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Emil Sodersten's Works:
Sydney born, Emil Lawrence Sodersten (born Sodersteen) was the second of seven children born to Swedish master mariner Emil Gustavus Sodersteen and his Australian wife Julia. Emil changed his surname to Sodersten in the Post WWII era. For clarity, the later spelling is adopted.
Sodersten began his studies at Sydney Technical College in 1915, working part time with the architectural practice of H.E. Ross & Rowe. In 1921, he attended Leslie Wilkinson’s lectures at the University of Sydney. Following a brief period in Queensland where, with the firm F.R. Hall & Prentice, he helped design the City Hall, Sodersten worked for John P. Tate & Young on office buildings in Sydney. Two years following his registration as an architect (1923), Sodersten established his own office where he also executed presentation drawings for other architects (1925). Together with John Crust, he designed the Australian War Memorial in Canberra; he resigned, however, before the building was completed. By the mid 1930s, having designed a number of buildings in the City, including Wall House in Loftus Street and Trenton House and Tudor House in Phillip Street, Sodersten’s reputation was well established. During the period leading up to the outbreak of World War II, he came to be considered among the leading Sydney architects working in the Art Deco Style.
The French decorative styles later termed Art Deco and Moderne entered Australia, mostly via the United State of America (as opposed to Europe) in the late 1920s. Art Deco, a term coined as an abbreviation for ‘art decoratif’, belonged to the pro-decoration design idiom. In its original (Parisian) state, Art Deco was a full-blooded coherent decorative style, one of splendour and luxury that utilised series of stylised motifs, zigzags and curvaceous geometry. Developed during the 1920s, Art Deco (USA) was considered to be a ‘bastardised version’ of the European style and tended to utilise less surface decoration than its French counterpart.
Art Deco reflected the aspiration of the era. Caught between two world wars and a depression, the late 1920s and early 1930s represent a brief period during which new styles were presented to a public that was: "seeking newness, perhaps a rebirth, as it climbed back to what was hoped would be an even footing, with everyone being able to participate in the country’s economy" (Thorne, R., and K. Cork, 1994: 9). Art Deco celebrated the exciting, dynamic aspects of the post WWI machine age, unashamedly making a ‘direct assault’ on the emotions by the use of vivid, purely decorative elements. Eye catching materials and finishes, such as chrome, veneer and opaque glass, found favour: "Straight lines- often three in parallel- were used horizontally, vertically and diagonally in conjunction with geometric curves. Low relief sculpture was popular: it was heavily stylised and tended to be rather naively symbolic of speed, power, industry and progress" (Apperley, R., et al, 1989: 188). The popularity of Art Deco for movie theatre design did much to popularise the style in the Australian imagination.
The first phase of Art Deco (USA) was geometrical and angular and: "derived its visual vocabulary from the exposition and reflected ‘the dominance of the triangle and "T"-square couple with stylised classic derived ornaments" (van Daele, P., and R. Lumby, 1997: 17). Commercial buildings were graced with strongly modelled vertical fins, giving a stepped skyline or silhouette. By these means, buildings were given a strong suggestion of arrested vertical and/or horizontal motion. Fully resolved Art Deco buildings began to appear in Sydney around 1933 as the worst effects of the Great Depression eased and just before the second phase of Art Deco design appeared: the curvilinear and streamline phase.
By the mid 1930s, Sydney architects practicing in the Art Deco Style had turned more towards German expressionist architecture, and the ‘streamlined’ functional shapes developed by industrial designers, and away from the predominantly Art Nouveau influences of the pre WWI era. A distinctive characteristic of Interwar era architecture in Sydney was the continual refinement and reduction in decoration, revealing simple masses punctuated by fenestration. Between 1931 and 1935, Sodersten explored the ‘dramatic potential’ of the modern form: "His work demonstrates a mastery of composition and carefully worked detail that was a direct legacy of his Beaux Arts training. From 1931 to 1935 he designed a range of buildings where, in a play raking brick fans, vertical ribs, texture and pattern, he manipulated the decorative potential of this material" (Stapleton, M., 2001: 181).
