Designing for the Tropics: The Architectural Legacy of Richard Hill and Arthur Taylor, Cairns, 1920–1940. Issue 1 (2nd January 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Griggs, Llewellyn; Griggs, Peter
• Is Part Of: Fabrications. Volume 28:Issue 1(2018)
• Page Start: 88
• Page End: 109
• Publication Date: 2018-01-02
• Subjects: Architecture -- History -- Periodicals; Architecture -- Australia -- Periodicals; Architecture -- New Zealand -- Periodicals; Architecture; Australia; New Zealand; History; Periodicals; 720
• DOI: 10.1080/10331867.2017.1410517
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1033-1867

Abstract

Abstract: Richard Hill and Arthur Taylor were two prominent North Queensland interwar architects who have received limited attention in the scholarly literature on the history of architecture in Australia. This paper seeks to redress this omission by analysing the characteristics of the major, surviving civic and commercial buildings designed by these two architects. An examination of these structures shows that Hill & Taylor designed buildings that took into account North Queensland's unique tropical environment within the currents of national and international design trends at the time. They created many buildings from reinforced concrete, often at the request of their clients, in order to withstand the damaging winds from tropical cyclones or the threat from fire. The architects also addressed concerns about heavy rainfall and appropriate ventilation, their buildings often containing large, semi-circular or rectangular windows, verandahs (both open and closed), deep eaves and wide gutters. The designs for the buildings, however, were not without controversy, particuraly in regard to their choice of building materials, cost and amount of ornamentation. Nevertheless, Hill and Taylor's interwar public buildings have become a unique part of North Queensland's urban landscape with the potential to contribute to understandings of twentieth-century architectural practice in Australia's northern tropics.