Modern Architecture Research Society (MARS) in Sydney

Modern Architecture Research Society (MARS) in Sydney

Michael Bogle

Abstract

The 1937 organisation of Sydney’s Modern Architecture Research Society (MARS) followed the example of the 1933 founding of the British MARS by stressing the role of the social sciences in the development of modern architecture. The principal founders of the Australian MARS group, Arthur Baldwinson, K. P. Goble, Walter Bunning and Morton Herman were living and working in Britain during the 1930s. The NSW organisation distributed a controversial newsletter ANGLE, participated in wireless talks, published a prescriptive booklet The Post-War Home promoting modernism in town planning and architecture and besieged the conservative New South Wales Chapter of the RAIA until activist MARS members began to dominate the Chapter’s prestigious Sulman Award juries.

In early 1938, a group of Sydney’s modernist architects including the architect (and historian) Morton Herman as Chair, Walter Bunning as Secretary and Kenneth Goble, Eric Andrew and Arthur Baldwinson as Extraordinary Members met to establish an independent Modern Architecture Research Society (MARS) in Australia.[1]

     The Sydney MARS mission was ambitious. It called for “The furtherance of the Modern Movement in Architecture and the Allied Arts. […] Amongst our efforts are lectures, articles, radio talks, exhibitions and hypothetical designs. We feel that these modest achievements will have justified our formation if they have created even the slightest public interest in our ideals and helped to bring the profession back to its rightful position amongst the leaders of contemporary thought and public affairs.”[2]

     As the organization progressed, the three formal aims of the Sydney MARS were intended to advance the cause of modernist architecture. The goals published in their journal ANGLE were to:

·      Study the aesthetic, structural and sociological problems of the community;

·      Coordinate the ideas and activities to formulate means of solving these problems;

·      Present solutions to such problems in a concrete and visible form.[3]

    The introduction of the concept of employing the social sciences to shape the form and function of architecture was one of MARS’ major contributions to the early Australian modernist architectural debate. Their statement of sociological principles was closely aligned to the 1933 British MARS manifesto and the Sydney programme parallels many of the developments in the UK’s “Good Design” movement of the 1930s.

     Morton Herman, like most of the Sydney MARS founders, had been in Britain (UK 1930-36) in the 1930s during the founding of the British MARS.[4]  Baldwinson (UK 1932-1937) and Bunning (UK 1937-1938) had also been resident in London when Wells Coates, P. Morton Shand, Maxwell Fry [and others] established the group.[5] By 1939-40, Walter Bunning was elected President of MARS with Morton Herman as Vice-President and Greig Neave as Secretary. While the primary records supporting the history of the Modern Architecture Research Society (MARS) in Australia are incomplete (no minutes located to date), their publication ANGLE states that the MARS organization was officially formed in Sydney in March 1938.[6]

     Based on a Greg Holman interview in 1980 with former MARS member Sydney Hirst, the Sydney MARS group soon included other architects such as Hirst, Osmond Jarvis, Harry Mack, Hardy Morphett, Gerard R. B. McDonell, Tom O’Mahony, Eric Thompson, Frank Turner[7] [8] and in 1939, the designer Jimmy James (R. Haughton James).[9]  Twelve members attended the first MARS meeting convened by the Organising Committee.[10] Expressing something of the views of the earlier British MARS group, Hirst explained to Holman that “…the profession needed a shake-up… to take part in the new and exciting developments that had been taking place in Europe.”[11] In Sydney, the emphasis was on youth and the “Younger Architect”.

TO THE YOUNGER ARCHITECT[12]

With a view to enlisting the interest of the younger man of the Profession in the position of the Architect in the community, and to enable him to make social contact with his fellow Architects,

A DINNER,

followed by a discussion on this and allied subjects will be held at the Horseshoe Café, Hoskins Place, City on Friday, 3^rd March.

The sponsors of this movement believe that such as body as M.A.R.S. in London can be a valuable adjunct to the bodies existing for the advancement of Architecture in this country, and desire to obtain the view of those who can attend.

Dinner 3/

Figure 1. Invitation to the “Younger Architect” from the MARS Organising Committee. Undated. Reproduced in Richard Apperly. “MARS.” Sydney Houses 1914-1939. Master of Architecture Thesis, UNSW, 1972. Vol. 2, pp.242-245.

THE BRITISH MODERN ARCHITECTURE RESEARCH SOCIETY (MARS)

The British MARS Group (1933-1957) was forming during Arthur Baldwinson’s first year in London. While his precise involvement in the British MARS is peripheral, Baldwinson had direct professional associations with many of its early members including Wells Coates (working out of Australian expatriate Raymond McGrath’s office during Baldwinson’s employment in the practise) and Maxwell Fry (Baldwinson’s London employer after 1934).