During the Interwar period steel framed structures were typically clad with brick for fire rating purposes. The Royal Exchange Assurance Building (1937) was the first glass façade building in Sydney; the trend was not, however, readily adopted until the Post WWII era. Inspired by the intricately patterned brickwork of contemporary Dutch and German Schools and architects such as Van der Maey, Dudock and De Klerk, whose work was often illustrated in the journal "Building", fine brickwork was considered to be a signatory feature of Sodersten’s work: "delightful essays in brick, a material which he handles in masterly fashion. In his love of this versatile medium, Emil Sodersten is a worthy successor to the late Horbury Hunt" (Sodersten, E., 1934: 92); "(it) must have influenced the red-brick virtuosity of Sodersten’s apartment blocks and the complex geometry of his building fabric" (Stapleton, M., 2001: 179).
Sodersten was also noted for his use of colour. A 1934 review, for example, stated that: "All Sodersten's work is colourful" (Stapleton, M., 2001: 91). Of the use of colour, he had reputedly remarked in 1930 that: "We are understanding colour a little better, especially now that synthetic stone- or as craftsmen prefer to call it, pre-cast stone- is making better results possible...the judicious use of colour could do a great deal to enhance the outside appearance of a house, just as much as the inside" (Cooper, N., 1930: 9).
Sodersten’s buildings often incorporated innovative features. Birtley Towers (1934), containing fifty-four flats over nine floors, was one of the first (and the largest) residential apartment block to be built in Sydney as the Depression eased; his extension to the Australia Hotel included innovative mechanical ventilation for bathrooms, thereby allowing the living areas to maximum window areas; and the City Mutual Building was one of the first buildings in Sydney to include fully ducted air conditioning and automatically controlled lifts.
Sodersten’s interiors were as carefully worked and detailed as his exteriors, the best known examples being the City Mutual Building and the now demolished interior of the Australia Hotel (1936). Interior designer Marion Hall Best, however, executed the interiors of No. 7 Elizabeth Street; these interiors were Hall Best’s first major commission.
Of all his varied work (including city buildings, theatres, hotels, factories and private residences), Sodersten was particularly recognised by his contemporaries for his success in the ‘field of flat buildings’. In 1934, Art in Australia described his most recent designs as: "delightful essays in brickwork, a material which he handles in masterly fashion . In his love of this versatile medium, Emil Sodersten is a worthy successor to the late Horbury Hunt. ...These fine modern piles of flats were surely bold challengers to the many thoughtless and shoddy buildings of this type that unfortunately already exist to spoil our skyline. ...Some architects sign their buildings, but Emil Sodersten need never bother for, like paintings by Orpen or Brangwyn, they are so personal that every touch is Sodersten and no one else. ...For so young a man- and he has but reached his very early thirties- to have produced so colourful and fascinating a style is really remarkable; particularly when it is realised that it has been evolved solely in Australia without the influence from contemporary architecture overseas, for Sodersten has not yet been abroad" (Sodersten, 1934: 91).
Sodersten’s designs appeared regularly in popular publications. Of his work in the 1930s Maisy Stapleton states: "In the early 1930s Sodersten was exploring the qualities of modern material and the dramatic potential of modern form. His work demonstrates a mastery of composition and carefully worked detail...from 1931 to 1935 he designed a range of brick buildings where, in a play of raking brick fans, vertical ribs, texture and pattern, he manipulated the decorative potential of this material. Sodersten...buildings encapsulate the changing direction of Australian architecture in the Interwar years" (Stapleton, M., 2001: 179-81).
In 1935, Sodersten went abroad where he discovered the work of European architects working in the Functionalist or Moderne Style; his work altered on his return to Sydney, as exemplified by Marlborough Hall (1938) and Elizabeth House (1939). Rather than adopting the rendered walls often associated with the moderne style, Sodersten continued to use brickwork, particularly texture brick, with ‘forthright horizontal and vertical forms’, a combination that would prove influential in Sydney. Sodersten designed two bachelor flat complexes on his return to Sydney, being Marlborough Hall and Seven Elizabeth Street.
While Sodersten continued to work until the 1960s, his final work is considered to be "less innovative"; his "new approach seems to lack the vigorous individuality of his Art Deco work", which "exemplifies the pursuit of modern internationalism in Australia and acceptance of radical new forms" (Stapleton, 2001: 179-81).
