Art Deco Architecture Down Under Quiz

Answer: Rough natural edges

The Art Deco style takes its name from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs, which was hosted by Paris in 1925 as a vehicle for modernity. Some state that Art Deco did not merit its own category as it was an amalgam of different styles which were at times at odds with each other. With a single unifier of the need to appear modern, Art Deco was influenced by geometric forms of Cubism and the bright colors of Fauvism. The concept included examples of the art from Maya civilisations as well as art from China, Japan, India, Persia, and ancient Egypt.

Art Deco architecture can be defined as rectangular forms arranged in a geometric fashion, offset by curved ornamental elements in a monolithic appearance with applied decorative motifs.

Popular Art Deco building materials included stucco, concrete, smooth stone, and Terracotta. Metals such as steel and aluminum were juxtaposed with glass blocks and opaque plate glass, the latter often ornately decorated. Roofs were flat to enhance the monolithic appearance, but were further enhanced by parapets, spires, towers, and chimneys to highlight corners or entrances. Windows were either square or round, with streamlined appearances and were often arranged in continuous horizontal bands of glass. Many larger apartment buildings were embossed with spandrel panels placed below windows. Doorways and entrances were always featured and were often surrounded with elaborate decorations. Door surrounds were often embellished with either reeding (convex decoration) or fluting (concave decoration).

(The photo depicts a tie featuring Art Deco designs by Frank Lloyd Wright, perhaps the greatest Art Deco architect of all time. The tie was purchased at Fallingwater, arguably the greatest Art Deco building of all time, and certainly the most famous of Mr Lloyd Wright's Art Deco designs.)

Answer: Department Store

Before the advent of suburban shopping malls and complexes and the revitalisation of the city centre shopping precinct in 1982, Fortitude Valley (shortened to the "Valley" by locals) was the main shopping district in Brisbane. This was concentrated on the intersecting Wickham and Brunswick Streets. On one corner was the main department store, McWhirters, which was originally built in 1899, but it increased in size over four stages with the magnificent Art Deco facade being added in 1931.

The store was sold to the Myer group of retail companies in 1955.

The Valley shopping precinct declined in the 1970s and 80s. When Myer moved out, the era of the Fortitude Valley shopping precinct was over. In 1989, the department store was broken up into smaller retail establishments and renamed the McWhirters Marketplace.

In 1997 the upper levels were revamped into residential apartments, which sold well as the Valley had re-invented itself as the Live Music Centre of Brisbane. In all this time the Art Deco exterior, and especially the facade, has been kept in pristine condition.

Answer: University

The Forgan Smith Building is the main building in a series of buildings that form a circle surrounding the University of Queensland's Great Court, the focal point of contemporary student life at the university. The foundation stone was laid in 1937. The building is made from sandstone and is designed in the Art Deco style replete with Art Deco typical friezes carved into the sandstone depicting Brisbane history.

The building was named after William Forgan Smith, Queensland Premier at the time, who had a great belief in getting his state out of a depression by building massive public works which were mostly based on Art Deco architecture.

Answer: Maritime Services Board

In 1935 the Maritime Services Board was located where the new Circular Quay railway station was proposed to be built. Plans were drawn in the Art Deco style for the new building to be located adjacent to the proposed railway station. The plans were approved by the NSW government who was going to construct the station in the Art Deco style as well. WWII interrupted the plans, but the Maritime Services Board was started in 1947 and completed in 1950. Ironically the railway station was not completed until 1956. While its exterior retained some Art Deco elements, such as window treatments and external decoration, it was not an Art Deco Building.

The MSB building had little external embellishment typical of the style, but the entry foyer was the epitome of Art Deco embellishment. In 1984, MSB relocated again and the building became the Museum of Contemporary Art in 1990.

Answer: The garage doors

The Art Deco period in architecture lasted from approximately 1925-1940. After WWII ended in 1945, there was a need for functionalism over opulence for houses. In the absence of anything new in architectural design, however, elements of Art Deco prevailed in Australia.

This house, built in 1949, had curved verandahs, a typically flat roof, and an opulent entrance - all typical of Art Deco. The lack of ornamentation and symmetry, however, shows elements of the new modern era, but the giveaway is the garage. Accommodation for cars was unusual in inter-war Australia, as few could afford them and, if they were part of a household, any accommodation for same would have been in a separate structure in the backyard.

