Pholiota UNLOCKED A pedagogical case study Philip Goad

Australia did not give Griffin second, to understand the original anything like sufficient intentions, design and lifestyle opportunities to develop his implied by the Griffins’ Pholiota, and great talents. But then no other critique it by proposing designs for country gave him even as much a new Pholiota and new subdivision as Australia did. He lived in hard patterns to accompany it. times for a sensitive architect This article examines the process who felt compelled to find his and benefits of exploring an exemplar own solutions to every building of architectural history through problem from the clay up, the media of archival research, designing his own bricks and his documentation, fabrication, design own windows and his own tiles. and exhibition. It argues that a Robin Boyd, 19631 project like Pholiota UNLOCKED provides a useful model for object- In October 2016, the exhibition based learning in architectural Pholiota UNLOCKED was held education, where project-based issues at the Melbourne School of of research, design and execution are Design (MSD) at the University integral and analogous to the practice of Melbourne. The exhibition’s of architecture. intellectual focus was the 1917 invention by Walter Burley Griffin Genesis of his patented concrete block The idea for Pholiota UNLOCKED system, Knitlock. The exhibition’s emerged suddenly—in November physical centrepiece was a full-scale of Architecture students. As a 2015 at a meeting chaired by reconstruction of Pholiota (1920–21), pedagogical exercise, students were Jonathan Mills about Cultural the Griffins’ house in the Griffin- involved from beginning to end: Collisions: Grainger | Griffins, designed portion of the Melbourne from initial research, object design the University of Melbourne’s suburb of Eaglemont. Constructed in and re-design, to fabrication, hands- contribution to the 2016 Melbourne new plaster versions of the original on construction and exhibition Festival. I was asked what the Knitlock blocks, the reconstruction installation. For the students, there MSD might contribute, not only of the house was complemented by were two main educational foci: first, to celebrate the Australian work of documentary descriptions, reproduced to understand the original intentions, the American husband-and-wife archival images, photographs of the design and construction capacities of architectural team of Walter Burley extended process of making new Griffin’s Knitlock block, and critique Griffin and Marion Mahony, but also Knitlock blocks, and designs for them by proposing a new block to showcase our students’ designs and a new Pholiota by MSD Master design and fabrication system; and the state-of-the-art digital fabrication

Philip Goad, ‘Pholiota unlocked’ 31 Previous page: Marion Mahony and Walter Burley Griffin gardening at Pholiota, 23 Glenard Drive, Eaglemont, Victoria, c. 1923. Eric Milton Nicholls Collection, National Library of Australia.

and workshop facilities in the new Melbourne’s Swanston Street. But Adding to the students’ challenge MSD building. Put on the spot, I had few if any would know of Pholiota, was the requirement to make a to think quickly. the tiny little house at Eaglemont that detailed investigation of Knitlock: to The Griffins’ work in Australia Walter and Marion built, and lived study the Griffins’ special construction has been the subject of intense in from 1920 to 1925. (‘Pholiota’ is a system, make some of the tiles at scholarship nationally and inter- genus of mushroom, chosen because various scales in the MSD fabrication nationally, not least in the university’s of the house’s shape, and because it workshop, work out ways of making Faculty of Architecture, Building sprang up virtually overnight.) And the tiles afresh, and then—in some and Planning, namely through few if any would be familiar with that cases—invent a new Knitlock tile or Jeffrey Turnbull and Peter Navaretti’s house’s unique concrete construction system. In pedagogical terms, this monograph The Griffins in Australia system—Knitlock—invented and meant that a rich vein of learning and India and Turnbull’s magisterial patented by Griffin in 1917. So the techniques could be explored. Guest e‑book Walter Burley Griffin: The idea was simple: to unlock Pholiota. presentations were given by Dr Jeffrey architecture of Newman College, The proposal was to reconstruct Turnbull on the Griffins and Knitlock, 1915–18.2 So, there had to be Pholiota at 1:1 scale in the Dulux and by Professor Paolo Tombesi on something different—and in some Gallery on the ground floor of the prefabricated reinforced concrete respects unique—in offering any new MSD building. Complementing systems designed for the SARAH fresh interpretation to the Griffin the reconstruction would be Network of Rehabilitation Hospitals cognoscenti, and also to the public an exhibition of designs for a in Brazil. Design critics during and at who might know little about this pair contemporary version of Pholiota the end of semester included Jonathan of charismatic American architects, undertaken by a group of 13 final- Mills, Dr Turnbull and Dr Alex who arrived and settled in Australia year students in the MSD’s Master of Selenitsch of the MSD, Marika ostensibly to complete their prize- Architecture program in Semester 1 Neustupny (NMBW Architecture winning design for Canberra, the of 2016.3 The students were also Studio), Tobias Horrocks (Fold new national capital. asked to examine the Glenard Estate Theory) and Chris Haddad (Archier). So my first thought was to ask: in Eaglemont, where Pholiota was Students undertook historical and what was something about the constructed and which Griffin archival research on the Griffins. They Griffins that not only the public but had laid out as a 120-lot suburban re-drew the original plans of Pholiota also the scholarly community didn’t subdivision in 1916. Each student according to the Knitlock construction know or hadn’t experienced? At the was allocated a different set of eight system, constructed it digitally, made very least, most would know of the lots and asked, in addition to siting moulds using digital fabrication Griffins’ masterful design of Newman their new Pholiota, to double the techniques, and experimented College (1915–18) at the University density as a possible strategy to cope with various materials to perfect a of Melbourne, or the cavernous with Melbourne’s need to consolidate moulding system. wonder of the Capitol Theatre’s its building stock and accommodate Together, we visited Pholiota in crystalline auditorium (1922) in increased population. Eaglemont, the Herborn House in

