Australian Capital Territory
Heritage (Decision about Provisional Registration of 13 Furphy Pl, Garran) Notice 2008 (No 1)
Notifiable Instrument NI 2008 - 102
made under the
Heritage Act 2004 section 34 Notice of decision about provisional registration

1.	Name of instrument
This instrument is the Heritage (Decision about Provisional Registration for 13 Furphy Pl, Garran) Notice 2008 (No 1).

2.	Registration details of the place
Registration details of the place are at Attachment A: Provisional Register entry for 13 Furphy Pl, Garran.

3.	Reason for decision
The ACT Heritage Council has decided that 13 Furphy Pl, Garran meets one or more of the heritage significance criteria at s 10 of the Heritage Act 2004.  The provisional register entry is at Attachment A.

4.	Date of Provisional Registration
4 April 2008.

5.	Indication of council's intention
The council intends to decide whether to register the place under division 6.2.

6.	Public consultation period
The Council invites public comment by 8 May 2008 on the provisional registration of 13 Furphy Pl, Garran to

The Secretary
ACT Heritage Council
GPO Box 158
CANBERRA ACT 2602

  …………………..                            
Gerhard Zatschler
Secretary ACT Heritage Council 
GPO Box 158, Canberra ACT 2602

7 April 2008
                                             
	AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY

HERITAGE REGISTER
(Provisional Registration Details)

Place

For the purposes of s. 33 of the Heritage Act 2004, an entry to the heritage register has been prepared by the ACT Heritage Council for the following place:

•	13 Furphy Place

Block 42, Section 10

GARRAN

DATE OF PROVISIONAL REGISTRATION

Notified: 9 April 2008 Notifiable Instrument: 2008/NI2008-102

PERIOD OF EFFECT OF PROVISIONAL REGISTRATION

Start Date: 4 April 2008           End Date: 4 September 2008

Extended Period (if applicable)   Start Date ________    End Date  ________ 

Copies of the Register Entry are available for inspection at the ACT Heritage Unit.  For further information please contact:

			The Secretary
			ACT Heritage Council
			GPO Box 158, Canberra, ACT  2601

	Telephone: 132281     Facsimile: (02) 6207 2229

IDENTIFICATION OF THE PLACE

•	13 Furphy Place, Block 42, Section 10, Suburb of Garran, ACT.

HISTORY OF THE PLACE

The house at 13 Furphy Place, Garran, was designed for Mr R McCawley by Architects Scollay Bischoff and Pegrum in 1966, with Tony Pegrum as the design architect.1  Construction was completed in 1967.  Garran began development in 1966 and to this day 70-percent of dwellings are individual houses.2 The Furphy Place house is located near the end of a cul-de-sac that abuts onto the Federal Golf Course.

Residential settlements such as Garran were an integral part of the creation and planning of Canberra.  Peter Harrison AO as National Capital Development Commission Director and First Assistant Commissioner of Town Planning from 1959-67 coordinated the design of Canberra’s new low-density neighbourhood suburbs in a series of new ‘satellite’ towns.3 

The new suburbs designed by the National Capital Development Commission (NCDC) were generally based on ‘Radburn’ planning, with the segregation of traffic and pedestrians; their size determined by primary school catchments.  The segregated pedestrian paths were often set in parkland or nature reserves linking the residential blocks with shops and schools.  This planning was a departure from the earlier planning authorities’ Garden City suburb planning of inner Canberra.

At the same time as the house at 13 Furphy Place was designed by the architects they also designed the original semi-detached, dual occupancy houses on the adjacent site at 15 Furphy Place for Miss R Davidson and her brother Professor Davidson.  In correspondence to the Building Section from the architects, 15 Furphy Place is described as a “single family dwelling”.4  It would appear that the two different clients for 13 and 15 Furphy Place engaged the firm at the same time.  The residential projects were designed in the same style with the same materials creating a modern urban form at the end of the cul-de-sac.

These houses were of only a few reflecting a shift at the time from mainly government designed and built housing to private development where the individual owner commissioned an architect. As such the building reflects not only the style of Scollay Bischoff and Pegrum, but the result of the interaction between the owner and architect: the conscious choice by the owner of Pegrum because of his style and the finished design demonstrating choices and wishes of the owners.

The houses were not only designed with the same aesthetics but also had matching elevations and part floor plans.  The western section of 15 Furphy Place was identical to the western section of 13 Furphy Place, while treatment of the living room northern façade at 13 Furphy Place is similar to the bedroom of the western dual occupancy where the brick alcove extends out in the same form. 

