The Roy Grounds House is located at 24 Hill Street, Toorak in Melbourne, Australia. It was designed by Sir Roy Grounds as his own home for his wife Betty and himself. This building was constructed in the early 1950s during the period of architectural experimentation on materiality and structure in houses. The Roy Grounds House was designed as a prototype for Roy’s latter project 10 years later on the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) located on St.Kilda Road, Melbourne.
Description edit
Roy Grounds House was one of number of experiments in emerging architecture from pure geometry that Roy Grounds designed in the 1930s. The three flats behind the house consecutively step back from the main house to allow for an undercover car park and courtyard gardens. While the three flats do not have an oriental response or geometry to the main house, they each have a unique feature. The angled car park walls, small slatted balconies, and a double height main space are examples. For each main space, there is a tall window wall that faces the side courtyard gardens.
Key Influences edit
The Roy Grounds House has a circular courtyard integrated into its perfect square plan. All of the rooms in the house face the internal courtyard, forming an inward looking that gives the house an Asian touch. The house relies heavily on the use of highlight windows on the exterior wall around the house. The house emits a sense of unusual politeness in the 1950s with the use of the oversized front door knocker and Asian formality. The house uses strong solid walls in the external design and extending eaves that floats above the highlight windows. The initial persimmon and bamboo trees in the courtyard also show an Asian influence.
Significance edit
In the period of the Mid-Twentieth Century in Victoria, The Roy Grounds House is considered as one of the most renowned works of modernist domestic architecture. The house that incorporates a circular courtyard into a perfect square plan is a symbol of Grounds’ work that shows his experimental architectural style of geometry amongst the work of post war avant-garde architects in Victoria.
Award edit
- Victorian Architectural medal (1954)