32 University of Melbourne Collections, issue 20, June 2017 Walter Burley Griffin and David Charles Jenkins, patent drawings for Knitlock, 1917. Source: IP Australia.

East Hawthorn (Eric M. Nicholls, animation of his new design for Griffin and Knitlock 1929), which employed pre-cast Pholiota, and all students reformatted On 31 May 1917, architect Walter concrete pipe columns, and the their work for exhibition. In the Dulux Burley Griffin of 395 Collins Street, Vaughan Griffin House in Heidelberg Gallery, MSD’s James Rafferty set Melbourne, and builder David (1924), built using the Knitlock up time-lapse photography to record Charles Jenkins of 5 Hawthorn system and now owned by the the whole construction process. All Road, Caulfield, lodged a patent with University of Melbourne’s Professor through this, Italian filmmaker Giulio the Commonwealth of Australia’s Graham Sewell. At the same time, Tami was recording everything on film. Department of Patents.4 Griffin was the students were designing their To ensure that Pholiota might be named as the inventor and Jenkins new Pholiotas and subdivisions for unlocked and, nearly 100 years after it as his assignee. The title of their the Glenard Estate. In a twelve-week was built, be seen and appreciated by patent was ‘Improvements in and semester, they had begun to unlock a new community, the students and relating to structural components’. Pholiota. the public also needed to understand This was Griffin’s contribution The next step was to bring all the story of Knitlock and the Griffins: to developments in 20th‑century this material together to make an this story also had to be told in the concrete construction. He would exhibition. Crucial to this second exhibition. shortly call his system ‘Knitlock’. stage ( July–September 2016) was the involvement of student Manjit Patil, who, with industrial designer and sculptor Alex Goad, devised a way to fabricate the entire suite of Knitlock tiles and then work together to produce the more than 2,300 tiles required to build Pholiota. Another student, Mengyan Wang, worked with Travis Cox from Microsoft SocialNUI at the University of Melbourne to transform her Semester 1 design into virtual reality. Professor Sewell generously lent us original Knitlock blocks and roof tiles for the exhibition, and Peter Navaretti helped compile a complete list of built and unbuilt Knitlock structures across Australia. Another student, Ali Eslamzadeh, supplied the three-dimensional