Of the two buildings the two dwellings at 15 Furphy Place were the more interesting from a planning perspective.  In general they were open planned, simplified perhaps because each was occupied by a single person.  The western dwelling had an open plan living area that was separated from the dining room by wide sliding doors and from the bedroom by a heater and joinery units, but there was no door, only a wide opening partly hidden from view by shelving located within the living area.  The kitchen was not open to the living room.  The eastern dwelling, the smaller of the two, had an open plan living room and kitchen while the bedroom was separated from the living area by only a curtain.

The dual occupancy at 15 Furphy Place has since been extensively altered with extensions to the front and rear, the brickwork rendered and painted, the front carports, laundry and garden walls demolished and replaced with new garages, and the interiors extensively altered.  15 Furphy Place is no long recognisable as being in the same design aesthetic as 13 Furphy Place.  The alterations were based on a plan prepared by the architect Enrico Taglietti.

The design, incorporating face brickwork, may have been influenced by Australian architecture of the time, by architecture the designer Anthony Pegrum saw while travelling in Europe just prior to him designing the houses, or by published work from Europe and the west coast of USA.  

In Australia this influence may have included a small number of houses recently constructed in Sydney.  Two houses in particular received media coverage in the early 1960s: the Badham House, Cronulla, 1959-1960, by Ancher Mortlock and Murray, with Bryce Mortlock as the design partner, which was awarded the Sulman by the NSW Chapter of the RAIA, and the Palmer House, Turramurra, 1959-60, by Allen & Jack.  Both of these houses are flat roofed modern designs combining post and beam construction with masonry.  The Badham House is more expansive and more open plan than Pegrum’s design and incorporated large sliding doors and curtains used as space dividers throughout the living areas.  Similarities between Pegrum’s design and Mortlock’s are the cubiform overall shape, the use of grey coloured face cement brickwork, fibre cement sheeting above and below windows, corner sliding doors and northern orientation with the house opening out to the north landscaped garden.  The Palmer House is quite similar in the compact overall plan with the entry, garage and garage store location while the internal planning differs.  The end walls extend past the glazing but not in the widened alcove form in the Pegrum plan.

In Europe influences may have been the pre WWII brick architecture of Mies van der Rohe and his houses at Krefeld 1928, and Berlin 1932, Lois Welzenbacher's Schulz House in Westphalia 1928, and Karl Schneider's Werner House in Hamburg 1930, as well as his Berlin Exhibition House, 1931, many of which would have appeared in publications and architecture texts.  This architecture was of face brick and not the white painted render aesthetic of much of the 'functionalist style'. 

On the west coast of the USA the work of Los Angeles architects such as Gordon Drake, Herbert Burns and Richard Neutra was becoming better known and influenced both Sydney and Melbourne architects who were formulating their “regional” styles of the time.  The Cronulla house in particular, has many similarities to the work of Drake.

The plan for the house is rational and frugal.  It is allied with the concern in Australia since the end of the WWII to provide architect designed low cost modern three bedroom houses for the wider community.  Preceding the design of the houses in Furphy Place, examples of this concern for architect-designed houses for the wider community including: the Beaufort Steel House, Ainslie, by Baldwinson,1947; the “Operation Snail” kit homes designed by Roy Simpson for the Victorian railways, and the post WWII Royal Victorian Institute of Architects Small Homes Service.  Right through the 1970s there was an interest in system-built houses with an area less than 120sqm.  An example of this was the competition held in 1971 jointly sponsored by the Gas & Fuel Corporation of Victoria, Beneficial Finance Corporation Ltd, Merchant Builders Pty Ltd and the RAIA Victorian Chapter Housing Service.

The house at 13 Furphy Place and the attached two dwellings at 15 Furphy Place were jointly awarded the RAIA ACT Chapter C S Daley Medallion in 1969, the inaugural year of the award, an award for architectural excellence given annually from 1969-89 to the best recent ACT residential building.5

Anthony Pegrum FRAIA 1938-2001

Tony Pegrum graduated in architecture in the early 1960s.  His father was the Chief Electrical Engineer in the Canberra Department of the Interior.  Part of his father’s work was to sign off on the approval of building plans on behalf of the department.  Tony was the brother of Roger Pegrum, who is an established Canberra architect.  In his early career Tony worked for Mussen and Scollay Architects in their office at 5/2 Arthur Circle, Forrest.6  The firm then became Scollay, Bischoff & Pegrum Architects; their office remained in the same building, unit 5 of the Forrest Townhouses, designed by Roy Grounds through this period.  

