my story, … Dad bought this place 15 years ago for a steal. As the real estate agent said, location, location, location. And we’re right next to the airport! … You can’t buy what I’ve got.”30
It is also clear that ‘house’ in Melbourne has also come to mean investment. Endless commentary in the popular press circles around the spiraling cost of houses and the role of stamp duty and negative gearing, with former treasurer Joe Hockey memorably intoning, “If houses were unaffordable … no-one would be buying them,” and former Prime Minister John Howard, “I don’t see anyone complaining about their house prices going up.” Gleeson argues that the urban sustainability crisis betrays not bad consumption patterns but the awesome success of accumulation. Our cities express the ceaseless economic expansion imperative and its politico-cultural expression, which Clive Hamilton has memorably described as the “growth fetish”.31 On television, we have The Block 28 Ronnberg, Ami, and Kathleen Martin, eds. The book of symbols. 2010. 29 ibid. 30 The Castle. Dir. Rob Sitch. 1997. 31 Gleeson, Brendan. “The Conversation.” 20 March 2013.
and The Living Room where the home is not so much for living but an investment that, with minimal outlay, is ready to be ‘flipped’. Capitalism then is a primary force with the result that property papers increasing report that, “The backyard as we know it – with a spacious lawn for cricket, a pool and outdoor furniture – is under threat as property owners slice off chunks to capitalise on Melbourne’s property market.”32 The backyard is celebrated in Australian vernacular as the place where you ‘throw another shrimp on the barbie’ and the kids ‘hit a hundred runs’. It is where the Hills Hoist reigns supreme and where Leunig’s dog digs up last year’s dog. It is the place where my grandmother went to die. But it itself is dying and with its death we must ask what is it we stand to lose? The backyard is not just open space; it is private space. In analysing Lynch, Hall concludes: The backyard provides a significant degree of openness to the individual by allowing users to freely choose actions in physical terms and by giving power to restrict access and control management in a way that conveys a sense of exclusive ownership. This openness is limited to those in power within that space, and may be curbed by certain laws relating to pollution, noise, or tree preservation ordinances, yet the backyard can still possess an exclusive quality.33
The sociologist Erving Goffman used the language of the theatre to elucidate the act of human interaction. In The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life people have a front of house and a back of house. (Goffman 1978) The front is the performance, the stage, the positive outward projection of what we want others to perceive. The back is where this role is set aside, where there is no audience, where no performance takes place. The backyard is a that role made manifest. It is the place in which one can be without being. When yard becomes garden the symbolism deepens from the utilitarian to the cultivated: A garden begins in the intimacy of a hand touching earth, sift32 Zhou, Christina. “Domain.” 27 Nov 2016. 33 Hall, Tony. “The death of the Australian backyard–a lesson for Canberra.” Sustainable Future workshops, ACT Planning and Land Authority (2009).
ing and turning the soil … In almost all cultures and religions, the garden represents a sacred space, a uniting of the conscious self with its unconscious source…The Zen dry gardens, stripped to the very essence, convey the eternal through an abstract and mystical design, making gardening a path to enlightenment.34
For poet Stanley Kunitz the garden expresses “an exchange between the self and the atmosphere”. Melbourne cartoonist Leunig says an Aboriginal friend once told him she felt married to a tree, and that it drew its marks on her body, an act that strengthened that marriage bond.35 In Hall’s Life and Death of the Australian Backyard the typological complications of the backyard become evident. Cultural tradition, social standing, economic position and age all shape this space differently. There is no ‘one-size’ fits all and this is the backyard’s enduring strength. In O’Neill’s ecosystem of hierarchy, the backyard has the potential to be that thing that responds rapidly to change. The backyard is concept not construct and has power as idea not necessarily a reality. As the comedian Marc Maron remarked about his bookshelves, ‘They’re mostly aspirational’. This reality was brought home to me when I carried out research-by-bicycle of those Northern suburbs that have been spoken of earlier. I made twenty-three sketch drawings of backyards in the Reservoir/Preston area to discover if a common language would emerge that would inform this thesis. What I discovered was a landscape of timber paling fences, concrete patios, blasted kikuya grass (Pennisetum clandestinum), broken down sheds, near dead fruit trees, circular trampolines with ripped netting and of course Hills Hoists. Some houses had extended porches and outdoor-eating arrangements and one property was clearly owned by gardeners. This was land that only generations ago was lightly wooded, carpeted in orchids and a hundred-other species of wildflower and thick with native wildlife. It felt to me looking at these yards that they were mostly sad and neglected, as though people weren’t quite sure what to do with them, a perception that displays a very strong sense of my own biases. The research of Phil Zimbardo 34 35
Ronnberg, Ami, and Kathleen Martin, eds. The book of symbols. 2010. Entwisle, Tim. http://abc.net.au. 22 Jan 2016.