     One of The Architectural Review’s principal writers, P. (Paul) Morton Shand, was asked by the Swiss historian Sigfried Giedion, Secretary of the Congrès Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne (CIAM) to be Britain’s representative at CIAM. On 28 February 1933, a meeting in London of Wells Coates, Maxwell Fry, David Pleydell-Bouvierie, P. Morton Shand, H. de Cronin Hastings of The Architectural Review (AR) and John Gloag set out the principles of MARS. [13]  This account differs radically from Maxwell Fry’s version of the formation of MARS. In Fry’s version of the founding, Wells Coates, Shand and Maxwell Fry developed the MARS name and issued its first manifesto.[14]  The four principles of the British MARS were:

• To formulate contemporary architectural problems;
• To represent the modern architectural idea;
• To cause this idea to penetrate technical, economic and social circles and;
• To work toward the solution of the contemporary problems of architecture.[15] 

      Encouraged by Giedion and supported by the AR, the critic and writer Shand created MARS as an English variant of CIAM with Wells Coates as the Chair and F.R.S. Yorke as MARS Secretary. Shand’s professional colleague at the AR, John Betjeman, also became an early member. By 1936, there were 58 MARS members including Maxwell Fry, Amyas Connell, Basil Ward, Berthold Lubetkin, László Moholy-Nagy, Misha Black, Godfrey Samuel, John Gloag, David Pleydell-Bouvierie and H. de Cronin Hastings, the influential editor of The Architectural Review. A close study of the Baldwinson papers suggests although he was not a member of this elite international group while in England, he moved on its boundaries and immediately began to organise a MARS group on his return to Australia in 1937.

     The Sydney and London MARS favoured the formation of study groups, developed within the membership to investigate particular problems such as town planning or public housing. This was a high-minded strategy later imported by the Victorian variant of MARS, the Architectural Research Group (ARG) where Arthur Baldwinson also held membership in the 1940s. The British MARS group also hosted exhibitions illustrating the principles and ideals of modern architecture and design including two MARS exhibitions in 1934.  Greg Holmes’ 1980 study reports that Baldwinson played a role in a MARS exhibition in the New Burlington Galleries in London in 1936 as an employee of Gropius and Fry.[16] [17] At present, the Baldwinson papers do not support this MARS exhibition design role.

     A year previously, however, Baldwinson was involved in 1935 design work for Raymond McGrath on the Daily Mail’s “Ideal Homes” annual exposition. The “Ideal Homes” exhibition would have brought him into contact with Morton Herman, the Sydney University architecture graduate who arrived in Britain on scholarships from the NSW Board of Architects and Australian shipping lines (known as the “Steamship Scholarship”). Herman worked on the Daily Mail’s “Ideal Homes” 1935 exhibition with the British architect Robert Atkinson who played a major role in architectural education at the Architectural Association (AA), London (initially Headmaster, later Director of Education from 1913-29).[18]

MARS & THE NSW ROYAL AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS

J.M. Freeland, the official historian of the RAIA, records that MARS members “…raised a deal of apprehension amongst the establishment of the NSW Institute of Architects (later RAIA).” He explains that MARS “in 1940 … ran a ticket for the NSW Chapter elections and obtained all the seats available to Associates.” […] The group was accused of wanting to capture the Chapter and even the RAIA Council…”[19] Alfred Hook (1886-1963), a major figure in the NSW Chapter, was one of the MARS group’s chief antagonists. Hook had been elected the first president of the Institute of Architects (later RAIA Chapter) in 1929 and was fiercely protective of the association.

     Freeland notes that Hook denounced the collective MARS group as “subversive and destructive”.[20] One of Hook’s principal targets would have been the MARS president, Walter Bunning, an executive officer in the Commonwealth Housing Commission during wartime. RAIA President Hook had offered the services of the RAIA to the Commonwealth during the 1939-45 War, but according to Freeland’s account, Hook’s offers were rebuffed by a “small group of [un-named] architects” that in all likelihood included Bunning.[21] Bunning was a key figure in the Commonwealth Housing Commission and later wrote the 1944 Commission’s report on Australian housing and the issue of post-war shortages.