The obituary on Tony Pegrum published in the RAIA NSW Chapter Architecture Bulletin, February/March 2002, records, “In the mid 1960s Tony travelled extensively overseas, working in London for twelve months on urban renewal projects and prefabricated buildings.”  It also states that he lectured at the University of Sydney, however, the University records do not confirm this.7

Between his time as a partner with Scollay Bischoff & Pegrum, and joining the Adelaide firm of Hassell Architects in 1972, Tony Pegrum formed an architecture practice in Canberra in partnership with his brother Roger.  In 1975 he moved back to Sydney to head a new office for Hassell Architects and to be Director in charge of the new Macarthur Square Centre in Campbelltown.  He was acknowledged as a designer of commercial projects and worked with the firm for 28 years before his death in 2001.

At the time of the design of the house at 13 Furphy Place, the firm of Scollay, Bischoff and Pegrum was an established architecture practice in Canberra.  John Scollay had previously designed a number of important houses in Canberra in the Post War Melbourne Regional style (1940-1960), including 73 National Circuit Deakin, 1959, (now demolished) and 113 Schlich Street, Yarralumla, 1959.8

There are only a small number of houses in Canberra designed by the firm in the Late Twentieth-Century International style and utilising similar planning, materials and structure; an example is at 18 Godfrey Street, Campbell, which has been extended at the front.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PLACE

The house at 13 Furphy Place, Garran, was was completed in 1967.  The house is an example of the Late Twentieth-Century International Style (1960-) with its cubiform overall shape and plain smooth wall surfaces.9

The house is located at the end of a cul-de-sac with the carport and side of the house facing east onto the street.  The site slopes down to the west and the width of the block increases to the rear.  The site contours have been raised to provide level access from the house out to the north and south.  The cavity cement face brick house is rectangular in plan with a flat metal deck roof without projecting eaves overhang.  The composition provides roofed recesses into the masonry rectangle envelope to form a long northern porch and protection to the west and south glazed and panelled external walls.  

The entrance is approached from the street along a passage between the carport and the house, all under the one flat roofline.  The single carport is open to the side and has a brick storeroom at the western end.  

The main entry is to the south beyond the unbroken brick wall of the living room.  The entry lobby is formed as an airlock with two internal sliding doors located at the corner, one opening into the living room to the east and the other opening into a passage that extends to the west.  

The living room is the full depth of the house and has a large eastern window that looks towards the street and is set opposite the two adjacent sliding doors that open from the entry and the passage.  The location of the window enables a view along the passage out into the front garden.

Two thirds of the northern wall is fully glazed with timber framed windows and a glazed swing door that looks out over and opens onto the paved porch and beyond to the garden.  To the right of the glazing the brickwork extends out forming a 900mm deep by 1100mm wide corner alcove.  Externally this alcove forms the 1800mm brick return wall that combines with a matching return wall at the western end to define the northern porch.

Directly to the north of the entry and off the passage is the kitchen with benches and cupboards to four sides, a servery opening to the family room to the west and a central northern window.

Along the short passage, and next to the kitchen, is the family room that extends into the passage.  The room has full width glazing to the north with glazed doors that open out onto the porch and garden beyond.  The room is recessed further into the house creating a deeper porch area.  The roof is partly open behind the continuous fascia with a pergola to allow northern light into the living room while maintaining the rectangular roof form. 

Along the central southern section of the house are the wet areas and a small storeroom.  The laundry passage is parallel to the entry passage and opens to the rear yard.  The rear service area is separated from the entry by a timber gate between the house and the brick store behind the carport.

At the western end of the passage are the three bedrooms, two facing north and one to the south.  The north facing main bedroom has a brick alcove that mirrors the living room and both northern bedrooms each have an off-centre full height window.  The southern bedroom has deeply recessed full width western glazing with a 900mm sill height.  It has a built-in masonry wardrobe.

There is a skylight to the passage and another to the central storeroom.

The long recessed external walls to the north and south elevations are detailed with three variations: full height timber framed glazing; full height vertical timber panelled walls, and a combination of glazing and fibre sheet cladding where the window sill does not extend to the floor level.  The downpipes are either concealed or recessed into the external brick skin.  The floor is suspended concrete slab throughout.

Condition

The house is in good condition externally.  An attached timber pergola and timber supporting posts have been added to the northern side and the northern terrace paving is more extensive than that shown on the original plan.