Philip Goad, ‘Pholiota unlocked’ 3333 Griffin had made his first trip Middle Cove.8 Jenkins, like the window- and door-frames could to Australia in 1913, to begin Griffins, would later move to live and be inserted into place during supervising the development and work in Castlecrag. construction. implementation of the Canberra Griffin’s modular reinforced On 2 March 1918, Griffin and plan. Griffin and Mahony then both concrete construction system Jenkins lodged another patent, this came to Australia in 1914, moving comprised two types of blocks: time for concrete roof tiles;9 like from Chicago to start a new life and vertebral elements, which locked the wall elements, these were soon embark on the next stage of their together to create a structural given the name Knitlock. Unlike already significant early careers.5 skeleton, and tesseral elements, the terra cotta Marseilles-pattern Living first in Sydney, then moving which formed the 63.5 mm walls in tiles that gave Melbourne’s suburbs to Melbourne in 1916, they soon between. Staggered by 150 mm in their distinctive orange skyline, the became interested in affordable small both directions, the system required Knitlock roof tile was silver-grey and house types and their construction. no mortar to seal the components. its shape was completely different: The rationale behind Griffin’s The full system was composed a 13 inch (330 mm) square that invention was the desire to develop from eight different types of blocks: was laid diagonally, essentially a a system of construction that five vertebral and three tesseral flat surface (top and bottom) with might revolutionise house-building components. To stagger the tiles downturned and upturned lips techniques in his newly adopted vertically, the full- and half-tiles were along adjoining sides. The roofing homeland. Griffin scholar James produced in extrusions 300 mm and system had a full tile and a half-tile, Weirick has argued that Knitlock (or 150 mm high. three-quarter tile, eaves tile, and ‘segmental architecture’ as Griffin The benefits of Griffin’s ‘segmental special ridge tile. Griffin believed also called it)6 was his response to the architecture’ were that Knitlock his Knitlock roof tiles had a special need for inexpensive workers’ housing blocks required no cutting, bedding advantage over orthodox tiles: in Canberra, where material and or plastering. They could be handled labour costs were exorbitant.7 easily and didn’t require skilled The tile roof is in keeping with Assisting Griffin in his venture labour—in essence, almost anyone the tesselated [sic] walls, with its was Jenkins, who built a Knitlock could build with them. Given the interlocked segments of the same house for himself at 139 Manning small scale of the overall planning scale, disposed diamond fashion, Road, Malvern. Jenkins was later a module—three foot, six inches and is a third lighter than terra shareholder in the Greater Sydney (1067 mm) determined by the cotta, and being glazed, does not Development Association (GSDA), need for a vertebral vertical—great become damp and heavier still the company formed by Griffin in diversity of plan form was available, through absorption.10 1919 to purchase and develop the so long as each wall length was either 263 hectares of land in northern not too long or had return walls While Griffin’s invention of a roof Sydney that comprised large portions to give structural stability. Other tile was clever, it bore no necessary of Castlecrag, Castle Cove and advantages were that standardised structural or tectonic relation to

34 University of Melbourne Collections, issue 20, June 2017 Stacked pieces of new plaster Knitlock blocks, ready for construction, Mentone, September 2016.

his Knitlock wall system. He relied The public launch of Knitlock 49 projects in Knitlock: 19 realised instead on a conventional timber- took place at the Royal Melbourne and 30 unbuilt. Notable among framed roof as the mediating structural Agricultural Show at Flemington these were non-residential projects connection between the two systems. in September 1919. The Griffins like the Barwon Heads Golf Club In Griffin and Mahony’s Melbourne designed a promotional kiosk using (1925, competition entry) and the Knitlock houses—all of which have vertebral and tesseral elements as Victor E. Cromer Sanatorium (1927, pitched roofs—the timber-framed well as the patented Knitlock roofing project) at Covecrag in Sydney, which roof is a necessary element, serving as tiles. At the corners of the modest demonstrated the Griffins’ confidence a cap or lid that ties the whole system three-bayed structure, which rose in their new system. together. The weight of the concrete above the eaves line, were buttress- In Victoria, all of the Griffin tiles above gives the entire structure an like elements out of which emerged Knitlock designs were intended to be almost monolithic status. poles supporting a banner that read constructed entirely in the patented The Knitlock blocks and roof ‘Knitlock Construction’. It is not system, and with pitched or hipped tiles were made by special machines clear how successful this venture roofs. Of these, the Salter House, invented and designed by Griffin11 was, but it is certain that Shepparton Toorak (1922–24) is the best known. and developed by a young Melbourne builder John Sandy bought rights to But in Castlecrag, the Griffins altered engineer, Malcolm Stewart Moore.12 its production. Shortly thereafter he their approach, often adopting flat Manufactured by Robison Brothers advertised in the Goulburn Valley Stock roofs and combining Knitlock with at their South Melbourne foundry,13 and Property Journal the building Sydney sandstone base walls and the four-legged metal contraptions of a demonstration Knitlock house supporting corner buttresses, a design involved the use of rudimentary in Knight Street, Shepparton, by strategy of composite construction metal and timber moulds that could the Knitlock Syndicate Company. dictated by Castlecrag’s sloping and form the complex rounded teeth of The house was complete by April rocky sites, where a flat or near- the Knitlock blocks and tiles, and 1921.14 The Griffins also convinced horizontal building surface was often a very stiff concrete mix so that the real estate agent William A. Towler not available. Another difference in blocks and tiles, when formed, could that it might be worth building two the Sydney designs was the Griffins’ be mechanically slid out from the demonstration cottages at Oliver’s use of Knitlock columns that rose machine and laid onto a flat pallet Hill, Frankston. Towler financed the above the parapet line as picturesque for drying. The intention, it appears, construction of the two tiny prototype crenellations, evidenced by the was that a builder or prospective houses, Gumnuts and Marnham Duncan House at Castlecrag (1933). homeowner might be able to buy the (1919), the first completed Knitlock The Griffins were not the only machines, set up a local production houses in Australia, and the model for ones designing and building in workshop, and essentially self-build, Pholiota.15 Knitlock. There was a small following making as many blocks and tiles as Between 1919 and 1935, when among his employees, such as needed and progressively storing them Griffin left for India, he and Marion J.F.W. Ballantyne, whose design on site. Mahony designed an estimated for Stokesay (1922) in Seaford on

