Page 39 - Demo

37An architect-designed home at an a%u00a0ordable price seems like a ridiculous idea today, but that%u2019s exactly what Pettit+Sevitt o%u00a0ered Australian home buyers in the 1960s.The postwar boom saw the growth of the Australian Dream as the suburbs expanded, and we moved further out of the cities, chasing the magic of the quarter-acre block. Homes were being produced in record numbers, featuring all the mod cons, like fridges, laminate benches and indoor toilets!In Melbourne, the Small Homes Service was kicked o%u00a0 by%u00a0The Age%u00a0newspaper in 1947. For a couple of pounds, aspiring home owners could purchase plans for a compact, architectdesigned home by the likes of Robin Boyd and then build it themselves. For a nation with a housing shortage (sound familiar?) this was an excellent solution. The model was copied by newspapers and magazines around the country, and the idea of an accessible, architectdesigned home was born.In 1961, young Sydney architects Ken Woolley and Michael Dysart debuted two of their designs at the Carlingford Homes Fair and caught the eye of developers Brian Pettit and Ron Sevitt, who enlisted Ken and Michael to adapt the designs. These two models, The Lowline and the%u00a0 Split Level, became the backbone of Pettit and Sevitt%u2019s company. The flat-roofed Lowline shot to national fame after the house was featured in the movie%u00a0Don%u2019s Party.The Split Level was perfect for the di%u00a0icult bush blocks in Sydney, making it possible to build a home without the need for excavation, as it %u2018coped with the slope%u2019. The house featured full%u00a0and clerestory windows, brown-tiled roofs, exposed timber beams and exposed or painted%u00a0bricks.The Pettit+Sevitt display villages in suburbs like St Ives were incredibly popular. There were tra%u00a0ic jams on weekends as people flocked to see these modernist houses with the latest modern furnishings, designed for the Australian landscape.Clever marketing, particularly in The Sydney Morning Herald, helped boost awareness, and Pettit+Sevitt soon expanded to Canberra and Melbourne. In Perth, their homes were built under licence %u2013 some were even built in Fiji!By the end of the 1970s, the era of the architect-designed project home was all but over. People were now avoiding the suburbs and staying put in the inner city. Pettit+Sevitt went into liquidation in 1978.More than 3500 of their homes were built and are still incredibly popular today, standing as a potent reminder of a time when we had a much broader middle class and homes were actually a%u00a0ordable.YEAR 1961DESIGNERS Michael Dysart and Ken Woolley BUILDER Pettit+SevittHomes were being produced in record numbers, featuring all the mod cons, like fridges, laminate benches and indoor toilets!