May - Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning - University of ...

Atrium13 | 2010PAGE08 | 09THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNEFACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING & PLANNINGThe Architectureof CommunityDr David Nichols,Lecturer in Urban PlanningHub, Hall and HabitatHow do community and the builtenvironment reflect each other? Ourcities and towns are rich with evidenceof attempts to build, and then to celebrate,community spirit: buildings and spacesdesigned to create, reflect or reinforcethe nature and strength of social grouping.Many of these continue to function todifferent degrees of effectiveness; some,like small-scale health or educationbuildings, have pragmatic uses withdefined parameters. Others – suchas halls available for group booking –are multi-purpose. But the ways thatcommunity and the built environmenthave interacted over time give us insightinto architectural developments andconceptions of the architect’s (or builder’s)role, and the changing perceptionsof government, governance, democracyand duty.The present-day rhetoric of communityis not substantially removed from thatof a century ago; for many Australians,this rhetoric has clearly reflected realityin many ways. But the built environmentrecord of community buildings showsthe many permutations the notion hasgone through since European colonisation.Australia’s community buildings comefrom a number of diverse sources: mostcommonly created and commissionedby local government, or built by residentsthemselves. The community may alsolobby local government either for a facilityor merely the land to build it on – frequently,through much of the 20th century,volunteer labour of local residents wouldthen create an amenity which might thenalso be run on a voluntary basis.The Melbourne suburb of Kew is perhapsnot an intuitive choice to look for a varietyof perspectives on the idea of ‘community’as it relates to buildings and networks.With all due respect to this middle-ring,middle-class suburb, there is perhaps apervading understanding of middle-classsuburbs that they are generally comprisedof upstanding – and rarely outstanding –individuals who look to their own hearthfor contentment, rather than to formingbonds with their neighbours – whether itbe for mutual betterment or social activity.Whether this is true or not (the truth nodoubt resides in examination not of peopleor a class per se, but of ages and lifestages) what is undeniable is that Kewprovides the researcher on communityand its impact on the built environmentwith a large number of unusual examplesof specific community building types –and types of community. Kew citizens’scramble, over a century, for a purpose-builttown hall and civic centre was surely partof the reason behind the creation of somany other ad hoc community places;the slow expansion of a suburb at thewhim of transport planners and widereconomic fluctuations may be another. 1How would people of Kew meet,communicate, rally or be entertained enmasse in the early 20th century? As wellas the small publicly available space attheir Town Hall – a reconfigured MechanicsInstitute building of 1860 – Kew citizensat the turn of the last century were ableto use the city’s Recreation Hall, another‘second hand’ building built in 1880,acquired by Kew in 1917 from a firm whichhad operated it as a private leisure centre.Like many such amenities, the RecreationHall often hosted money spinning ‘nights’such as the New Vogue Ballroom, in thelate 1930s. 2While buildings such as the RecreationHall served as Kew’s social and communitycentre, those in other areas of the suburbsaw the potential for new networks and,perhaps, new local government. From the1920s and long into the 20th century, theEast Kew Progress Association aspiredto the construction of a hall for concerts,dances and meetings, to be funded onan ongoing basis by shops at ground level,built on a block it had acquired. 3 Itshonorary secretary, Mr Bland, referringto the wealth of the region’s residents,predicted ‘there should be no real difficultyin raising enough money to build a modernhall for Kew people’, adding that ‘the bestway to get this done was to tackle thejob in the true Australian spirit and doit themselves.’ 4 The 1930s Depressiondamped the EKPA’s initial surge and1. See David Nichols and Hannah Lewi, ‘The KewClub: the modernist mythology of a middle-ringsuburb’ in Panorama to Paradise: SAHANZConference proceedings Adelaide,September 20072. See for instance ‘New Vogue Ballroom: KewRecreation Hall’ Kew Advertiser 27 May 1937 p.33. ‘East Kew progres [sic] hall’ Kew Advertiser12 May 1927 p.14. ‘East Kew Progress Association: Successfuleuchre party and dance’ Kew Advertiser 26 May1927 p.15. ‘Social Events: Kindergarten Dance’ MelbourneArgus 4 July 1925 p.34