Philip Goad, ‘Pholiota unlocked’ 35 the Mornington Peninsula remains concrete. Scholars such as Andrew in Oatlands. There are many almost intact, and Edward Fielder Saint, Adrian Forty, Roberto reasons for this, not the least being Billson, who sometimes included a Gargiani, Jeffrey Turnbull, Donald regulatory resistance to a new and Knitlock garage adjacent to a house Leslie Johnson and Miles Lewis have untried system, relatively poor of his own design. In Lorne, one all contributed in the last 15 years thermal efficiency (the ingenious of the largest Knitlock houses to in different ways to contextualising knitting together of the inside and survive is not by the Griffins, but by the global interest in the myriad outside tiles provided an immediate Melbourne architects Klingender and diverse structural and material hot and cold thermal bridge), and Alsop: Jura (1919) on Mountjoy applications of reinforced concrete in problems with waterproofing (during Parade is a huge bungalow-style the first decades of the 20th century. installation, the bitumen layer was house with a vast orange terra cotta It is important to remember, for often inadvertently scraped off) and tile roof. Geelong architectural firm example, that Le Corbusier’s famous the lack of immediately large-scale Laird & Buchan was involved in the Maison Dom-ino of 1914–15 was a batches for ease of putting into Knitlock design of the Winchelsea very simple scheme of flat concrete construction. Another reason was Memorial Grandstand (1920–25). slabs and thin concrete columns, that the hoped-for leap into wider Builders also took an interest in the far from the integrated tectonic use through a very large commission system, most notably Winchelsea’s sophistication of Griffin’s Knitlock, necessitating a massive commitment H.E. Warner, who was involved in and that Frank Lloyd Wright’s to such a new system—such as building a Knitlock Sunday school equally famous ‘Textile’ blocks post- Griffin hoped for in his unrealised (1923) in the tiny town of Barrabool dated Griffin’s invention. It is also ideas for workers’ housing in outside Geelong. Part of Knitlock’s important to note that the Knitlock Canberra—never eventuated. appeal for these country Victorian system and Pholiota would catch There were also other problems. buildings was the lack of easily the attention of Viennese émigré Griffin’s position as Federal Capital available clay bricks and the ability to architect Richard Neutra in his 1927 director of construction and design make the Knitlock elements literally book Wie baut Amerika?.17 Knitlock was terminated in 1920. For the next anywhere. A batching plant could can thus be seen as internationally 15 years, the Griffins soldiered on, be set up in a country town or on a significant in its contribution to designing and building, but never large farm, which may account for a the complex story of concrete with a commission large enough Knitlock brick-making machine as design and construction in the early to send Knitlock into large-scale far away as Perth being put up for 20th century. production. By 1935, Griffin had left auction in 1934.16 At the same time, Knitlock was Australia for India. Marion Mahony In 1917, when Griffin lodged his not a runaway success, neither joined him there in 1936. They patent for Knitlock, he was not alone commercially nor in terms of a never returned. in the world as an architect with an sustained take-up by other architects Miles Lewis has described the abiding interest in the relatively new and builders, despite a grandstand Knitlock system as ‘a patent system construction material of reinforced in Winchelsea and a golf clubhouse which was used for only perhaps

36 University of Melbourne Collections, issue 20, June 2017 Interior of Pholiota, 23 Glenard Drive, Eaglemont, Victoria, photographed by Walter Burley Griffin, c. 1925–26. Eric Milton Nicholls Collection, National Library of Australia.