provides a different means of analysis, the Time Perspective categories.36 His research team has found that people fall into several broad categories with relationship to their attitude to time. A categorization can be used to shed light on attitudes to private personal space.37 Appearances are deceiving. A run-down yard may have been left for a future project (future positive) or left as a reminder of a fond past (past positive) or simply abandoned (present fatalistic). A clear understanding of use can’t be readily achieved with distinctions drawn being purely observational; garden bed, swingset, shed. ‘The suburban home is considered our inalienable right. It’s the myth Australians grew up on and – despite the best efforts of urban theorists pushing inner-city density – what we still cling to.’38 It’s the myth that Howard Arkley painted in his hyper-colourful irony-free suburban houses in the 1990s and it’s a myth that the current generation of young, all too aware artists, realise is fast becoming unattainable. Home ownership is falling, especially among younger and lower-income households. In 1981, more than 60% of Australians between the ages of 25-34 owned their own home. By 2011 only 48% did so… The median home used to cost about two and a half times a median household’s disposable income today. Today it costs five times ... many people who do manage to buy a home can only afford to live in suburbs on the outer fringes of cities…the costs of this divide include fewer job opportunities, heavy traffic congestion, long commute times and a big drop for many city residents in the quality of family and social life.39 36 Zimbardo, Philip G., and John N. Boyd. “Putting time in perspective: A valid, reliable individual-differences metric.” 2015. 37 Past positive:A positive focus on the memories of the good old days, family, and tradition, Past negative:A negative focus that recalls abuse, failures, and regrets over missed opportunities, Present hedonism:A focus on pleasure, risk taking, and sensation seeking, Present fatalism:A focus on not taking control of situations because of a belief that life is fated to play out a certain way, no matter what one does, Future:Working for goals, meeting deadlines, and achieving objectives, Transcendental future:Spiritual life after death of the body is what matters most 38 Edgar, Ray. 15 Dec 2015. The Sydney Morning Herald. 39 Daley, John. 16 Mar 2015. The Guardian.
As I heard a man remark recently, “When you spend more time in your car than with your kids you know things are fucked.” This at a time when, the World Health Organization reports, unipolar depressive disorders will become the leading cause of the global burden of disease by 2030.40 And the Mental Health Council of Australia reported in 2012 that ‘20% of the Australian population aged 16-85 years, experienced mental disorders in the previous 12 months’.41 Why? In his big ideas oration Hugh Mackay pointed to growing income inequality and an unprecedented gap between rich and poor citing Ipsos research that said “68% (of people) believe the economy is rigged to the advantage of the rich and powerful, 61% believe that parties and politicians don’t care about people like me.” And, only “35% of Australians say they trust their neighbours”. Mackay remarked that this couldn’t mean 65% of people don’t trust their neighbours but they didn’t know their neighbours well enough to say they trust them.42 ‘Here and now, here and now’, is the Buddhist cry of Huxley’s mynah bird in The Island and curiously Melbourne’s backyards are full of mynahs (Acridotheres tristis). In this society of increasing distress, it strikes me that the backyard could become the psychological refuge of the future. A space that can be readily transformed and reinterpreted. Melissa Bright of MAKE architecture writes there is one rule at the practice; there needs to be as much landscape as building. MAKE architecture has garnered awards for maintaining the relationship to the backyard and the private, where outdoor space and garden are as important as the building itself. Some of the best projects we do are the ones that are almost like an overgrown cloister, a kind of magical place that you might unexpectedly discover; like a semi-overgrown ruin.43
It is conspicious that a contemporary commercial practice should tap into powerful narratives of mystery, magic and the ancient; 40 WHO. 10 Oct 2012. World Health Organisation. 41 “MHCA.” 1 Mar 2012. https://mhaustralia.org. 42 UNSW Gandhi Oration. By Hugh MacKay. Perf. Hugh MacKay. Sydney. 2017. 43 Bright, Melissa. “Green Play.” Architect Victoria February 2017
