Elizabeth Musgrave

“Hot” and “Cool”: Perceptions of Subtropical Modernism in Post-war Queensland

Abstract In 1960s Queensland, scientifically validated principles for climate design provided a convenient evidential basis for justifying modern architecture. The two constructs, modernism and climate responsive design, became conflated in the haste to isolate a distinctive architectural identity for Queensland. A suppression of complexities has seen climate zone boundaries collapse into state boundaries and the architecture of tropical and subtropical zones illustrated with work predominantly located in the populous southeast corner. Climate, whilst defined very loosely, is usually addressed empirically in explanations about design processes and outcomes with little consideration given to the variety of ways that climate might inform a culture of architecture. Together with the frequency and range of situations labelled “sub-tropical,” these issues challenge the usefulness of climate as a critical tool for assessing the development of Queensland architecture. This paper evaluates the significance of climate to the consolidation of modern architecture in Queensland and tests the veracity of claims for a subtropical modernism there. It uses the writing and built work of renowned Brisbane architect, artist, essayist, correspondent, John Dalton (1927–2007), as a reference point for revealing tensions in local approaches to climate responsiveness and regional design. Dalton was conscious of the possibilities for a distinctively Queensland culture of modern architecture and his built work demonstrates the development of a set of private theories and practices that defy the reduction favoured by discourse, between modernist and regionalist thinking.

Tacit knowing: making disciplinary knowledge visible in architectural design

Through analysis of the outcomes of a model studio project, this paper demonstrates tacit knowing in the process of learning architectural design. Unlike skills and knowledge associated with explicit and concrete systems of disciplinary knowledge which are easily described and embedded as learning in studio projects, tacit knowledge is covert. Encompassing abstract notions such as concepts of spatial experience, such knowledge is intrinsic to architecture yet difficult to describe except through architecture itself. This paper will disclose how an awareness of spatial concepts is revealed through engagement in design process. Hungarian philosopher Michael Polanyi’s ‘structure of tacit knowing’ is adopted as a tool for analysing the outcomes of students’ project work and reflective journals. In establishing how and where learning has occurred, analysis will identify characteristics of ‘tacit’ knowledge as it arises in the discipline of architecture. It will also describe the mechanisms by which students’ engagement in processes reveals this form of knowledge.

THE DETAIL IN ARCHITECTURE: Comparative Analysis of Built Detail

This paper describes a teaching program that uses analysis of constructed detail to initiate research linking the domain of architectural ideas to that of material expression. The inquiry explores the premise that through the detail, ideas in architecture can be articulated and given form. This project was devised to introduce Fourth Year Bachelor of Architecture students to fields of research within the discipline of architecture. In addition to providing a mechanism for framing research, it seeks to contribute to core architectural skills and to develop an ethos in which rigorous and ongoing inquiry is intrinsic to the thoughtful practice of architecture.