Saunders House
90 Gatehouse Street (Cnr Morrah Street),, PARKVILLE VIC 3052 - Property No B5811
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Statement of Significance
What is significant? Saunders House on the corner of Gatehouse and Morrah Streets, Parkville was designed by the architect-academic-historian David Saunders in1962 and completed in 1963. Saunders was a lecturer in architecture at Melbourne University, and one of the first academics in Victoria to actively research and appreciate 19th century architecture in Australia in the post WWII years. He was editor of the seminal Historical Buildings of Victoria published in 1966 with the National Trust. He went on to become a leading figure in architectural education, particularly the establishment of architectural history as a discipline, at successively Melbourne University, University of Sydney and Adelaide University.
The house is a simple rectangular structure with a roof form of opposing skillion roofs, and inset balconies on both front and rear elevations, referencing the terrace house context. The walls are dark grey concrete bricks, and the roof recycled slates. The Morrah Street facade features only a few small white painted timber framed windows and a central door. The east and west walls consist mainly of timber framed window-walls. The interior consists essentially of four rooms, with the kitchen/dining on the ground floor to the west, a spacious lounge down a few steps to the east, and the master bedroom and childrens' bedrooms upstairs separated by the central dark stained timber stair and service rooms. The interior featured mainly exposed natural materials, such as the timber trusses of the bedroom roofs, the concrete of the lounge ceiling, and recycled brown 'hawthorn' bricks for internal linings throughout (many of these have since been painted or rendered over). The house was originally quite open plan, with curtains used as room dividers.
Why is it significant? Saunders House is architecturally and historically significant at the State level.
How is it significant? Saunders House is architecturally significant as both one of the earliest expressions of the principles of the relatively new English 'Brutalist' architecture in Australia, and of an interest in referencing historic architectural forms and materials suitable to a 19th century Melbourne terrace house context. It was a singular design quite different from the architectural norms in Australia at the time.
Saunders House is historically significant as the self-designed home of one of Australia's most eminent and influential architectural historians.
Classified: 17/08/2009
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FORMER METROPOLITAN MEAT MARKETVictorian Heritage Register H0042
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BRASSEY HOUSEVictorian Heritage Register H0026
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ST MARYS CHURCH OF ENGLANDVictorian Heritage Register H0010
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