The garage in the picture looks to be an integral part of the house design and those garage doors are typical of the 1950s era when garages were starting to become integrated into house design.

Answer: War memorial

War memorials, whilst not unique to Australia, are certainly synonymous with that country. Australia became a nation in 1901 and the First World War was the first time the country had branded its identity on the world (Australia did send troops to the Boer War in South Africa in 1902 but the scale was much much smaller). Australia was proud of its young adults that fought the war, and soon after the war finished, each town nearly always erected a memorial for those who fought and served, not just for the fallen.

The memorials were usually based on classic architecture, with Greek-like columns with either a cross or digger in uniform on top of the plinth. Most were built soon after 1918. The pictured memorial, in Albury in NSW, is unusual in a few ways, but the most obvious is that it is based on Art Deco principles.

It was built later than other WWI memorials, in 1925, and as such, is probably one of the first Art Deco structures built in Australia. Its height of 100 feet is also much higher than the usual 10-20 feet and its position.

In this case it is on a hill in a park at the end of the main street.

Answer: Most of the town had to be rebuilt after a 1931 earthquake

In February 1931, an earthquake leveled Napier and the adjacent town of Hastings. The town was rebuilt in the contemporary style, which was Art Deco, and whilst some buildings were demolished in the 60s and 70s to be replaced with modern buildings, enough remained for Napier to preserve the remaining Art Deco buildings.

They have become quite the tourist attraction, with many tourist operators conducting tours in cars of the era and clothing to match! Along with Miami Beach in Florida, these two locations are seen to be the two best-preserved Art Deco towns in the world.

Answer: False

Whilst Art Deco architecture is beautiful in its own right, it also needs to be considered in the context of the larger environment. Australian country towns are typically full of low/one story structures with wide verandahs and long sloping corrugated eaves, coloured in the browns and greens of the close-by flora.

The embodiment of functional architecture with little or no ornamentation, they stand in sharp contrast to the bold angular colourful statements made by Art Deco buildings. The pictured building in Henty, a tiny town between Albury and Wagga Wagga in NSW, is a tourist attraction in its own right - mainly because of its stark difference to the properties surrounding it.

Answer: Airport control tower

Archerfield was the main airport in Brisbane until the end of WWII, including the main airport for the US Air Force during the Pacific War. After the war the two major airlines, Trans-Australia Airlines and Ansett ANA, relocated to the other airport at Eagle Farm, six kilometres northeast of the city, where it went on to become the third biggest airport in the country.

In the 21st century, Archerfield maintains a role as the main airport for general aviation. Befitting its status as a major airport in 1940, a terminal building was built in 1940 in the Art Deco style.

The crowning achievement was a control tower perched on top of the building. A separate control tower was built in 1980 and the tower on the terminal was dismantled, leaving a terminal building lacking the beauty its predecessor afforded and is somewhat befitting of what is now a secondary airport.

Answer: Windows to an apartment above the bridge

The Walter Taylor Bridge is a suspension bridge that crosses the Brisbane River. Built in the Art Deco style with classic lines, nevertheless, there is a notable absence of embellishment ornamentation on its exterior. Building was commenced in 1930; the bridge opened in 1936 and was known as the Indooroopilly Toll Bridge.

The toll master lived in an apartment in the north turret pictured and, although the toll was dropped in the sixties, the toll master's family was allowed to occupy the apartment (rent free) until the last member died in 2010.

When occupied, this was the only habitable bridge in the Southern Hemisphere. The bridge was named the Walter Taylor Bridge in 1956 after a local resident named Walter Taylor put forward a proposal for a motor traffic and pedestrian bridge to run alongside the existing Indooroopilly Railway Bridge in 1928. The second picture shows the Hornibrook Bridge, which is a 2.6 km road bridge that stretched across the northern outskirts of Brisbane to the Redcliffe Peninsula.

It was built between 1932 and 1935 as a public works response to stimulating the economy during the Great Depression (This is why so many public Art Deco buildings were built - Art Deco period was prevalent during the Great Depression and many governments including Queensland thought they could end the depression through increasing public works). The Hornibrook Bridge had strong Art Deco lines. It was a sad day when the bridge was closed in 1979 as a vehicular bridge, as it was considered unsafe. Traffic was diverted to a feature-less anonymous bridge built to run parallel to the Hornibrook. The bridge served pedestrians and cyclists until 2010, when it was dismantled, leaving the abutments on either end to serve as short piers.