Momo to Pomo Modern Melbourne

MOMO TO POMO

Assignment One:

Modern Architecture in Melbourne

98 Nicholson Street - ‘Cairo Flats’

Michael John Stephenson 329784

MOMO TO POMO

Assignment One:

Modernist Melbourne

98 Nicholoson Street - ‘Cairo Flats’

The apartments at 98 Nicholson Street are known as the Cairo Flats. Built in 1935 by Architects Taylor,

Solliuex and Overend.

We can consider this building to be of the modernist style due to its simple exterior appearance, and its

curved balconies. The simple fl at facade with recessed windows is typical of works by Le Corbusier and

of Walter Gropius. Presenting a box like form, the windows serve only as a source of light rather than an

embellished decorative feature.

The horizontal curved form of the balconies is typical Art Deco, though similarities can be drawn to the

balconies of the Bauhaus, in which curvature is used vertically at the ends of the smaller balconies. The

balustrades also bear striking resemblance to those on the Bauhaus.

Image from Goad, P. ‘Fabrications’ ‘Best Overend, Pioneering Modernist in Mel-

bourne’ p 111

MOMO TO POMO

Assignment One:

Modernist Melbourne

98 Nicholson Street - ‘Cairo Flats’

Walter Gropius, Bauhaus, Dessau, 1926

Image from http://www.pbase.com/dyphotono1/bauhaus

Le Corbusier, Villa Savoye, Poissy, 1929-1930

Image from http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/Corbu.html

MOMO TO POMO

Assignment One:

Modernist Melbourne

98 Nicholson Street - ‘Cairo Flats’

The composition of the design can be broken up into repeating patterns or sections.

The vertical supports of the rooftop balustrade line up with vertical components of

the apartments below. The spacing between the apartments are even ordered. The

location of the balcony mirrors on each apartment. The main window on each sun

balcony is rectangular in shape, but when viewed from street level, the balcony

appears to cut the window into a perfect square.

The edges of the windows in the apartments correlate to the above balustrade, in

this case, the perpendicular direction of the balustrade.

The boundary walls themselves also exhibit modernist ideas

that were notably present in the early work of Frank Lloyd

Wright. The top capping bricks are overhanging, and facing

north, resulting in a year round shadow being produced on the

face of the wall. The illusion is that the top row is fl oating above

the rest of the wall, in a likewise fashion to the ‘fl oating’ roof on

FLW’s Winslow House.

MOMO TO POMO

Assignment One:

Modernist Melbourne

98 Nicholson Street - ‘Cairo Flats’

The overall simple form of the Cairo Flats is what most defi nes it as an example of the Modernist

Style. Features such as service hatchways for waste removal, and humble ‘bedsitter’ rooms (Goad,

Fabrications 1999-2001) which only consisted of a main room with bed, were the products of a

ultilitarian ideal.

All images property of MJ Stephenson unless otherwise stated.