STEPHENSON & TURNER

MARS affairs had a small role within the Stephenson & Turner Sydney offices. Baldwinson, who had started with Stephenson & Meldrum (later Turner) in Melbourne in February 1937, transferred to their Sydney office in August of the same year.  In their Sydney office, he met the West Australian designer and illustrator John Oldham who was working on the Australian Pavilion Project for the 1939 World’s Fair in New York. Oldham had attended at the University of Melbourne’s Architecture Atelier (1929-30) when Baldwinson was at The Gordon, Geelong.[22]

     While working with Stephenson & Turner, Baldwinson and Oldham formed a brief Oldham & Baldwinson partnership in 1938 for a unique venture called the “South Coast Housing Project”. Widespread unemployment in New South Wales meant that workers were drawn to the South Coast by the rapid expansion of the BHP Steelworks and the Port Kembla Copper smelter. A housing crisis soon resulted.

     The local Council was completely unprepared for this sudden increase in population; tent camps were soon erected with widespread illegal squatting on Crown Land. There was local discontent and fear of violence. To address the housing shortage, the NSW Government quickly built two tent cities (Figure 2.) quickly tagged by the local press as “Spoonervilles” after the unpopular Minister for Local Government Eric Spooner (1891-1952). [23]

     Their proposal was to design a range of affordable timber houses (£200 – £320) to meet the desperate need for housing in the Wollongong/Port Kembla area. The houses conceptualised by Oldham & Baldwinson appear somewhat conventional by European modernist criteria but featured flexible plans that allowed “the cottage to grow with the family”.

Figure 2. A new “Spoonerville”. Port Kembla Quarry (foreground), Wollongong NSW with one of the NSW Government-sponsored Temporary Housing Settlements in place. ca.1937. Wollongong Regional Library. No. PO 10333.

     The records and the Baldwinson papers suggest that there were three residential design schemes developed for the South Coast Housing Committee. All of the houses had conventional roof plans but used the modernist convention of strip windows (with timber sashes and casements) and weatherboard cladding. Their forms were at times, exceptional. The partnership’s Scheme 2 House (Figure 3 and Figure 4) uses a horizontal timber string-coursing that frames the porch and continues across the front elevation acting as a solar control element above the casement windows. Their optimistic intent to provide for future growth for additions is also unique to the era.

Figure 3. Oldham & Baldwinson. South Coast Housing Projects, Scheme 2. 10 December 1938. SLNSW, Baldwinson Papers, PXE 77-1.

MARS AND MASS HOUSING

The Sydney MARS group became involved in the South Coast Housing Project in 1939 after the Oldham & Baldwinson proposal collapsed with the unexpected departure of Oldham for New York.

     Oldham & Baldwinson’s first report to the Port Kembla Committee had appeared in August 1939.[24]  The two designers had proposed a subdivision of Council-owned land around the Coomaditchy Lagoon area that would create 230 houses (Subdivision Design C) or 124 houses (Subdivision Design D).[25] Three low cost “type form” cottages (Schemes 1, 2 3) with “open plan” (living and dining integrated) interiors and modular extensions were developed for the subdivision plans. [26] The Illawarra District Housing Committee was enthusiastic about the project and New South Wales government funds for the subdivision were sought from the Ministry for Local Government.[27]

Figure 4. Oldham & Baldwinson. South Coast Housing Projects, Scheme 3. 10 December 1938. SLNSW, Baldwinson Papers, PXE 77-1.

But in August 1939, soon after the proposal had been endorsed with a fanfare of local publicity and representations made to the New South Wales Government, Oldham suddenly decided to accompany the Stephenson & Turner World’s Fair exhibition to New York City.  Oldham explains his decision in his unpublished memoirs.[28]

I had just recently refused an offer by Stephenson & Turner to send me to New York to supervise the erection of the Australian Pavilion at the Fair, on the grounds of the importance of my Party [Communist Party of Australia. CPA] commitments. We began to deeply regret our refusal; Ray [his spouse] tried hard to change my mind. When she showed me how strongly she felt about it by bursting into tears I agreed to consult [CPA organiser] “Dicky” Dixon about it. Dixon advised me to grab the opportunity so I went to Geoff Molme [?] at Stephenson & Turner who had made me the offer and told him I had changed my mind. It was too late. […] [He] said they could help towards the fares if I still wanted to go and that there would be a job for me when I came back. I decided to try to borrow three hundred pounds from my mother which we felt with strict economy would finance the trip. Mother came to the party and we were away.[29]

Figure 5. Oldham & Baldwinson. Perspective for Scheme 2 £300 House for South Coast Housing Committee. Australia National Journal, 1: January 1939.

     While there seems to be no ill will regarding Oldham’s sudden departure, his decision left the Oldham & Baldwinson partnership with major responsibilities for the Port Kembla project. Oldham, in the meantime, left for the United States with a written introduction to Walter Gropius, now at Harvard University’s The Graduate School of Design provided by Baldwinson.

