rebellious expressionist tendencies of the griffins and edmond and corrigan

In what ways are the expressionist tendencies of the Griffins and Edmond & Corrigan a rebellion against mainstream tendencies and/or a gateway to pluralism within Melbourne architecture?

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Expressionist architectural style was underlined by the notion of form and massing expressing a sociopolitical and cultural response in the wake of society. While the style was established in Germany in the early twentieth century and dominant across Europe, World War Two saw many German and European expressionist architects bring the style across the world, to countries including Australia and in particular, Melbourne. While some expressionist architects attempted to adapt their style to the established architectural standards and dispositions of Melbourne's built environment, others such as Edmond and Corrigan saw expressionist architecture as a means to break away from the repetitive and English impression of the 'Queen Anne' Federation and French 'second empire' Victorian style houses and buildings that were littered across Australia and in particular Melbourne's CBD and suburbs, in order to, "create the new architectural concept co-operatively. Painters, sculptors, break down the barriers around architecture and become co-builders and comrades-in-arms towards art's ultimate goal: the creative idea of the Cathedral of the Future.1" As a result of using their expressionist style as a means of challenging the standard architectural practices of Melbourne, they allowed for, "a justifiable basis for rebirth,2" for the multicultural haven of today.

Walter Burley Griffin (1876-1937) and Marion Lucy Mahony Griffin (1871-1961) were expressionist and modernist architects from Chicago in the United States of America, who had extensive careers across the world in India, United States and Australia. Bringing their intensely independent architectural style to Australia in 1914 with their appointment to the Federal Capital Director of Design and Construction of Australia's new capitol, Canberra, their inherently expressionist ideals of equity and democracy combined with a zealousness for the natural landscape and "social idealism,3" became evident in both their plans for Canberra and so too in their minor residential projects such as Lawrence Row House. The Griffin's plan for Canberra was one of an intense and defiant move away from the traditional foundations of Victorian and Federation style architecture that became entrenched and resilient across Australia whereby the "political idealists, American progressives imbued with a Jefferson commitment to freedom and democracy,4" is not only depicted through their expressionist style but through their resolve to challenge the status quo of the built environment with this rare opportunity to start anew. While their plan may seem to adopt aspects of the intensely ornamented Victorian style through the use of the highly garnished constellation like nodes separating the plan into three major triangular sections, the emphasis on the straight lines of the plan and sympathetic design choices around the natural landscape of Canberra, specifically that of its mountains and basins, not only differentiate it from the highly curvaceous decretive Victorian style but challenge the underling fragmented principles of what Australian architecture and culture that was thrusted upon and became untouchable to the built environment and to society by the English is, and rather becomes a "symbolic focus of national assembly and [true, un-coerced] Australian culture.5" However, this relinquish from the traditions of the established architectural and cultural conventions was too ambitious for the war torn time, where defined structure and ordinance was required, thus while elements prevailed, the entirety of the Canberra plan was never fully realised. This challenge of colonial norms of architecture through the Victorian and Federation style is further emphasised through the Griffin's residential designs, where their focus on "social idealism,6" underpins their expressionist style. The Griffin's 1928 facade treatment to the Victorian style Lawrence Row House in the south eastern suburbs of Melbourne typifies the radical break from the predispositions as the scaled down version becomes an exemplar of the Griffin's, "comprehensive vision of their architecture: deeply shaded, massive and with heavy debt to the gothic.7" The intensely flat and simple facade replaces the highly decretive elements of the Victorian style with a series of heavy columns, "becoming more abstract, synthetic and structural,8" whereby the facade becomes sympathetic to its inhibitor and its surroundings and thus breaks from, "the particular prerequisites of architecture,9" and allows for, "the reorganisation of society taking place in response to the spirit of the times.10" The dichotomy of the Griffin's refusal to conform to the oppressive Victorian style is exacerbated trough 'ornamentation' of the section of widened area towards the top of the columns, expressing a greater sense of pluralism of culture as the simple decorative style holds no preconceived ideals and rather suggests that the structure is intended for the society as a hole, "understood only within the context of the totality,11" and not the opulent individual, "thus it becomes both a symbol of intensified decay [to the preconceived capitalistic notion of the English style Victorian architecture] and an elect in a life that is ordering itself anew.12" While the Griffin's attempts to disrupt the colonial norm of individualised and sheltered expectations epitomised by Victorian and Federation architecture through their expressionist style of equity, democracy and the natural world were not always successful, their attempts, both fully realised and those partially stamped into our landscape challenged thepreconceived norms to influence the pluralist society that Australia and indeed Melbourne is today.

