The History and Design of the Australian House compiled by Robert Irving

Book Description

Secondhand. Very good condition. Minor wear to book corners and edges. Dust jacket has creasing at edges. Minor scratching to tail spine.

This book is about houses - the commonest of all historic artifacts. Houses, being intimately and intensely used by people, are among the most authentic and engaging of heritage documents. They shape cities and towns, suburbs and streets.

The History and Design of the Australian House examines the influence of the environment— the distinctive Australian landscape and climate, which has tended to make design less formal than that of Europe or America. And a country the size of Australia shows considerable regional differences in house types - from the dugouts of the Red Centre, the stilt houses of the tropical north and the cyclone-resistant structures of Darwin, to the sprawling, verandahed homesteads of the inland and the dainty, lace-decorated terraces of the cities.

Part One is a history of the house in Australia, where the vast majority of homes in both country and city represent the aspirations of a people. Part Two discusses some distinctly Australian approaches to the fashioning of spaces for 'living in'.

There has always been a dichotomy about the Australian house, stemming from Australia's historical roots in Britain. However, the environment is quite different, and more recently, European and Asian Pacific influences have become discernible. Distance has modified things. (book flap)