a couple of dozen buildings, and is Estate, on a block they owned next terms acted like a securing lid to one of the least influential aspects door to the Lippincott House (1917) the Knitlock walls below. There was of the use of concrete in Australia. at 21 Glenard Drive, owned by no gutter: the timber roof beams But it is one of the most interesting Griffin’s sister Genevieve and her extended out to a deeply angled fascia in terms of sources and overseas husband, architect Roy Lippincott. board. The eaves became, in effect, an connections’.18 That may be. But it is This time, they were given a building encircling pergola. The external doors interesting to note that, as recently as permit, but for a ‘doll’s house’ (like a were another Griffin minimalist September 2016, ArchDaily reported giant cubby house) associated with invention: three lapped Californian on Block ARMO, developed in the Lippincott House. As Marion redwood boards and nothing else!22 Mexico, as a way of solving the Mahony recounted in The magic of The interior of Pholiota was housing problem in that country’s America, she and Walter and a local radical: it was essentially a one- most disadvantaged areas. More chicken farmer built the diminutive roomed house. In 1947, Robin than 300 homes have been built in Knitlock bungalow Pholiota over Boyd described it as ‘square with a Sierra Negra, Puebla, in a project many weekends in 1920–21.21 Walter central living space, radial screens, no developed by the Ministry of Social and Marion lived at Pholiota from doors, and great opportunities for an Development.19 The Mexican about 1922 until 1925, when they informal holiday: a static Dymaxion system bears a remarkable likeness moved to Castlecrag in Sydney. house 12 years before Fuller’.23 Today to Knitlock. Nearly 100 years on, it The plan of Pholiota was almost it would be labelled open-plan. The seems that Griffin’s idea continues identical to the Griffins’ designs for focus was a cruciform-shaped shared to offer a new way to think about Gumnuts and Marnham, the two living and dining space, with three of building homes for ordinary people. demonstration houses they had built the cruciform arms acting as alcoves. for William Towler, who let the Two of these alcoves housed double Unlocking Pholiota Griffins use Gumnuts as a weekender. beds and acted as giant window seats. In 1920, the Griffins planned to It was a perfect square, 21 feet by Griffin scholar Jeffrey Turnbull has build their own two-storey Knitlock 21 feet, based on a six-by-six module, argued that these bed alcoves were home on a steeply sloping site at the each module measuring three foot six similar to the alcove-bed slept in end of Kooyong Road, Toorak, above (1067 mm). There were no corridors by statesman, slave-owning planter the railway line and overlooking and no internal doors, only openings and architect Thomas Jefferson in the Yarra River. Not able to get a leading off the main central living his self-designed villa Monticello.24 building permit, they on-sold the space—another square. Pholiota’s third alcove had a piano. site, which was later occupied by The floor was rammed earth The fourth arm of the cruciform the Griffin-designed Paling House with bricks laid directly over the housed the fireplace, forming an (1922–24), also in Knitlock.20 top—a daring example of geothermal ingle. The other spaces of entry, Still needing a home of their own, design at the time. The roof, clad in dressing, bathroom and kitchen were the Griffins decided instead to build conventional terra cotta tiles, was all accessible at the corners of the at 23 Glenard Drive on the Glenard timber-framed, and in structural square-shaped living space.

Philip Goad, ‘Pholiota unlocked’ 37 The Griffins used this central a refrigerator; nor was there a in-law problem—each house is living space in a multitude of ways. laundry. One imagines that this self-contained, and has its own It could be open and public, or vegetarian couple must have had entrance.27 closed and private. Burlap (hessian) an icebox. Perhaps they did their curtains could be drawn across the washing next door. In floor area, Today, one can see Pholiota as bed alcoves and also across the the entire house occupied 41 square an example of lifelong planning, as openings to the kitchen, bathroom, metres—the equivalent of a typical a potentially growing house, and dressing room and entry, essentially one-bedroom apartment today. as a model of minimal living. As creating a snug, square living room The Griffins had always imagined an exercise in maximising light, air focused on the fireplace and the Pholiota as a model house that might and amenity, as a demonstration of centrally placed circular table, where be adapted elsewhere for different Knitlock and its beauty as a material Marion and Walter would have eaten household sizes and, depending on and as a construction technique, their meals. Suspended above was a requirements, added to over time by and as a philosophical concept fabulous plaster light-fitting of their simply constructing another square about dwelling, community, and own design that they had retrieved (or more than one), equivalent to the delights of human-scaled space, from Palais Pictures (not Palais de Pholiota; in many respects, taking Pholiota remains an exemplar. Danse as Marion says),25 one of their the organic analogy as read. When architectural commissions in St Kilda. Marion Mahony was asked how Remaking Knitlock An interior photograph of Pholiota to provide for a family in the one- The task of remaking Pholiota at shows the Knitlock tiles around the roomed house, she responded: 1:1 scale became a collaborative fireplace to be coloured—alternating design and research exercise from henna and gold stripes—and at the Quite easy, …. There are windows start to finish. In Semester 1 of ceiling line there is a continuous all round the house, but you 2016, the students made careful henna band. Above this, the ceiling will observe that each corner is studies of the Knitlock patent stepped upward, ziggurat-like, giving solid. All you have to do is to drawings, re-drawing each vertebral a sense of modest grandeur: its hint add another one-roomed house and tesseral element digitally, of monumentality a private echo of to your corner—as you would and understanding how each the Griffins’ plans for a great public another leaf to an extension piece ‘knitted’ together, vertically ziggurat—the Capitol or National table—and you have a dormitory and horizontally: they digitally Memorial—that would have formed for the children, when the family reconstructed Pholiota in plan, the symbolic centre of Canberra grows to any size. You can add section and elevation, and in three and the nation.26 But here it was in four of these dormitories if you dimensions. In doing so they began their home. wish, and then you will be able to to understand the seamless, even In today’s terms, there are some present one each to the eldest son elegant, interrelation of aesthetics things missing from the Griffins’ and daughter on their marriage. and structure that Griffin had Pholiota. There was no space for Oh no! You eliminate the mother- achieved with his system.