Maggie Edmond (1946-present) and Peter Corrigan (1941-2016) are and were Australian post modernist architects who's expressionist styles epitomised a "community-minded populist architecture.13" Their civic designs such as the Keilor Fire Station as well as residential projects underpin a notion of culture and community through architecture in response to the individualistic and idealistic Victorian and Federation style buildings that surrounded them. A first in a trio of fire stations in suburban Melbourne, the Keilor Fire Station completed in 1991 epitomises the blend of post modernist and expressionist architectural style that made Edmond and Corrigan a vital part of the Melbournian built landscape. Typical of expressionist architecture, the Keilor Fire Station becomes a statement in responding to the culture and nature of both the society and environment that surrounds it. The station combination of subtle red brick, aluminium and terracotta roofing as well as its intensely practical rectilinear shape are akin to that of elements fire prone areas of Australia, whereby the architecture becomes "a succinct collection of elements for regular worship,14" as well as being sympathetic in its own right towards both the landscape and those inside who become highly valued amongst the society. It is the, "complex of influences, rooted in a desire to find contemporary expression,15" through the trio of monumental glass doors set back between two small red brick structures embody the heroism of the emended task of the fire fighters who reside inside while unilaterally expressing a willingness to divert from the established norms of colonial Federation architecture that lacked any affinity to the function of its inhibitor nor the landscape around it. This is particularly evident when comparing the drastic materiality and formal changes from Edmond and Corrigan's Kilor Fire Stations to that of the Federation style Eastern Hill Fire Station located in Melbourne. The substituted facade from the heavy, exposed and highly ornamented red brick with white painted eves of Eastern Hill exposes a "reconciliation of fragments,16" whereby Edmond and Corrigan become critical of the Federation style's lack of consideration to its user and to the surroundings as "the basis for politics and economy,17" evident by the rationalist structure of Kilor Fire Station thus its totalitarian nature becomes forefront to its aesthetics as Edmond and Corrigan saw their design as a series of, "countercultural values invoked through the organic.18" Further, the in set placement of the building adds to its totalitarian nature of supporting the landscape while maintain a high value of the societal importance of its inhibitors as the structure is kept back from the street to focus on its purpose while still maintained a street visibility, ensuring the wider community maintain an engagement. Hence, Edmond and Corrigan utilise the adoption of expressionist tendencies of society and the landscape to not only inform their architecture, but unilaterally reject and refuse to abide by the set standards of architecture delineated by Victorian and Federation style buildings that surround them.

Edmond and Corrigan's apprehension to the standard Australian norms of Federation and Victorian style architecture is further evident in their residential work such as the 1988 Athan House in Monbulk which expresses an intense "consideration for the public interest, less self- interest, understanding and openness.19" While the Athan House in plan holds many characteristics of traditional Victorian and Federation houses such as the use of a series of corridor like external and internal staircases as well as private areas, the emphasis on openness and family exemplify the pluralist nature of the plan through the use of large and open communal spaces centred in the tip of the 'v' like form that are directly linked to private spaces. This understanding of both private and pubic domains challenges that of traditional Victorian and Federation residential design practices that limit the pluralistic opportunities by making familial spaces in the home an intensely claustrophobic and private affair, closing these rooms off from one another. It is the notion of "poor architecture,20" that allows for the moments of pluralism to not only occur in the Athan House, but to prosper through the, "continuous play of form and planning creating opportunistic pockets of space,21" and not dull and cavernous dens that render the family unit separated. Yet, while the Athan House may hold similarities in plan towards that of traditional standards of accepted architecture of Melbourne, its overall form and facade treatments reject and vehemently tax the closed off, intricately ornamented and highly capitalistic ideal that these homes project. It's 'v' shaped form coupled with the exaggerated, "juxtaposed textures and colours,22" that off spring from the main form, as well as a series of intersecting mostly flat corrugated roofs become directly opposed to the norm of terracotta and slate roofs, white painted eves of red brick homes that have accustomed suburbs of Melbourne. The intensely energetic and abundant exterior symbiotically becomes the avenue to the wider landscape that the house sits in, allowing both residents and visitors to be drawn in, whereby the natural world has dominion and, "severs as a repository of architectural imagination and recollection,23" allowing for a emphasis on the landscape and not rendering it insignificant or requiring it to become highly adapted, common on these colonial like homes of Melbourne's inner suburbs. Thus, while Edmond and Corrigan's civic projects recoil against the norms and practices of architectural styles across Australia and Melbourne, it is their residential projects that highlight their true departure form these styles and emphasis a cultural and societal response in design that epitomises the openness of expressionist architecture.