     The Sydney MARS group, perhaps encouraged by their President, Walter Bunning, came to Baldwinson’s rescue with a series of housing designs for the Oldham & Baldwinson South Coast Housing Project. The designs featured in a MARS section at the David Jones Art Gallery’s “Better Homes” exhibition sponsored by the TDA and the NSW Forestry Commission in July 1939. [30] The Sydney “Better Homes Exhibition” featured a collection of new work under the banner of the Modern Architecture Research Society, MARS. These 1939 MARS designs were published in the Australian Timber Journal (ATJ) throughout 1940.

The Better Homes Exhibition, arranged by the Forestry Commission of NSW, under the Auspices of the Timber Development Association of Australia (NSW Branch) opened on 4 July 1939.  This exhibition (the third in a series begun in 1937) comprises: “… models and drawings of the prize-winning designs in the Australian Homes from Australian Forests Competition and the Timber Homes Competition recently conducted by the Timber Development Association of Victoria.

David Jones Ltd have again this year placed at the disposal of the Forestry Commission, their George Street store for the exhibition and the official opening was presided over by their Chairman of Directors, Charles Lloyd Jones, who when introducing the Hon. R. S. Vincent, said that the public of NSW should appreciate the value they had in their wonderful forests and should take care of them.

Timber house designs by the Modern Architectural Research Society [MARS], together with photographs of timber houses from overseas are also shown.[31]

Figure 6. The opening of the 1939 “Better Homes Exhibition” organised by the Timber Development Association and MARS at David Jones Department Store, Sydney. The President of MARS, Walter Bunning is second from right along with K. P. Goble, MARS member far right.[32] They are admiring a model of Arthur Baldwinson’s prize-winning £2000 House from the 1938 Victorian TDA Competition.

     Although MARS members designed the houses, many of the designs did not match their rhetoric and present gabled and hipped roof plans as well as the elevations and plans of conventional suburban homes. On the other hand, there is a notable use of strip fenestration by the grouping of timber sash windows with the occasional use of casement windows. Built-in storage features in many of the interiors and particular interest is taken in dealing with solar screening, plan orientation and site integration. Timber is used exclusively reflecting the TDA sponsorship arrangement.

Figure 7. An image from the MARS exhibition captioned “Well Designed Houses are Cheaper”. 1939. The model is Arthur Baldwinson’s 1938 TDA prize-winning £500 House. The Australian Timber Journal. June-July 1939, p.347.

Figure 8. MARS House by MARS President Walter Bunning, Australian Timber Journal. February/March 1940, p.25.

Figure 9. MARS House by MARS Vice-President Morton Herman. Australian Timber Journal. February/March 1940, p.89.

Figure 10. MARS House by Arthur Baldwinson. L-shaped floor plan. Australian Timber Journal.  March/April 1940, p.159.

Figure 11. MARS Group Collaborative Design. Australian Timber Journal, May/June 1940. p.291. 

Figure 12. MARS Group Collaborative Design. Australian Timber Journal, June/July 1940, p.361.

Figure 13. MARS House by G.R.B. McDonell. Australian Timber Journal, October/November 1940, p. 589.

Figure 14. MARS House by Arthur Baldwinson. Australian Timber Journal, July/August 1940, p.425.

     The beginning of the 1939-45 War unfortunately brought to an end the Oldham & Baldwinson programme and ultimately the Wollongong MARS project.  On inspection of the suburb, none of the MARS house designed could be immediately identified in the post-war subdivision of the Coomaditchy Lagoon area of Port Kembla.

MARS PUBLICATIONS

The principal outlet for the Sydney MARS programme was the folded pamphlet ANGLE sporadically published from Room 46, 54a Pitt Street, Sydney. ANGLE reports that MARS meetings were held at the Horseshoe Café, Hosking Place in Sydney.  Hosking Place survives in lower Castlereagh Street but the Horseshoe Café has disappeared.

Figure 15. Detail of ANGLE, issue No. 9, undated, (ca.1941). There was no consistency in the graphic design of ANGLE. Modern Architectural Research Society of Sydney. Papers of Walter Bunning. National Library of Australia, MS5543, Series 1, Item 1.

     While ANGLE was intended to be a monthly, in reality bi-annual appearances seem more common.[33]  The first issues of ANGLE in 1940 were under the supervision of MARS President Walter Bunning and the Vice-President Morton Herman and the content and design of the pamphlet was as erratic as its publication dates. It featured architectural commentary, gossip, book reviews, letters and reviews of new Australian architecture. New work was rated by assigning degrees of an angle with 90 degrees (right angle) the highest score.

