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The City of Melbourne’s Hoddle Grid Heritage
Review is leading an overdue change in atti-
tudes towards post-war heritage, according to
the Felicity Watson of the National Trust of
Australia.
The council’s heritage review is aiming to
secure heritage protection for 137 buildings and
is open for public exhibition until December 17.
Fifty-five of the 137 buildings are examples of
post-war architecture.
Felicity Watson is the National Trust’s
Victorian executive manager of advocacy and
will be speaking on a panel discussion as part of
the public exhibition.
“We’re really particularly interested in the
focus the review has on post-war heritage,” Ms
Watson told CBD News.
“As a general rule post-war heritage is not
well represented in local heritage protection, or
even at the state level.”
“We’ve been advocating for a long time for
more recognition so we’re really excited about
the work done in this review.”
Ms Watson said there was a change in attitudes towards heritage occurring more broadly. “Attitudes about heritage and what heritage is change over time and I guess the longer that you have to reflect on a period of architecture the more you can get an appreciation of its significance,” she said.
“We see now a real growing appreciation for places from the post-war period, for historical and architectural significance and the de- sign aesthetic of that period.”
Ms Watson pointed to the example of the
Royal Exhibition Building, which was built in
1879-80 and in 2004 became the first building
in Australia to gain UNESCO World Heritage
status.
But Ms Watson said the building was considered unfashionable for a long time and was almost demolished.
She said the Hoddle Grid Heritage Review
was significant because of the way the city was
often associated with its 19th century heritage
and the Gold Rush period.
“We have all this amazing architecture from that period when it was one of the fastest growing cities in the world, but similarly the post- war period was a real boom time in Melbourne’s history,” Ms Watson said.
“There was a renewed optimism and new ideas about design and architecture. Immigrant architects were coming to work here and bringing influence with them from Europe.”
“So, the architecture of that period really
became a new layer of significance in the city.”
Ms Watson said one of her favourite buildings
in the review was the Hoyts Cinema complex
on Bourke St – a brutalist building described by
the former Minister for Planning Matthew Guy
as an “upturned spaceship”.
“The building was designed by Bogle and Banfield and it’s a really great example of brutalist architecture, another style of architecture gaining in recognition,” Ms Watson said.
“It’s a reminder of the changing social trends of that period, it was a period where multiplex
cinemas were just starting to be developed and
becoming an important recreational activity, so
that’s a really great building and quite visually
striking.”
“The National Trust has for a long time
recognised the significance of that building but
there has been resistance to the protection of
brutalist buildings, but I think beauty is in the
eye of the beholder and brutalism is becoming
more popular now.”
Felicity Watson will be speaking at Melbourne
Conversations: Postwar Architecture on
December 3
For more information: participate.melbourne.vic. gov.au/amendmentc387/ engagement-activities
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