The Griffins opposition to the established norms of architecture in Australia and indeed Melbourne through their expressionist style of equity, democracy and the natural world along with creating opportunities of multiculturalism, as well as Edmond and Corrigan's cultural, societal and practical response through the built environment becomes solidified when comparing to the like of Robin Boyd, who's expressionist tendencies become clouded by the ingrained norms of Australian and indeed Melbournian architectural characteristics. Robin Boyd (1919-1971) was a prominent modernist and expressionist architect across Australia, focusing in suburban Melbourne who, while being highly critical of the architectural landscape of the suburbs that became, "environmentally unsustainable, maximising pattern of urban development virtually bereft of any redeeming features,24" adopts many of the idealistic and typographic qualities of accepted and common architectural styles such as Federation's heavy use of red brick facades. This adoption of Melbournian architectural tendencies becomes solidified through Boyd's 1954 Hillary Roche House located in the Australian Capitol Territory which embraced its regional Melbourne style and expressionist qualities of, "Australian people, society and culture in some way different from others,25" while unilaterally encouraging materialistic tendencies of the Federation Style. The Roche House's heavy use of red brick on majority of the facade as well as the steeped roof line are directly akin to that of the vernacular of the federation style indicating that, "the impulsively religious element in [the] nature,26" of the standards of the melbournian suburbs remain a constant. However, the streamlined, flat and simplistic design coupled with the unmistakable modernist and expressionist characteristic of a series or large thin and heavy framed glass facades allow for unison in the design whereby pluralism is achieved through both elements of past architectural tendencies as well as the expressionist characteristics that, "attempts to make buildings [...] in some way intensely site specific.27" This selective nature of the past fragments of the, "Australian Ugliness,28" namely, "the suitability of the colonial verandah, but avoided column spaces,29" typifies the pluralism in the typology of the exterior as to create a sense of the constant and cohesive suburb that, "still remain as built to the requirements and taste of the eighteen-eighties,30" yet unilaterally allow for modern, cultural and societal pluralistic opportunities to occur. This multi faceted pluralistic tendency of partial acceptance of the standards of pre-defined Australian and Melbournian architecture becomes soo too evident in the Griffins development of the 'Knitlock' construction system, exemplified in their own 1920 Pholiota House. The common duality of tendencies in both the partial adoption of established norms of architecture as well as the revolutionary construction techniques provides a, "multiplicity of different ambiences that can be altered to any given moment [...] determined by an abundant manipulation of [...] the most varied [...] interplay of the various environments.31" The symmetrical sloped terracotta tiled roof, an iconic fixture of the standard practices of the normative Melbournian built environment becomes akin to that of Boyd's use of red brick and steeped roofline to create a direct link between the existing Federation style and a, "historical alignment and mainstream religion to maintain a sense of indeterminate potential,32" whereby the pluralistic opportunity become that of a religiously adopted likeness of characteristics. This intern creates a, "critique of the reductive nature of modernism,33" where its tendencies as a whole in the Melbournian suburbs create a aesthetic division and a lack of a consistent likeness. This notion of a partial acceptance of normative tendencies on the built environment of Melbourne as a duality of pluralism is further typified through the expressive nature of the radical construction of the Pholiota House. The 'Knitlock' system becomes in itself an epitome of their expressionist response of equity and opportunity to the implications of the Australian society at the time whereby the simple geometric concrete blocks create both an ease of construction and access as well as a, "seductive quality deriving from is geometric purity.34" Thus, while both Robin Boyd and the Griffins encourage a dichotomy of pluralism through both the partial acceptance and adoption of normative styles and practices of Melbourne as well as through the rejection of these norms to create further opportunities for pluralism, it is the Griffins underling expressionist ideals of equity that truly transform the Melbournian suburbs into a multicultural and open environment.

While the expressionist tendencies of both The Griffins as well as Edmond and Corrigan attempted to disrupt and reject the norms of Australian and Melbournian architecture, their emphasis on the cultural, societal and environmental aspects of the Australian and in particular the Melbournians landscape created a sympathetic and symbiotic relationship to the pluralist and multicultural nation. Their inherent expression of the Australian landscape and the culture is what truly typifies the rejection of maintaining the colonial centric Victorian and Federation style building that are left to "shake off prejudices and sated complacency.35" These tendencies were able to adapt into the landscape of Melbourne, in the case of the Griffins, to enhance a personification of the multicultural and inclusive society that it was surrounded by and become an accepted part of the landscape through this reflection of the society and local flora and not through the oppressive shadow of red brick and highly ornate buildings of the past. This acceptance of culture and land in the face of a defined and trusted architectural style paved the way for todays myriad of architectural delineations that can become a "reorganisation of society taking place in response to the spirit of the times.36"