     During 1940, a feature review appeared of Arthur Baldwinson’s Taylor’s Point, Pittwater house for the Kingsford-Smith family. ANGLE awarded the Kingsford-Smith house a 90-degree angle. The plan is also reproduced.[34] The following issue includes a review of Stephenson & Turner’s King George V Hospital. [35] Two issues later, there was a review of Stephenson & Turner’s ACI Building, William Street and discussion of office furniture designed for the building, including the director’s suite featuring the boardroom in leather upholstery and rust-coloured carpet.[36] ANGLE’s tone is brash, irreverent and full of earnest good humour.

Figure 16. Cutting from ANGLE, no.8, the “journal” of MARS, 1940 issue featuring the award of a 90-degree angle to Baldwinson’s Kingsford-Smith House of 1939. Baldwinson papers, SLNSW MLMSS 1993, Box 4/5.

     As the war progressed into the increasingly lean years of 1941-42, ANGLE’s publication dates began to slip further. In a 1941 letter to Arthur Baldwinson, the MARS president, Walter Bunning writes from Melbourne’s Victoria Palace, Little Collins Street of Melbourne’s “Architectural Research Group” (ARG).[37] “Oscar Baye is President, other members include Roy Simpson, Roy Grounds, Molly Shaw, Robin Penleigh Boyd, Trevor Bain and a couple of others. They [seem] to have the same difficulties as we have [with MARS]. Nobody will do any work.”[38] During 1941-42, ANGLE struggles to produce issues 9, 10 and 11. The last issue of this period reports the wartime activities of MARS members, observing that 27 percent are directly engaged in defence camouflage activities.

     With the retirement of the MARS President Walter Bunning in July of 1943, the absence of Arthur Baldwinson in war work with the Beaufort Division of the Commonwealth Aircraft Factory and the election of John Oldham as new President, MARS takes on increasingly political issues. [39]  In ANGLE no. 13 [ca.1943], there is considerable discussion of post-war issues. The feature essay opens with the topic, “Should Land be Nationalised?” The increasing political tone of ANGLE from 1943 to 1945 reflected the policies of the wartime government, the Australian Labor Party, as well as the interests of the new MARS president, John Oldham, an active CPA member.  Oldham and his spouse Ray McClintock had returned to Sydney in the early 1940s when Oldham took up his former position with Stephenson & Turner. [40] Oldham provides some insight into the later MARS activities in his unpublished autobiography.

We called ourselves the Modern Architectural Research Society […] and met regularly for luncheons at which a member on a selected subject would give a talk. We produced a contemporary pocket sized monthly brochure “ANGLE” to criticise bad buildings, and compliment good ones and campaign to improve the RAIA […] and […] Architectural Education… .

The controversial somewhat aggressive material in [ANGLE] caused a considerable stir in the profession and gradually began to produce results. I also became close friends with Chris van Dyke, Hal Salvage and a talented contemporary architect called Walter Bunning and enjoyed the interchange with all the brightest of the young Sydney Architects, many of whom were left of centre in their politics.[41]

THE WARTIME AND POST-WAR HOME

Many of the MARS members were involved in war work and collectively, MARS offered a wartime proposal for the design and construction of the so-called “Duration Home”, a temporary structure providing rudimentary housing for defence industries. Nora Cooper, journalist and an active supporter of Australian modernist architecture wrote an illustrated feature on the MARS “Duration Home” design in 1943.[42] Although the quality of Australian Home Beautiful’s illustrations are well below MARS standards, Cooper illustrates MARS continuing interest in mass-produced housing.

To all inquiries on the subject of post-war planning, Sydney has, at the moment, one answer, MARS. This is the Modern Architecture Research Society, a group of 50 [sic] progressive architects, which was founded in 1939 [sic]  for the purpose of research into current architectural problems. Prominent among them are such well-known men as John D. Moore and Walter Bunning, while B.J. Waterhouse, although not a member, has shown a great deal of sympathy with their aims. He it was who arranged for the Society’s model munitions worker’s cottage to be shown at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition, where it was viewed by large numbers of interested persons.

[I]t has got round to the problem of “duration” houses for munitions and other workers. They feel that because these are considered temporary, they should not be set aside in a class by themselves […].

Criticisms of houses now being built by the Commonwealth Government in Lithgow, however, have been embodied by MARS in a practical plan of their own which they consider is superior to the Government “duration” house in important respects: (1) speed and flexibility in erection and demolition; (2) making best use of space; (3) providing the best possible aspect; (4) best possible appearance; (5) lower cost. […]

Figure 17. Perspective of the MARS Duration Home. (Illustrator unknown).  Nora Cooper. “Some Sydney Architects on Post-War Planning.” Australian Home Beautiful March 1943, pps.5-7.