drawing on the intangible to create a psychological atmosphere. In Melbourne this comes as a surreal juxtaposition; a magical ruin in suburbia? We may imagine London or Tokyo but Melbourne? The research on the quantitative benefits of green space in urban environments and backyards has been well documented, it includes; mitigating the urban heat island effect, mitigating stormwater runoff, creation of microclimates, creation of microhabitats, increased biodiversity and the sequestration of carbon and other pollutants.44454647 An impressive list. Additional studies show the measurable benefit in the recovery of hospital patients where they could look out onto a green space and the increased natural ventilation and shading brought to houses through the presence of vegetation.48 The quantitative research on the psychology of the backyard is not nearly as comprehensive and often focuses on children’s interaction with the natural environment and the effect it has on measurable outcomes.49 The research of Berkeley professor Clare Cooper Marcus stands out in contrast with its reliance on anecdotal interviews, often held over decades, and a foundation in Jungian psychology. Her book House as a Mirror of the Self starts with: a very simple yet frequently overlooked premise: As we change and grow throughout our lives, our psychological development is punctuated not only by meaningful emotional relationships with people, but also by close, affective ties with 44 Gilbert, Oliver. “The ecology of urban habitats.” Springer Science & Business Media (2012). 45 McPherson, Greg, et al. “Municipal forest benefits and costs in five US cities.” Journal of Forestry (2005) 46 Nowak, David J., and Daniel E. Crane. “Carbon storage and sequestration by urban trees in the USA.” Environmental pollution (2002) 47 Owen, Jennifer, and D. F. Owen. “Suburban gardens: England’s most important nature reserve?” Environmental Conservation (1975) 48 Ulrich, Roger. “View through a window may influence recovery.” Science 1984 49 Spurrier, Nicola J., et al. “Relationships between the home environment and physical activity and dietary patterns of preschool children: a cross-sectional study.” International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity (2008)
a number of significant physical environments, beginning in childhood.50
Her material lays a foundation for what home means: A home fulfills many needs: a place of self-expression, a vessel of memories, a refuge from the outside world, a cocoon where we can feel nurtured and let down our guard.51
In the psychologist Jung’s analysis, the home environment is created by an individual often driven by unconscious forces. The environment then works on the individual who modifies the environment in a feedback loop that progresses a person toward ‘individuation’. The Jungian term for the drive toward a consciousness in which all aspects mind are integrated.52 This raises an important and often overlooked dilemma for architects. If a built outcome is finished in all its aspects (as planning documents often require) how can the occupier express themselves? Where are the opportunities for the inhabitant to modify, contribute to and learn from their environment? The much vaunted Falling Waters (also known as Rising Damp) by the celebrated Frank Lloyd Wright was designed down to the alignment of the screw heads. Room for self-expression? By comparison the recent work of Elemental in Chile came up with a unique solution; to let their low-income clients build half their houses, based on a series of guides supplied by the architects.53 As Hes argues: it is only through their relationship to place, and the possibility of playing a co-creative role in the development of that place, that people find the intimacy and meaning that fosters ongoing stewardship.54
It is through this process that people come to value and care for their environment. A struggle about which the public commenta50 Marcus, Clare Cooper. House as a mirror of self: Exploring the deeper meaning of home. 2006. 51 ibid. 52 Jung, Carl Gustav. Memories, dreams, reflections. 1989. 53 Lepik, Andres. Small scale, big change: new architectures of social engagement. 2010. 54 Hes, Dominique, and Chrisna Du Plessis. Designing for Hope: pathways to regenerative sustainability. 2014.
