It's the thing to do, it seems, to name a house after the family for whom it was originally built.
According to our house plans, that means our place is called "Crosby House". On 17 October 2014, the Crosby House plans will be 46 years old. The house was designed and built by the Brisbane building company Griffin and Knowlman. This company is still around by a different name. One of my elderly neighbours informed me that most of the houses in the near vicinity are Griffin and Knowlman and if one contacts the current building company with the name of the original home owners, they'll give you the original plans.
The Brisbane architects Hayes and Scott, in their early years, provided some designs for G&K, but by the time our house was designed, unfortunately this was no longer the practice.
I recently visited the soon-to-finish State Library exhibition Hot Modernism to see if I could be inspired by the designs of some of Brisbane's more notable Mid-Century buildings.
Hayes and Scott featured prominantly as did their mentor, Architecture lecturer Karl Langer.
Our house shares some of the ubiquitous Hayes and Scott/Langer features including one-level, concrete-slab-on-ground, wide over-hangs, long shallow plan with naturally-lit rooms on either side of the plan, brick-end walls, flat-roof, floor-to-ceiling glass and clip-lock roofing.
Crosby House is certainly not architecturally designed, but I'm happy it's influenced in that way.
If we were ever going to make changes I'd hire an architect to assist in keeping the house true to its origins but with more built-in furniture and cabinetry.
Grandad popped over this morning to check-out the house for the first time.
He brought with him a 1959 Atlas of Anatomy.
Interesting ...
It's so great that you have been able to find out so much about your house and your neighborhood. I've tracked down a little information about the original owner of my house, but I haven't found out a thing about who developed the neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteI luff your house because you luff your house.
ReplyDeleteI also luff that you are still blogging.
Have you seen What's Up Tiger Lilly? I saw it in the library this arvo - the blurb on the back said something like "you can't call yourself a true Woody Allen fan until you've seen this movie" I read on, and then put it back on the shelf.
Guess I'm not a true fan...
I like that orange and black cushion x
How great that you have the plans and you know a bit more about your house. Very cool indeed. Our house was designed for the builder so it is very similar to your home in many respects. That hot modernism exhibition was great - I loved the Jacobi House replica they built for it. xx
ReplyDeleteI'm sniggering behind the pages of that book!
ReplyDeleteLovely home! x