Saturday, August 26, 2023

What I've not heard

I've never heard anyone say 'I hate Art Deco'. I am very fond of the architectural style. 

This is a flat block in Middle Park. With its flat roof I suggest it very late art deco.


With a hipped roof, I think this one looks better and older. I think the roundabout below was where Mercedes driving famous cricketer the late Shane Warne was involved in an incident with a tram.Shane had forgotten to 'Give way to trams at all times'. 


This grabbed my attention as I passed by in the car. It is so heavily vegetated, it is almost invisible. But then I saw what was next door.


I returned by tram another day to take photos. Just wow. What a stunner, in Hawthorn Road, Caulfield. 


43 comments:

  1. I rather like Art Deco architecture. There were several beautiful buildings of that style where we lived down on the Sussex coast.
    That last house in your photo is certainly interesting.

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    1. JayCee, I can't say I've noticed any in England and perhaps Sussex is the place to go.

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  2. Art deco was and maybe still is an attractive architectural style. It speaks of modernity and confidence in the future. Sadly some of the confidence that produced that style has leaked away.

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  3. Coincidentally last night I did hear some one on TV saying that they hated art deco. On Bargain Hunt. Judging by their purchases their taste is in their feet (of perhaps at the point where their feet join their body).
    Thank you for going back to take the photo of what you rightly described as a stunner.

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  4. Very nice, but awfully low to the ground for a fellow who makes his home well above street level.

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    1. That's interesting and I guess you would see it as that. It was the style of time and southern Australia houses never needed to protect themselves from weather events and nor did they have basements. Now the houses are just built on a concrete slab on the ground.

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  5. I had lived or rented in many art deco houses in the lifetime. Despite the good facade and style, there is usually a mould smell associated with the houses in this era.

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    1. Roentare, nice facades, probably nice front rooms but it goes downhill as you head to the rear.

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    2. Interesting! I would never have guessed this disappointing feature.

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  6. The agatha Christie detective Hercule poirot was portrayed as living in a real life art deco, famous apartment block in London. But I doubt if he liked the facade, being a devote of straight lines and neat angles.

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    1. Boud, I've not seen the front of his London block. It was stunning inside.He was such a fusspot.

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  7. We looked at a flat in such a block way back when we were young and starting out. I loved it but our budget didn't. I am so glad they haven't all been demolished although I do find it sad that so many are overshadowed by highrise monstrosities.

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    1. Caro, maybe you were saved from something. No such high rise monstrosities in the protected suburbs of Caulfield and Middle Park.

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  8. I loved Victorian architecture, then Edwardian architecture marginally less so. But both were very derivative from earlier homes and pubs etc. Deco was totally new, cleaner, with less added decoration and more suited to the modern, inter-war decades. WW2 ended all that :(

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    1. Hels, and post war followed Moderne? I don't think so actually.

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  9. Stalker
    Andrew you are just flirting with me now! You know they are my weakness! I love art deco.

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    1. Stalker, so you must rather like these buildings.

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  10. I quite like art deco, but sometimes the houses are so small and pokey, they need a decent amount of interior space to really look good. There's a nice one in our real estate pages today, in Millswood.

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    1. River, as they were, they are totally impractical but can be sympathetically modernised. Basically keep the old frontage and front rooms and start again at the back.

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  11. Rather admire Art Deco. The last house is nice.

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  12. I like all your examples of art deco at least.

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  13. I didn't know what Art Deco was. Learnt something new. Thank you. :-)

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    1. Pradeep, thinking about your country's history at the time, I am not surprised.

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  14. For 9 years I lived outside Napier, the Art Deco capital of New Zealand and probably the Southern Hemisphere. There is something absolutely compelling in it as an architectural style.

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    1. Wow Graham. I know well of Napier and we were supposed to visit on a cruise ship in 2019 but the Christchurch massacre put paid to that.

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    2. I hope that you eventually get to see Napier. When you do please say 'Hello' from me.

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  15. I like the clean lines of Art Deco. You don't see huge estates of it, either.

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    1. JB, that's interesting and no you don't see estates of that style.

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  16. I'm with you -- I love Art Deco, and those are excellent examples!

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  17. I love boxy designs. The flat roofs can be a challenge in some climates.

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    1. Not in Australia TP, but yes, they would not deal with heavy layers of snow and ice.

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  18. I loved them in Toronto and there is one downtown here which I must photograph. Love what you have captured here.
    XO
    WWW

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    1. WWW, I be interested to see your local one. Thanks.

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  19. That last house photo, that's quite the place!

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    1. It is Strayer and probably very nicely renovated inside, and I would think extended.

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  20. I love everything Art Deco and never pass up the chance to shoot a cool Deco building. I like that first one that you showed.

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    1. Pat, to me the first one is not as eye catching but rather interesting.

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