38 University of Melbourne Collections, issue 20, June 2017 Various moments in the making of Knitlock blocks, July–September 2016. Photographs by Linus Tan, Philip Goad and Alex Goad.

The next task was to try and also made blocks themselves, through elements), mould shells (MDF) understand how the blocks were 3D-printed miniatures, some in and silicon moulds. Instead of the made. Using the MSD’s workshops, plaster and some in concrete. cumbersome machines devised groups of students made moulds In the second stage ( July– by Griffin, this was a different using digital fabrication techniques September 2016), Manjit Patil technique—a form of prototyping— and experimented with silicon and and Alex Goad devised a system that could be refined in the future. MDF (medium-density fibreboard) that comprised mould tiles (MDF The tiles and shells were drawn to perfect a moulding system. They facsimiles of the original Knitlock by Patil, cut in the MSD’s digital

Philip Goad, ‘Pholiota unlocked’ 39 Left: Rhino three-dimensional model of Pholiota by Master of Architecture student Manjit Patil, July 2016. Courtesy Manjit Patil.

Opposite: Anne-Marie Randall (Master of Architecture student), designs for new Pholiota, May 2016. Courtesy Anne-Marie Randall.

fabrication workshop, then put the logic and intricacies of the system. versions of Pholiota. Students together with the help of the other They had become experts, confident were required to show respect for students. The silicon moulds and in their ability to manage and the Griffins’ regard for indigenous the casting of the 2,300 plaster manipulate the elements. landscape and for their shared public Knitlock elements took place in Alex During construction and upon reserves. Increased population density Goad’s studio in Mentone. These completion, the replica Pholiota was was also to be achieved, without mould tiles, shells, silicon moulds a revelation: elegant in its simplicity, sacrificing the Griffins’ utopian ideals and photographs of the fabrication with the plaster blocks taking on the of building with nature. process were also displayed in the quality of marble thanks to their low The students’ designs were hung exhibition. sheen and the minor imperfections along the east and west walls of the The decision to use plaster rather in laying. We had created a little linear section of the Dulux Gallery. than concrete was based on time and domestic temple! On the gallery’s northern end wall weight. Concrete tiles would have was mounted a large-scale facsimile taken longer to cure, and handling Reimagining Pholiota of the original sales brochure for the and engineering in the gallery would and the Glenard Estate Glenard Estate created by the Farrow have presented problems. The plaster Walter Burley Griffin laid out the Falcon Press in 1916.28 The aerial tiles were thus intended to be read as Glenard Estate subdivision, then view of the subdivision had Griffin’s an abstraction of the original. described as ‘Mount Eagle’, for signature and title as ‘Landscape To ensure correct construction developer Peter Ernest Keam in 1916. Architect’ in the bottom right-hand of Pholiota, Patil constructed a The site was a very beautiful one, corner. In the centre of this gallery three-dimensional digital model overlooking the floodplain of the space, aligned on a long, low, black using Rhino (short for Rhinoceros, Yarra River and containing a series of Perspex table, were the mould shells, a three-dimensional computer- majestic mature eucalypts. Distinctive tiles and silicon moulds. aided design application), where features of Griffin’s urban design On the north–south axis of the all the different Knitlock tiles were included curving streets aligned with gallery of student designs was centred colour-coded for easy assembly (see the site’s contours, two communal the reconstructed Pholiota, its walls above). Using Rhino also meant that parklands located at the rear of the and chimney built to full height. On the model could be turned around allotments, and a series of footpaths axis from the house’s west and east on a laptop screen, making doubly that led through the estate to the living room windows, giant vinyl sure that no tiles were incorrectly Yarra River. reproductions of the external and only placed. Remarkably, construction One hundred years later, each of surviving original images of Pholiota of Pholiota’s walls, chimney and our Master of Architecture students gave visitors within a reflective view fireplace took just two days, due was allocated eight lots, with different of their own real-time experience in partly to the ingenuity of Griffin’s site conditions, and asked to design the reconstructed house. Two cane system and partly to the students’ for them a series of contemporary chairs at the centre of the cruciform newly developed understanding of one-, two- and three-bedroom living space allowed exhibition