Buildings in Sydney designed by Emil Sodersten between 1920 and 1950 include:
c.1920 Gwydir Flats (now Wilkinson House), Forbes Street, Darlinghurst(local heritage listing)
1925 Kingsley Hall, 14-18 Darlinghurst Road, Kings Cross
1928 The Broadway, 285 O’Sullivan Road, Bellevue Hills(local heritage listing)
(Before) 1933 Tudor House, 127 Phillip Street
1930 Cheddington Apartments, 63 Elizabeth Bay Road, Elizabeth Bay
1930 Twenty Apartments, 20 Macleay Street
1931 St. Bede’s Church, Church and College Street, Drummoyne
1934 Birtley Towers, Birtley Place, Elizabeth Bay(local heritage listing)
1934 Wychbury, 5 Manning Street, Potts Point(local heritage listing)
1934 Werrington Apartments, 85 Macleay Street, Potts Point
1934-6 City Mutual Life Building, corner Hunter and Bligh Streets(local heritage listing)
1936-8 Former Bryant House, 80-82 Pitt Street (with T.W. Hodgeson and Sons (local heritage listing)
1938 Belvedere, former Marlborough Hall, 2 Barncluth Square, KingsCross (local heritage listing)
1928 7 Elizabeth Street Apartments, Sydney
1939 Elizabeth House, Elizabeth and Foster Streets, SurryHills
1949 Reid Building Accommodation Block, St. Johns College, Carillon Avenue, University of Sydney
Inter-War Residential Flat Buildings in Sydney:
Residential flat buildings emerged in Europe and America in the mid to late nineteenth century. Directly challenging the cherished suburban ideal of detached houses with gardens, residential flat buildings were initially slow to take hold in Sydney following the construction of the first purpose built residential flat building in 1905. The number of flat buildings increased dramatically during the 1920s before being temporarily halted by the onset of the Great Depression. The revival of flat building in the mid 1930s was regarded as a sign by contemporary observers of a return to better times. In May 1935, the Sydney Morning Herald remarked that the procession of builders who were buying land for the erection of flats had no trouble selling their product, often long before they were completed.
Sydney’s first precinct of inner city flat buildings was located in and around Macquarie Street, developing from c.1900 and reaching its peak with Esplin and Mould’s The Astor, in 1923. Early residential flats were converted office buildings. The first purpose built mansion flats in Sydney was The Albany (1905), a seven storey building which once stood opposite Parliament House (now demolished). The Albany combined dwellings with professional chambers and was home to a prestigious clientele. The Albany was followed by Craignish (Macquarie Street, 1907), Stathkyle (Bligh Street, 1909), Wyoming (Macquarie Street, 1911) and the Temperance and General Insurance Company Building (Macquarie Street, 1915). Wyoming is the sole survivor from this period. These early buildings followed commercial architecture with their heavily rusticated stone bases, brickwork, narrow arched windows and Roman arches. By the early 1920s, the Palazzo style had become more favoured for commercial buildings, a trend also evident in the design of The Astor.
The number of residential flat buildings in Sydney increased dramatically during the 1920s. Within the City of Sydney, Kings Cross, Darlinghurst, Potts Point and Elizabeth Bay were favoured locations. A number of examples from these areas are listed as heritage items by the City of Sydney. While flat building increased in the inner suburbs, few major apartment buildings were built in the CBD after The Astor (1923). City land was in too much demand for retail and business purposes: "In fact, apartment development was priced out of the city, along with workers; housing" (Butler-Bowden, C., and C. Pickett, 2007: 46).
On the subject of small bachelor flats, Decoration and Glass commented in 1938 that: "Small flats, known generally as ‘bachelor flats’, and slighter later than ‘minimum flats’, are very popular in England and on the Continent, and are fast becoming the vogue here in Australia" (Butler-Bowden, C., and C. Pickett, 2007: 90).
In an article in Decoration and Glass in June 1940, Number Seven Elizabeth Street was discussed alongside the nearly completed Marton Hall. These two building were described as achieving the ‘ultimate in bachelor flats.’ Marton Hall, which once stood in Margaret Street, has been demolished. As with Number Seven Elizabeth Street, Marton Hall was promoted by means of a colourful brochure (copy held by the National Library of Australia).
