A HOME FOR EVERY TASTE: THE NSW SMALL HOMES SERVICE

摘要

The Small Homes Service instigated in Victoria by Robin Boyd and The Age newspaper in 1947 was not the first such plan service in Australia; the NSW Institute of Architects had operated a similar scheme in Sydney during 1926-1928. Proposed by the Chapter President Professor Alfred S Hook, the scheme was modelled on an example in Minnesota, US. Notes pasted into the Chapter minutes explain that the NSW Small House Plan Service was intended to provide 'plans for small houses which shall be architecturally correct, economically built, and correctly planned'. The Australian version of the service, Hook noted, was unlike American schemes: it was open to all architects and it wasn't just a money-making scheme, but a service to the community. Florence Taylor of Building Magazine, who in 1926 had promoted the extension of the service to country New South Wales, later demanded its closure. By February 1928 it was apparent to Taylor that the service had been instrumental in creating hardship. Homeowners did not see the need to hire an architect. Architects felt that the Institute was undercutting them and there were reports of resignations.