40 University of Melbourne Collections, issue 20, June 2017 Philip Goad, ‘Pholiota unlocked’ 41 Pholiota being reconstructed by Master of Architecture students in the Dulux Gallery, Melbourne School of Design building, University of Melbourne, October 2016.

visitors to be Walter and Marion Thus Pholiota UNLOCKED aligns As a lesson in pedagogy, Pholiota at home. To add a further layer of with current thinking in architectural UNLOCKED was a rare opportunity complexity, the site-specific virtual pedagogy, in which, as University to use the medium of the exhibition reality experience developed by Travis College London’s Brent Carnell as the long goal in an extended Cox for ‘A New Pholiota’ overlaid describes, students ‘participate in program of teaching and research, the virtual with the physical, to reveal research and enquiry throughout their where supervisor and students Mengyan Wang’s new design for education’ and make connections could collaborate, plan and work Pholiota. Using specially supplied ‘horizontally across disciplinary together in discovering something virtual reality goggles, exhibition divides, as well as beyond the fresh from historical material, and visitors could stand at various university setting’. This is part of what also present their findings to the locations in the reconstructed is becoming increasingly described as broader community. And all from the Pholiota and peer into an alternative a ‘connected curriculum’.29 diminutive object of Griffin’s elegantly (student-designed) reality. A project like Pholiota conceived Knitlock block. After UNLOCKED does not happen all the media attention and public Conclusion overnight. It also presented some interest, perhaps the most gratifying When Pholiota UNLOCKED difficulties. Time and budget did not compliment was that the Architecture opened on 6 October 2016, it was extend to putting a roof on the new Library at the University of as if the students had completed a Pholiota. This was a pity, as even a Melbourne requested a complete set real building. They had undertaken skeletal timber frame would have of Knitlock blocks, moulds and master historical research, reconstructed an solved structural problems for the shells as an addition to its permanent historical object through drawing, slender Knitlock block mullions on collection of rare materials. On the inspected archaeological artefacts three sides of the house. As it was, centenary of Griffin’s invention, this on site, critiqued two architects’ health and safety considerations came was a fitting tribute. bold visions for alternative patterns into play as alternatives were sought of minimal living in residential and to ensure the stability of the mullions. This article has been independently subdivision design, rethought the Yet this was also a useful learning peer-reviewed. fabrication process of a building experience for the students—to Professor Philip Goad of the Melbourne School element, participated and collaborated solve real problems in a construction of Design, University of Melbourne, is an authority on modern Australian architecture. He has in the making and construction workplace and also realise the worked extensively as an architect, conservation of a building, and proposed their extraordinary clarity, structural consultant, curator, writer and editor. With Julie visions for a future. They also—like integrity and wholeness of the Griffin Willis he edited the Encyclopedia of Australian the public—were able to experience design. The pyramid roof of Pholiota, architecture (Cambridge University Press, 2012). in reality the scale and ambition the cap to the ‘mushroom’, was the Acknowledgements: The reconstruction of of the Griffins’ ideas, and judge final seal in locking the composition Pholiota was generously supported by Lovell Chen, ACAHUCH (Australian Collaboratory for themselves the veracity and in place as a complete structural for Architectural History, Urban and Cultural continuing relevance of those ideas. whole. Heritage), and the Melbourne School of Design.

42 University of Melbourne Collections, issue 20, June 2017 Knitlock walls and Pholiota complete in the Dulux Gallery, Melbourne School of Design building, University of Melbourne, October 2016. Photograph by Alex Goad.

