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Dreaming of Tomorrow: Architecture - Mid-Century Modern
The city centre developed as the suburbs greatly expanded. Business and building increased to keep pace with the swelling population, which was mostly housed in fibro and then brick and tile rather than the traditional timber and tin. Many old estates were subdivided, including Eastern Heights, while the outlying towns became densely settled suburbs and Collingwood Park was added to the list. Robyn Buchanan wrote in Ipswich in the 20th Century:
Houses built in the years immediately after World War II are often referred to as "austerity style". Materials were in short supply, and for some time there were strict government limits on the size of any new house. This resulted in small, simple buildings.
By the 1950s and 60s, shortages had been overcome and housing styles began to change again. The roof pitch dropped, and some roofs were almost flat. Verandahs largely disappeared and were replaced by a small porch or patio, and while some houses continued to be built on traditional high stumps, others began to sit right on the ground on a concrete slab.
In Ipswich, the first Housing Commission homes were built in Bostock Street, East Ipswich. Large numbers of homes were later built in groups and created new suburbs such as Leichhardt and Riverview. by 1990, 18% of all post-war housing within the city boundaries was owned by the Queensland Housing Commission.
In November 1957, a newspaper article discussed housing development in Ipswich. It said a big expansion of Ipswich had taken place in the immediate post-war years, but there had been little development between 1949 and 1956. However in 1957, large estates were planned for Redbank, Ebbw Vale and Riverview. Many home builders were said to prefer the eastern suburbs which were close to the railway. They also had low rates because there was no sewerage, making the area more affordable.
Verandahs gradually disappeared, roof pitches became lower, roof overhangs narrower, and materials cheaper. By the 1960s, a new bungalow style had emerged, which developed into the widespread elevated brick veneer houses that typified new housing estates into the present. Roof forms included hipped, pitched and Dutch gable roofs.
Widespread and popular use of asbestos cement known as "fibro" for external and internal wall linings. Also hardwood weatherboards and narrow chamferboards were used, and facebrick increasingly favoured from 1960 onwards. Roofing materials included corrugated asbestos cement, corrugated galvanised iron, terracotta and concrete tiles. At the end of the period, new clipped down metal rib and pan roof sheeting such as "Kliplok" was developed for very low or "flat" roofs. Timber windows were of silky oak casement type with figured and clear glass panes. During this period the use of glass louvre windows became widespread. By 1960 the sliding aluminium framed glass window was the most popular. Joinery became simpler, without elaborate mouldings, and skirtings and architraves were of painted pine.
By 1960, plasterboard wall and ceiling linings were developed and used in preference to fibrous plaster or asbestos cement. Houses after 1960 were generally built on reinforced concrete floor slabs although elevated floor levels were still of timber frame. Concrete stumps replaced timber stumps for timber buildings. Depression years and post-war austerity led to the abandonment of ornamentation or decoration in all but the most expensive houses. Paintwork was generally relied upon as the main decorative element together with "feature walls" of brick or timber veneered hardboards and plywoods, and wallpaper.
References (online)Ipswich in the 20th Century, Section 5: 1945-1970, Robyn BuchananCollection of House Plans, January 1967, The Queensland Housing Commission, State Library of QueenslandHouse Plans, Queensland Housing Commission, 1959, State Library of Queensland