Design Comments

The original scale, form and fabric of the house and brick courtyard walls are key architectural features of the property.  Additional and significant architectural elements of the Late Twentieth-Century International style (1960-) exemplified by the external form of the building include:
-	plain smooth wall surfaces of brickwork;
-	roof form and continuous fascia with overhang for shade;
-	contrasting textures of timber panelling and fibre sheet cladding.10

The following features are also integral to the building’s design; the fenestration; face brickwork; open carport that contrasts with the solid masonry form of the house, integration of the carport with the house as a whole; face brick return walls; original detailing and finishes. The setting of the property enables the open form of the entry and general view of the house from the crescent and park to seen.

The Garran house can be compared and contrasted with privately built houses in Canberra designed by Dirk Bolt; two in Deakin including the Butler residence at 44 Beauchamp Street, 1965, and 6 Fuller Street, both in Deakin, two in Farrer, Waite Street and Werribee Crescent, and 1 Astley Place, Garran, 1967.11  

The overall cubiform shape and minimal roof overhang on the property also exemplifies this style.  These houses are slightly different from others of the period in that they have large sheets of glass, which is a feature specific to the Late Twentieth-Century International style, in comparison to the glazing of the house at 13 Furphy Place.  The Bolt designed houses are constructed in face blockwork with external timber painted white.  In addition, some of Bolt’s designs incorporated steel framing to facilitate the inclusion of the large sheets of glass.  

STATEMENT ABOUT THE HERITAGE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PLACE

The house at 13 Furphy Place, Garran, is illustrative of modern architecture and exhibits the principal characteristics of modern residential architecture in a planned neighbourhood suburb; appropriate human scale, functional domestic planning and well sited.  As a design in the Late Twentieth-Century International style of architecture it has special interest in being an early example in Canberra of this modern ideal by one of Canberra’s notable architecture firms.

The house exhibits creative and artistic distinction as an entity and is aesthetically significant for its cubic massing juxtaposed with fine detailing, all expressed with an understated elegance.

The place has been acknowledged as a distinctive example of twentieth century architecture by the Royal Australia Institute of Architects.  It continues to fulfil its original purpose and its planning remains innovative and sound.

ASSESSMENT AGAINST THE HERITAGE SIGNIFICANCE CRITERIA

Pursuant to s.10 of the Heritage Act 2004, a place or object has heritage significance if it satisfies one or more of the following criteria.  Significance has been determined by research as accessed in the references below.  Future research may alter the findings of this assessment.

(a)	it demonstrates a high degree of technical or creative achievement (or both), by showing qualities of innovation, discovery, invention or an exceptionally fine level of application of existing techniques or approaches;

The creativity of the architect Tony Pegrum is apparent in the design of the house at 13 Furphy Place, Garran, constructed in 1967, which was innovative when compared with other houses built in Canberra.  

The same architect also designed the two attached dwellings at 15 Furphy Place at the same time as this house.  As a group, the houses were of great architectural merit; the solution incorporated rectangular plans to take advantage of the northern sun, while the two attached dwellings at 15 Furphy Place each had open planned interiors that demonstrated an innovative architectural response to the needs of the clients.   

While 15 Furphy Place has been extensively altered so that the innovative architecture is now no longer apparent, the house at 13 Furphy Place still exhibits creative design and artistic excellence by virtue of its architectural theme of modern architecture.

(b)	it exhibits outstanding design or aesthetic qualities valued by the community or a cultural group;

The house at 13 Furphy Place, Garran, is a good example of the Late Twentieth-Century International style (1960-).  The building exhibits architectural elements specific to the style, including cubiform overall shape and plain smooth wall surfaces.  It is notable for displaying the design skill of the architect Tony Pegrum.  

The following design features are of additional significance; the roof form and continuous fascia with overhang for shade; open carport that contrasts with the solid masonry form of the house and the integration of the carport roof with the house as a whole; face brick return walls; contrasting texture of the timber panelling and fibre sheet cladding; the fenestration; original detailing, and finishes.

The house is a very good example of the architecture of Scollay, Bischoff and Pegrum, a renowned Canberra architecture firm, and recognised for this by the RAIA ACT Chapter in the Register of Significant Twentieth Century Architecture.

(c)	it is important as evidence of a distinctive way of life, taste, tradition, religion, land use, custom, process, design or function that is no longer practised, is in danger of being lost or is of exceptional interest;

This place does not meet this criterion.

(d)	it is highly valued by the community or a cultural group for reasons of strong or special religious, spiritual, cultural, educational or social associations;

This place does not meet this criterion.

(e)	it is significant to the ACT because of its importance as part of local Aboriginal tradition

This criterion is not applicable.