Residential flat construction provoked a wide variety of responses. The Australian National Journal of 1939 championed flat buildings as evidence of Sydney’s increased sophistication. A greater number of flats were built in Sydney between 1933 and 1941 than in Melbourne, Sydney's great rival, Melbourne (Butler-Bowden, C., and C. Pickett, 2007: 72-73). Rampant flat building, however, was not without its critics. This form of residential accommodation stood in direct contrast to the ideal of detached houses in suburbia that had been steadfastly promoted since 1900. The construction of flats in Sydney was opposed by both major political parties, the UAP and Labour, and by many local councils, who typically cited traffic increase (and hence the destruction of tranquillity) and the unsuitability of the flat environment for the raising of a family. Flats built before 1940 were built without regulation via specific controls. Owners, for example, were not required to provide open space on-site. Inevitably, not all were built to a high standard. One contemporary critic went so far as to describe flats as ‘immoral’, ‘horrid growths’ (van Daele, P., and R. Lumby, 1997: 52). Despite such opposition, flat construction comprised 41 % of all dwellings built in Sydney between 1933 and 1941. Over 500 flats were constructed annually between 1935 and 1941 (Spearritt, P., 1978: 72).
Few purpose built residential flat buildings were constructed in Central Sydney during the interwar period. Contemporary literature (Building, The Home, Decoration and Glass etc.), the RAIA Twentieth Century Register, the NSW Art Deco Society and the recent publication "Homes in the Sky: Apartment Living in Australia" cite the following:
1915, T & G Building (demolished)
1923, The Astor (local heritage listing)
1938, 7 Elizabeth Street Apartments (not listed)
c.1940, Marton Hall (demolished)
There would appear to have been a small number of primarily commercial buildings designed to include some residential accommodation. Hengrove Hall in Macquarie Street, for example, designed for occupation by medical professionals, was described in Building, 13 May, 1929 as follows: "In the other floors the space is cut up into suites consisting of one fair sized room with bathroom and kitchenette, a bachelor type of flat popular amongst quite nice people at the present time" (‘Building’, 13/05/1929: 50).
Marion Hall Best:
Marion Hall Best (1905-1988) was one of Australia's preeminent interior designers during the twentieth century. Her first interior design was for her mother's home at Palm Beach in 1929. in 1938 she undertook a correspondence course in interior design from New York and attended lectures at the University of Sydney. In the same year she opened her business in Queen Street Woollahra (Marion Best Pty Ltd), followed by a shop in the city in Rowe Street.
Marion Best's entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography notes that the interior design of 7 Elizabeth Street was the most important amongst her first commissions. Early commissions also included the Lady Gowrie Child Care Centre in Erskineville (1941), the Rachel Forster Hospital for Women and Children in Redfern (1942 - a heritage item under South Sydney LEP 1998), and an exhibition for the Australian Red Cross Society. Following World War II, Marion Best was in charge of the David Jones Art Gallery and co-founded the Society of Interior Designers of Australia in 1951. One of her largest commercial commissions was for the Regent Theatre in Wollongong in 1957, and it is apparently the last surviving example of one of her major commercial commissions.
Her cutting edge use of colours and sourcing of up to date fabric and furnishings from overseas designers were hallmarks of her work, and along with frequent coverage in magazines, exposed her style to a wide audience. The Historic Houses Trust of NSW maintains a collection of Marions Hall's work and contemporary publications. In 2005, the Regent Theatre in Wollongong was listed on the State Heritage Register, largely due to the significance of the surviving Marion Hall Best interior.
Conclusions:
Interwar residential buildings are rare within the CBD. The near contemporary example, Marton Hall, has been demolished. The two pre World War II residential flat buildings currently heritage listed within the CBD, Wyoming (1911) and The Astor (1923), are representative of different architectural styles.
Emil Sodersten is an important and influential figure in the design of Sydney residential flat buildings in the 1920s and 1930s. He designed a number of residential flat buildings now listed as heritage items by the City of Sydney, mostly located in Kings Cross and Elizabeth Bay. His work is represented by two listed buildings, both commercial buildings, within the CBD: Bryant House and the CML Building. Both are, arguably, more complex and dynamic buildings. In contrast to these two buildings, 7 Elizabeth Street represents a more progressive version of Modernism as a result of Sodersten's 1935 voyage to Europe, leaving behind Art Deco for a more pure aesthetic. As a result it is less imposing and complex than the contemporary Marlborough Hall (1938) or Birtley Towers (1934).
7 Elizabeth Street is also an early work of influential Sydney designer Marion Hall Best (extent of fabric associated with her unknown). |