On the Merits of Quaintness
The Cambridge Dictionary defines quaintness as “the quality of being attractive because of being unusual, and often old-fashioned”
I have a regular route to Thirroul that I ride my bicycle down that avoids Lawrence Hargrave and that some call the ‘rat run’, but I call the ‘get to the shops without breathing car exhausts or being sidelined by hoons run’. Most of you locals on the North side of Thirroul would know this route. Even this route is getting tricky to negotiate as the weekend warriors descend upon our hood. Not so bad on a bike where you can skip down the sides of banked up traffic. My e-bike has been a game changer and I now have a trailer attachment to carry groceries, kids, etc. Whilst visitors to our village might have to drive here, many of us miss out on the great opportunity to ride around because they think there are too many hills - not on an ebike, I say! Sorry for the digress, but I just want all of you to consider this remarkable new form of sustainable transport!
Anyhow, the route takes me along Redman Avenue and at a pleasant 20 km/h, it give me time to admire some of the older style houses of the area. There are two in particular that I would like to sing some praise for, but first I must give some background to the title of this article. The Cambridge Dictionary defines quaintness as “the quality of being attractive because of being unusual, and often old-fashioned”. Many architects don’t dig on quaintness. A well known mid-century Melbourne architect named Robin Boyd wrote a whole book, “The Australian Ugliness”, that derided the Australian suburbs as unsympathetic to the landscape and obsessed with “featurism” (fixation on parts rather than the whole). Whilst for a large part I agree with Boyd’s assessment when it comes to some of our modern suburban brick veneerial developments, there are certain building types that I have a particular fondness for. One of these is the fibro beach cottage.
Call it nostalgia, but there is something about these utilitarian mid-century homes that appeals to the eye of my beholder (so to speak). I believe quaintness is the most apt adjective to describe the attraction. As an architect, I certainly wouldn’t design one of these back into existence. They might be quaint, but anyone who has stayed in one of these homes would know that they are generally freezing cold in Winter and bakingly hot in Summer, not to mention covered in toxic asbestos sheet! They do however speak of a town that didn’t have million dollar budgets. A small coastal community transitioning from fishing and coal mining into tourism and hospitality.
Unfortunately, due to their large flat blocks, they are quickly becoming an extinct species. Thanks to our very buoyant property market and a limited amount of area to develop between the escarpment and the Sea, it is likely these houses are not long for the bulldozers to make way for some less than quaint duplexes. Their loss is symptomatic of the changing nature of the Northern suburbs. As I ride passed these little beauties, I do hold a fear that the Illawarra Northern suburbs might go the way of the Pittwater Northern Suburbs where many a million dollar home is only occupied 2 weeks in a year facilitating the holidays of a wealthy few. A walk around the suburb of Whale Beach anytime outside of holiday season will attest to a population consisting mainly of garden maintenance workers and house cleaners.
Whilst I will lament the loss of quaintness of the Northern Illawarra, or furthermore the gentrification of beachside suburbs generally, I can only hope that in amongst the new developments coming on board, a new fibro beach cottage type may come into existence. There is evidence of a new type being generated by some excellent local architects and designers. One example of this sits across the road from Sharkey’s beach. Designed by Morgen Figgis of Barnacle Studio, here is the fibro beach cottage reimagined. Another great use of fibro panels is Studio Takt’s Blade House, also in Coledale. I can only hope that when the next generation are riding their e-bikes about our neck of the woods that if the quaintness of the mid-century beach cottage is gone then it might be replaced with some exemplary 21st Century architectural wonders and that they are lived in all year round!
http://www.barnaclestudio.com.au/SHARKY-HOUSE
https://www.takt.net.au/work-1#/blade-house-1/
The quaint fibro cottage is in danger of being replaced by not so quaint duplexes.