They have solved this problem by the adoption of pre-fabricated construction, which means that each house is made up of standardised units mass produced in a factory, carted on to the site and erected there by unskilled or semi-skilled labour. […]

The adoption of 3-foot wall units makes construction rapid and easy. It also regulates the size of windows which are simply multiples of the 3-foot unit. The living room window is 6 feet x 9 feet and has a built-in seat with tubular metal supports. […]

The fireplace, which is built out into the room serves as a screen for the front door. It is a concrete unit with a pre-cast circular flue, finished in the factory ready for putting into position on the site.

Figure 18. Living Room. The MARS Duration Home. Figure 6-16. (Illustrator unknown)  Nora Cooper. “Some Sydney Architects on Post-War Planning.” Australian Home Beautiful March 1943, pps.5-7.

“If pre-fabricated methods are considered now, and building organisations set up to carry out the work on this specialised construction,” says MARS, “there will be in existence after the war the ready-made nucleus of an effective scheme for post-war building.” […]

[T]his the moment for the architect to make his voice heard in the land, clearly and authoritatively in language that the public can understand, on this vital matter of post-war building. [The architect] […] is the expert whose pursuit of knowledge is undertaken not only for its own sake but as a contribution to human well-being. Never was that contribution more needed than now.

     Following the widely anticipated housing shortage issue in post-war Australia and former MARS president Walter Bunning’s 1945 book Homes in the Sun. Past, Present, and Future of Australian Housing, Oldham and the MARS group released a small MARS booklet, The Post-War Home. Sponsored by a consortium of gas suppliers including the Australian Gas Light  Company, it began with a foreword by new MARS President John Oldham with contributions by Walter Bunning, Hal Salvage and Hedley Carr.[43]

     The Post-War Home, like Homes in the Sun, champions the familiar central-planning vision of post-war communities of high density flats surrounded by parkland, the labour-saving “scientific kitchen” and the fusion of community centres and education facilities found in the Walter Gropius-designed Impington College, Cambridgeshire for Gropius and Fry during Arthur Baldwinson’s tenure with the firm in the late 1930s. Impington College is illustrated in the MARS booklet as well as Bunning’s Homes in the Sun.

Figure 19. The Post-War Home. (top) John Oldham, editor. Contributions by John Oldham, Walter Bunning, Hal Salvage and Hedley Carr. MARS, 1945. Homes in the Sun. (bottom) Walter Bunning. W. J. Nesbitt, 1945.

     The MARS Post-War Home publication also explores the familiar topics of prefabrication and standardisation in the utility area of the home such as laundry, kitchen and bathroom. A major discussion appears on the value of the flat: “Your Post-War Home a Flat?”  Sydney’s Erskineville, Woolloomooloo and Redfern suburbs are described as rows of desolate dwellings. Flats can bring modern comforts, asserts the Post-War Home; they can be suitable for children, flats could preserve the countryside and they could clear our slums at a much-reduced cost.

THE POST-WAR FATE OF MARS

Following the end of the war in 1945, de-mobilisation and the postwar social instability brought an end to the MARS group and their meetings at the Horseshoe Café. It is not clear when and if the organization formally disbanded. Although Oldham and Bunning maintained their interests in planning in the post-war period, their interests expanded into other areas, most notably for Oldham into landscape architecture and historic preservation in Western Australia.

     With the organisation’s vitality circumscribed by the 1939-45 War, at first glance it may appear that the MARS and their publication ANGLE’s impact on Sydney architecture was modest. While no distinct MARS style or methodology emerged, the long-term effect of this shared community of modernist ideas, however, strengthened the progressive architectural position in the Sydney region. The collective goals of the MARS group are interwoven with their publications, the penetration into professional organizations, the public lives and personal friendships.

     Morton Herman became a popular architectural historian while most of the architects, including Arthur Baldwinson, continued to develop their respective careers. Kenneth Goble founded a construction firm. Walter Bunning became a major figure in planning in NSW. John D. Moore had collected a Sulman Award in 1937 for a wing of Frensham School with Morton Herman on the jury and MARS members began a long association with the NSW RAIA. Eric Andrew and his partner Winsome Hall (later Andrew) won a NSW Sulman Award in 1939 for their Manly Surf Pavilion (now demolished), Manly Beach. Fellow MARS member Morton Herman was on the jury. Gerard McDonell won the 1940 Sulman Award in the following year for his McDonell House, Gordon. MARS members Morton Herman, John D. Moore and R. Haughton James were on this jury. In the post-war period, MARS members became well-integrated into the NSW RAIA and until 1954, they maintained a consistent annual presence on modernist-supporting Sulman Award juries.