tor Indira Naidoo said, “If trees gave free wi-fi people would value them hugely. But if you tell people they give free oxygen …”55 This contemporary attitude could be said to either ignore or be ignorant of an holistic big picture, instead focusing on individual gain. It is an attitude the neuropsychologist McGilchrist in The Master and His Emissary describes as the ‘Triumph of the left hemisphere’ in which: … all metaphoric and symbolic understanding … all religious sense, all imaginative and intuitive processes – are denurated becoming the object of focussed attention, which renders them explicit, therefor mechanical, lifeless.56
The Melbourne backyard exists in a set of complex overlapping webs; socio-historic, politico-economic, cultural and possibly even mind. But the backyard’s importance cannot be ignored. As I write this paper the Victorian Minister for Planning, Richard Wynne released a press statement outlining future legislation to protect the backyard; These are once in a generation changes to suburban residential zones and are all about protecting the much loved Aussie backyard.57
The backyard holds a unique position, it is not shelter and yet it can be, it is not farmland and yet one can grow food in it, it is not a garden but it could be. As private outdoor space, it can be used for individual self-expression and self-reflection. It is a left-over artefact from a turn of the century fashion and like the verandah (imported from colonial India) it has become a valuable cultural asset. Personally, I want to save the backyard and reinvest it with a sense of mystery. To give it a sense of place and belonging; a place for unguarded behavior; somewhere to maintain a connection with the natural environment; a space to garden, fly a kite or fix a motorbike; a place to dream and watch the clouds pass by. 55 ABC. The Science Show: How people connect with the natural world. Adelaide, 31 Dec 2016. 56 McGilchrist, Iain. The master and his emissary: The divided brain and the making of the western world. 2009. 57 Wynne, Richard. “http://www.premier.vic.gov.au.” 11 03 2017.
Bibliography ABC. The Science Show: How people connect with the natural world. Adelaide, 31 Dec 2016. Barrett, Helena, and John Phillips. Suburban style: the British home, 18401960. London: Macdonald, 1987. Brand, Stewart. How buildings learn: What happens after they’re built. Penguin, 1995. Bright, Melissa. “Green Play.” Architect Victoria February 2017: 18-19. Buñuel, Luis. My last sigh. Alfred a Knopf Inc, 1983. Daley, John. 16 Mar 2015. The Guardian. 03 Mar 2017. <https://www. theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/16/inner-city-v-outer-suburbs-where-you-live-really-does-determine-what-you-get>. Darebin, City of. “Heritage Study Volume 1 Draft Thematic Environmental History.” 2008. Davison, Graeme. The war on sprawl . 31 August 2016. 03 March 2017. <http://insidestory.org.au/the-war-on-sprawl>. Edgar, Ray. 15 Dec 2015. The Sydney Morning Herald. 03 Mar 2017. <http:// www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/suburbia-does-thegreat-australian-dream-have-life-in-it-yet-20151206-glgu2r.html>. Ellin, Nan. Architecture of fear. 1997: Princeton Architectural Press, n.d. Entwisle, Tim. abc.net.au. 22 Jan 2016. 03 March 2017. <http://www.abc.net. au/radionational/programs/talkingplants/gardening-with-cartoonist-michael-leunig/7100654>. Esson, Louis. The time is not yet ripe. Sydney: Currency Methuen Drama, 1973. Forster, Harley W. Preston: lands and people, 1838-1967. Melbourne: Cheshire, 1968. Gilbert, Oliver. “The ecology of urban habitats.” Springer Science & Business Media (2012). Gleeson, Brendan. “The Conversation.” 20 March 2013. http://theconversation. com. 03 March 2017. <http://theconversation.com/urban-sprawlisnt-to-blame-unsustainable-cities-are-the-product-of-growth-fetish-12818>. Goffman, Erving. The presentation of self in everyday life. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1978. Hall, Tony. “The death of the Australian backyard–a lesson for Canberra.” Sustainable Future workshops, ACT Planning and Land Authority (2009). —. The life and death of the Australian backyard. CSIRO, 2010. Heritage, Darebin. http://heritage.darebinlibraries.vic.gov.au. n.d. 3 March