(f)	it is a rare or unique example of its kind, or is rare or unique in its comparative intactness

This place does not meet this criterion.

(g)	it is a notable example of a kind of place or object and demonstrates the main characteristics of that kind

This place does not meet this criterion.

(h)	it has strong or special associations with a person, group, event, development or cultural phase in local or national history

This place does not meet this criterion.

(i)	it is significant for understanding the evolution of natural landscapes, including significant geological features, landforms, biota or natural processes

This criterion is not applicable.

(j)	it has provided, or is likely to provide, information that will contribute significantly to a wider understanding of the natural or cultural history of the ACT because of its use or potential use as a research site or object, teaching site or object, type locality or benchmark site

The architecture of this residence has the potential to contribute to the education of students of architecture and may contribute to understanding late twentieth-century architectural styles.  Experiencing heritage buildings enables the visitor to locate the building in its historical and environmental contexts.  These experiences readily enable the establishment, understanding and interpretation of the building’s heritage value and significance.   This house is a good example of mid-twentieth-century modern architecture, in this case an example of the Late Twentieth-Century International style, based on simple forms and attractive relationships.  Its innovative planning contributes to its significance and educational heritage.

(k)	for a place—it exhibits unusual richness, diversity or significant transitions of flora, fauna or natural landscapes and their elements

This criterion is not applicable.

(l)	for a place—it is a significant ecological community, habitat or locality for any of the following: 
(i)	the life cycle of native species;
(ii)	rare, threatened or uncommon species;
(iii)	species at the limits of their natural range;
(iv)	distinct occurrences of species.
	
This criterion is not applicable.

FEATURES INTRINSIC TO THE HERITAGE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PLACE

The features intrinsic to the heritage significance of the Place and which require conservation comprise: 

•	The original scale, form and fabric of the house.  Specifically cubic form and plain smooth wall surfaces of face brickwork; the roof form and continuous fascia with overhang for shade; open carport that contrasts with the solid masonry form of the house and the integration of the carport roof with the house as a whole; face brick return walls; contrasting texture of the timber panelling and fibre sheet cladding; the fenestration; original detailing, and finishes.
•	The setting of the place that enables its scale and form to be appreciated including the open form of the entry and general view of the house from the street.

“Original scale, form and fabric” shall mean that which was designed and built and is shown on the working drawings titled “House at 41/10 Garran Canberra ACT for R McCawley Esquire” Drawing No. SBP 100/1, 100/2 & 100/3 dated August 1966, approval date stamped August & September 1966 all by Architects Scollay, Bischof Pegrum.  Planning Authority of the time “Plan No. 12586.”

REASON FOR PROVISIONAL REGISTRATION

13 Furphy Place, Garran, has been assessed against the heritage significance criteria and been found to have heritage significance against 3 criteria under the ACT Heritage Act.

APPLICABLE HERITAGE GUIDELINES

The Heritage Guidelines adopted under s27 of the Heritage Act 2004 are applicable to the conservation of 13 Furphy Place, Garran.

The guiding conservation objective is that 13 Furphy Place, Garran, shall be conserved and appropriately managed in a manner respecting its heritage significance and the features intrinsic to that heritage significance, and consistent with a sympathetic and viable use or uses.  Any works that have a potential impact on significant fabric (and / or other heritage values) shall be guided by a professionally documented assessment and conservation policy relevant to that area or component (i.e. a Statement of Heritage Effects – SHE).

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

1. CONSULTATION WITH STAKEHOLDERS

Draft provisional registration entry was released for public comment on 12 April 2008 and period for public comment closes on 8 May 2008.

2. REFERENCES

1	ACTPLA Building File.
2	Canberra Times 15 April 2005.
3	Reid, Paul 2002 Canberra following Griffin  A Design History of Australia’s National Capital National Archives of Australia.
4	ACTPLA Building File for 15 Furphy Place, Garran.
5	RAIA
6	Conversation with Fritz Suendermann, architect in Roy Grounds’ Canberra office.
7	Discussion with Sydney University staff records department.
8	RSCTA 
9	Apperly, Richard, Robert Irving and Peter Reynolds 1989 Identifying Australian Architecture Styles and Terms from 1788 to the Present. Angus and Robertson.
10	Ibid.
11	RSTCA.

Other References
Anne Whitelaw Two Houses Under One Roof’, Canberra Times, 2 April 1968, page 18

3. IMAGES AND PLANS

Figure 1. Location of 13 Furphy Place, Garran.