MARS ANGLE issues sighted to date. For some issues, only cuttings have been located.[44]

ANGLE. No.5. March 1940. Review of Arthur Baldwinson’s Taylor’s Point House, Pittwater. House awarded 90-degree angle critique. Officers: Pres. W. Bunning, VP Morton Herman, Sec. Greig Neave, Treasurer. Harold Salvage, Asst. Sec. Frederick McCardell.  “Mars formed two years ago, last month.”

ANGLE. no.6 (April 1940). Review of Stephenson &Turner’s King George V Hospital, review of architect John L. Brown’s Church Point house

ANGLE.  no.7 (May 1941). Architectural Education. Review of Church Point house Kingsford Smith House by Arthur Baldwinson. Plan reproduced.

ANGLE.  no.8 (n.d.) Review of Stephenson & Turner ACI Bldg, William Street, office furniture designed for the building, included director’s suite, boardroom in leather upholstery, rust-coloured carpet. Includes letter from Robert McLurcan.

ANGLE.  no. 9. (n.d.) Architectural education [?]. MARS meeting held at the Horseshoe Café.

ANGLE.  no.10 (1941). Visit to Melbourne and meeting with 12 members of “newly formed” ARG with Shaw, Boyd, Bayne, Grounds, visit to Castle Towers flats and brief discussion of controversial libel suit.

ANGLE.  11-12  (combined) 1941-42.  Essay by Peter Bloch, “Architecture at the Crossroads”. Review of GPO addition, Pitt St, Temple Emmanuel, Australian War Memorial, survey of MARS members and views on war work. Twenty-seven percent of membership in camouflage, 40 percent in munitions building design.

ANGLE. no. 13 (“Austerity issue”1943?) Discussion of post-war issues. Should land be nationalised? Review of Yaralla Hospital and Rachel Forster.

Ends/ Further information on images can be had from the author.

---

[1] Recommendation of Provisional Committee to the Architectural Group (MARS), n.d. [1938?] Baldwinson Papers, Correspondence, general file. 1938-1941, State Library of NSW (SLNSW). MLMSS 1993, Box Y4403.

[2] ANGLE. 5:1941. Baldwinson Papers, SLNSW. MLMSS 1993, Box 4/5. See also Gregory Charles Holman. Arthur Baldwinson. His Houses and Works. Thesis for the Bachelor of Architecture, UNSW, (1980), p.89-90.

[3] Richard Apperly. “MARS.” Sydney Houses 1914-1939. Master of Architecture Thesis, UNSW, (1972). Vol. 2, p.245. pps.242-244. Apperly draws on the papers of former MARS member, G.R.B. McDonell for his MARS research.

[4] In Britain, Morton Herman had worked for Goodhart-Rendell, an early British modernist who also became best known as an architectural historian. (H.S. Goodhart-Rendell, English Architecture since the Regency, Constable, 1953). J.M. Freeland. “Morton Herman, An Appreciation.” Architecture in Australia, (February 1967), pps. 77-79.

[5] MARS Britain descended directly from Congrès Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne (CIAM) dominated by Le Corbusier and Siegfried Giedion. Maxwell Fry’s memoir describes MARS’ first organisational meeting with Wells Coates, Fry and Morton Shand. Autobiographical Sketches. Elek, (1975), p.140.

[6] The sporadic publication of MARS Australia, ANGLE, No. 4, (1940) notes “Mars formed two years ago, last month.” ANGLE. 4:1940, unpaginated. Baldwinson papers SLNSW. MLMSS 1993, Correspondence, general file. (1938-1941), Box Y4403.

[7] Gregory Charles Holman. Arthur Baldwinson. His Houses and Works. Thesis for the Bachelor of Architecture, UNSW, (1980). p.89.

[8] A listing to date (July 2008) of all known members of MARS, Sydney suggests an approximate membership of 25. A listing of known members is available from the author.

[9] Jimmy James, MARS subscription, (8 June 1939). Baldwinson papers SLNSW. MLMSS 1993, Correspondence, general file. 1938-1941, BOX Y4403.

[10] ANGLE no.6, (1940) (unpaginated). Baldwinson papers SLNSW. MLMSS 1993, Correspondence, general file. 1938-1941, Box Y4403.

[11] Holman, op.cit., p. 89

[12] MARS papers, collection of G.R.B. McDonell, reproduced in R. E. Apperly. Sydney Houses 1914-1939. Master of Architecture Thesis, UNSW, (1972). Vol. 2, p.245.

[13] Laura Cohn. The Door to a Secret Room. A portrait of Wells Coates. Scolar Press, (1999), pps.41-41.