1 Robin Boyd, foreword ( June 1963) to James 8 Mer edith Walker, Adrienne Kabos and James 19 Gerardo Cázares, ‘This self-build concrete Birrell, Walter Burley Griffin, Brisbane: Weirick, Building for nature: Walter Burley block system reduces construction time University of Queensland Press, 1964, p. ii. Griffin and Castlecrag, Castlecrag: Walter by 50%’, ArchDaily, 21 September 2016, 2 Jeffrey John Turnbull and Peter Navaretti Burley Griffin Society, 1994, p. 9. www.archdaily.com/795653/this-self-build- (eds), The Griffins in Australia and India: 9 Patent 1918006690, ‘Improvements in and system-reduces-construction-time-by-50- The complete works and projects of Walter relating to roof tiles and like structural percent. I am grateful to Tobias Horrocks Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony, elements’, lodged with the Commonwealth and Alan Pert for drawing my attention Melbourne: Miegunyah Press, 1998; Jeffrey of Australia, Department of Patents, 2 March to this Mexican invention by Juan Manuel John Turnbull, Walter Burley Griffin: The 1918. Reyes of Armados Omega and architect Jorge architecture of Newman College, 1915–18, 10 Walter Burley Griffin (attr.), ‘Knitlock Capistrán. part 1: Specifics, e-book, 2014, https://issuu. construction: Revolution in house building: 20 Turnbull and Navaretti (eds), The Griffins in com/walterburleygriffinnewman/docs/walter_ Foundations, walls, floors, roofs, windows, Australia and India, pp. 168–9. burley_griffin_-_the_archite/1. doors and fittings’,Australian Home Builder, 21 Marion Mahony Griffin,The magic of America 3 S tudents participating in studioKNITLOCK no. 1, August 1922, p. 73. (electronic edition), Art Institute of Chicago in Semester 1 of 2016 were Sheena Bagley, 11 A Knitlock block-making machine and a and New York Historical Society, August 2007, Sam Bertram, Sam Brak, Ali Eslamzadeh, Knitlock roof tile-making machine are held www.artic.edu/magicofamerica/index.html. Kelvin Karel, Aaron Lougoon, Manjit Patil, in the W. Herbert and C. Peters Collection, 22 Exactly the same doors can be found at the Anne-Marie Randall, Sean Taaffe, Justin Ting, National Museum of Australia, Canberra. Vaughan Griffin House in Heidelberg. Mengyan Wang, Stanley Yeoh and Aisyah 12 E.F. Spreadborough, ‘Moore, Malcolm 23 Robin Boyd, Victorian modern, Melbourne: Zakiah. Studio leader was Professor Philip Stewart (1888–1969)’, Australian dictionary Victorian Architectural Students Society, 1947, Goad. of biography, National Centre of Biography, p. 11. 4 Patent 1917004171, ‘Improvements in and Australian National University, http://adb. 24 Turnbull, Walter Burley Griffin: The architecture relating to structural components’, lodged with anu.edu.au/biography/moore-malcolm- of Newman College, pp. 316–17. the Commonwealth of Australia, Department stewart-11154/text19869, published first in 25 Peter Navaretti, information to the author, of Patents, 31 May 1917. hard copy 2000, viewed 25 September 2016. September 2016. 5 See Mati Maldre and Paul Kruty, Walter 13 W eirick, ‘Griffin and Knitlock’, p. 104. 26 For further information on the Griffins’ design Burley Griffin in America, Urbana: University Weirick incorrectly cites this as the foundry for the Capitol building, see Christopher of Illinois Press, 1996; Paul Kruty, Walter of Robinson Bros (founded 1854, over the Vernon, ‘Australia’s lost capitol’, Journal of Burley Griffin: Architectural models and ensuing decades expanded into general Architectural Education, vol. 70, no. 2, 2016, demolished buildings, Champaign: School of engineering, boiler-making, and brass, iron and pp. 284–99. Vernon however makes no Architecture, University of Illinois at Urbana steel foundry work, to become Melbourne’s reference to Pholiota or the other ziggurat- Champaign, 2003; and Paul Sprague, ‘Marion most important engineering firm). shaped internal volumes that make frequent Mahony as originator of Griffin’s mature style: 14 A dvertisement for the Shepparton Knitlock appearance in Griffin/Mahony commissions. Fact or myth?’ and Anna Rubbo, ‘Marion Syndicate, Goulburn Valley Stock and Property 27 Mar ion Mahony, quoted in ‘An ideal one-room Mahony: A larger than life presence’, in Anne Journal, 27 April 1921, p. 3. home’, The Sun, 1 August 1926. Watson (ed.), Beyond architecture: Marion 15 T urnbull and Navaretti (eds), The Griffins in 28 Courtesy Eric Milton Nicholls Collection, Mahony and Walter Burley Griffin: America, Australia and India, pp. 162–3. National Library of Australia. Australia and India, Sydney: Powerhouse 16 Auction notice, The old ‘Kendenup’ homestead, 29 Brent Carnell, ‘Towards a connected Publishing, 1998, pp. 26–39 and 40–55. Albany Advertiser, 21 June 1934, p. 8. curriculum in architectural education: 6 Walter Burley Griffin, ‘Segmental architecture: 17 See Richard Neutra, Wie baut Amerika?, Research-based education in practice’, in A system to simplify and cheapen building Stuttgart: Julius Hoffman, 1927, pp. 56–9. Curiosity, production, risk, participation: construction’, Australian Home Beautiful, 18 Miles Lewis, ‘Section 7.07 Knitlock’, in AAE2016, vol. 2, conference on research-based 1 September 1927, pp. 13–15, 62. Australian building: A cultural investigation, education, hosted by the Bartlett School of 7 James Weirick, ‘Griffin and Knitlock’,Content , p.7.07.1, www.mileslewis.net/australian- Architecture, University College London, no. 1, 1994, p. 104. building. 7–9 April 2016, pp. 416–26.

Philip Goad, ‘Pholiota unlocked’ 43