2017. Hes, Dominique, and Chrisna Du Plessis. Designing for Hope: pathways to regenerative sustainability. Routledge, 2014. Howitt, Richard. Impressions of Australia Felix, During Four Years’ Residence in that Colony. Longman, Brown, Green, & Longmans, 1845. Johnston, George. My Brother Jack. Australia: HarperCollins , 2013. Jung, Carl Gustav. Memories, dreams, reflections. Vintage, 1989. Lawrence, David Herbert. Kangaroo. Cambridge: Ed. Bruce Steele, Cambridge UP (1994), 1923. Lepik, Andres. Small scale, big change: new architectures of social engagement. The Museum of Modern Art,, 2010. Lindstrom, Matthew J., and Hugh Bartling. Suburban sprawl: Culture, theory, and politics. 2003: Rowman & Littlefield, n.d. Marcus, Clare Cooper. House as a mirror of self: Exploring the deeper meaning of home. Nicolas-Hays, Inc., 2006. McGilchrist, Iain. The master and his emissary: The divided brain and the making of the western world. Yale University Press, 2009. McPherson, Greg, et al. “Municipal forest benefits and costs in five US cities.” Journal of Forestry (2005): 411-416. “MHCA.” 1 Mar 2012. https://mhaustralia.org. 03 Mar 2017. <https://mhaustralia. org/sites/default/files/imported/component/rsfiles/factsheets/statistics_on_ mental_health.pdf>. Moudon, Anne Vernez. Built for Change. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1986. Nowak, David J., and Daniel E. Crane. “Carbon storage and sequestration by urban trees in the USA.” Environmental pollution (2002): 381-389. Owen, Jennifer, and D. F. Owen. “Suburban gardens: England’s most important nature reserve?” Environmental Conservation (1975): 53-39. Paterson, John, David Yencken, and Graeme Gunn. A mansion or no house: a report for UDIA on consequences of planning standards and their impact on land and housing. Melbourne: Hawthorn Press, 1976. Ronnberg, Ami, and Kathleen Martin, eds. The book of symbols. Taschen: Cologne, 2010. Shaw, A.G.L. “The 1996 Redmond Barry Lecture, Aborigines and Settlers in the Port Phillip District 1835–1850.” The LaTrobe Journal Autumn 1998. Spurrier, Nicola J., et al. “Relationships between the home environment and physical activity and dietary patterns of preschool children: a cross-sectional study.” International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity (2008): 31. Statistics, Australian Bureau of. http://www.abs.gov.au. 30 March 2016. 03 March 2017. <http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/lookup/3218.0Media%20
Release12014-15#Victoria>. Teyssot, Georges. The American Lawn. Princeton Architectural Press, 1999. The Castle. Dir. Rob Sitch. 1997. Thompson, Kerstin. “The burden of landscape.” Architect Victoria February 2017: 8-9. Ulrich, Roger. “View through a window may influence recovery.” Science 1984: 224-225. University, Monash. http://monash.edu. n.d. 03 March 2017. <http://monash.edu/ research/city-science/MelbourneEthnicityMap/#index>. UNSW Gandhi Oration. By Hugh MacKay. Perf. Hugh MacKay. Sydney. 2017. WHO. 10 Oct 2012. World Health Organisation. 03 Mar 2017. <http://www. who.int/mental_health/management/depression/wfmh_paper_depression_wmhd_2012.pdf>. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org. n.d. 3 March 2016. <https://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Melbourne#cite_note-ABSGCCSAXLS-3>. Wynne, Richard. “http://www.premier.vic.gov.au.” 11 03 2017. 15 03 2017. <http://www.premier.vic.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/170311-Saving-The-Backyard-And-Boosting-Liveability. pdf>. Zhou, Christina. “Domain.” 27 Nov 2016. https://www.domain.com.au. 03 Mar 2017. <https://www.domain.com.au/news/melbourne-property-ownerssubdividing-blocks-and-selling-their-backyards-20161126-gswliw/>. Zimbardo, Philip G., and John N. Boyd. “Putting time in perspective: A valid, reliable individual-differences metric.” Time Perspective Theory; Review, Research and Application. Springer International Publishing, 2015. 17-55.
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THE NOVEL A novel should interest, thrill, and move us. If it does not, it lacks the traits of a true novel. By nature sentimental and melodramatic, it resembles a fairy tale. This has often been forgotten from the moment the novel was charged with a multitude of duties. Czeslaw Milosz
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THE BACKYARD A backyard should be that place to which we turn when; we want to feel grass beneath our feet, hang clothes on a line, sunbath naked in privacy or drink beers with friends beside a smoking BBQ. This has often been forgotten from the moment the backyard became charged with a multitude of duties.
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1. Construction 2. Construction + Body 3. Deconstruction 4. Deconstruction 5. Reconstruction + Mind 6. Place 7. Place + time = myth
CLUSTER housing INTEGRATED HOUSING single occupancy shared equity COLONY SPACE EXtensive g.roofs multi-generational solitude, community, shared, private, play
1945
2016
for Margaret, Phoebe & Abe how I wish you were still here with me