[14] Maxwell Fry, Autobiographical Sketches. Elek, (1975), p.140.

[15] Laura Cohn. op. cit., pps.41-41.

[16] “Mars Group Exhibition.” [pictorial survey and review] Introduction by Le Corbusier. Architectural Review, vol, LXXXIII, (March 1938), pps.109-116.

[17] Holman, op cit., p.50.

[18] J.M. Freeland. “Morton Herman.  An Appreciation.” Architecture in Australia.

February, (1967), pps.77-79.

[19] J.M. Freeland. The Making of a Profession. Angus and Robertson with the RAIA, (1971), pps.173-174.

[20] A recent study by Judith O’Callaghan explores this struggle in detail. Judith O'Callaghan. Project Housing and the Architectural Profession in Sydney in the 1960s. PhD thesis, University of New South Wales, (2007).

[21] Freeland, op cit., pps.173-174.

[22] Julian Goddard. "John Oldham, Architect and Designer." Aspects of Perth Modernism. 1929-1942. (D. Bromfield, editor.) Centre for Fine Arts. University of Western Australia. (1986).

[23] The “Spoonerville” reference suggests the popular expression of “Hooverville” as popular slang for the shantytowns erected in the United States during the Herbert Hoover administration in the 1930s.

[24] Oldham travelled to New York in late 1939 and does not return to Australia until early 1940. Upon their return, Oldham and Rae McClintock return to Western Australia. Goddard, ibid., pps.40-41.

[25] Oldham and Baldwinson.“South Coast Housing Project. Coomaditchy Lagoon, Port Kembla.”(4 August 1939). Baldwinson Papers, SLNSW. MLMSS 1993, Box 4406.

[26] Baldwinson papers. SLNSW. PXE 778, v.5 items 23-26. “South Coast Housing. Coomaditchy Lagoon, Port Kembla, (1939).” ff.2296-2305.

[27] Minister Eric Spooner’s government-sponsored tent city for the Port Kembla workers had been ridiculed in the regional press as “Spoonerville” The 10 March 1939 South Coast Daily News featured a scathing article, “Houses that Spooner Built” that features photos of Spoonerville homes. “2 room house with fireplace for family, rent £10/wk. “Mr Spooner has spend £25,000 on this travesty.”

[28] John Oldham (1907-1999). “Unpublished Autobiography.” (No date.) Oldham transcript supplied by Trish Oldham. (p. 74.) Accessed 5 April 2005.

[29] ibid., p.74

[30] “Economy and Grace. The 1939 Better Homes Exhibition and the Use of Timber in Architecture.” Art in Australia. (15 August 1939), pps.79-83.

[31] ibid. The TDA awards included three prize-winning designs by Arthur Baldwinson. The timber houses photographs “from overseas” have not been identified to date.

[33] A full run of ANGLE has not been located to date. Any information regarding contents, issues or cuttings of ANGLE would be gratefully received by the author.

[34] ANGLE. 5: (March 1940). Baldwinson papers, SLNSW. MLMSS 1993, Box 4/5.

[35] ANGLE. 8: no date (ca.1940). Baldwinson papers, SLNSW. MLMSS 1993, Box 4/5.

[36] ANGLE. 6: (April 1940). Baldwinson papers, SLNSW. MLMSS 1993, Box 4/5.

[37]

[38] Baldwinson papers, SLNSW. MLMSS 7792, Personal Correspondence file, 1940-1943.

[39] Architect John Fisher [training at Ruskin and Rowe during the MARS period] observed in an undated interview that “I was too young [for MARS membership] but I did go down to Langridges Gymnasium opposite Wynward [where] I was trying to get my chest expansion up enough to go into the navy and they [MARS members] were trying to get their waistlines down after too much drinking. These were the MARS people…” RAIA NSW interview transcript files, vol.3, p.31.

[40] John Oldham (1907-1999). Unpublished Autobiography. (No date.) Transcript supplied by Trish Oldham. Accessed 5 April 2005, p.92.

[41]ibid., p.76.

[42] Nora Cooper. “Some Sydney Architects on Post-War Planning.” [The Duration Home]. Australian Home Beautiful March 1943, pps.5-7.

[43] The commercial publishing house W. J. Nesbitt released Bunning’s Homes in the Sun in 1945. MARS members Hedley Carr and John Oldham also promoted MARS ideas on an ABC broadcast on 19 January 1944, “After the war, what about housing?” NSW RAIA biography of Hedley Norman Carr, courtesy Anne Higham RAIA NSW.

[44] Issues of ANGLE located to date in Bunning Papers, National Library of Australia and Baldwinson Papers, State Library of NSW.