Late Twentieth Century Period 1960-2000

The later part of the twentieth century was marked by considerable changes. Changes were in music, art, thinking, technology, design, communication, politics and architecture. It was an era of free thinking and instant communication which fueled new artistic concepts and a reassessment of values.

The 1960's saw the emergence of the first of the baby boomer generation as late teenagers and young adults able to make their own lifestyle and value judgements. This generation had grown up in relative safety and generous circumstances with abundant work and many opportunites. The Vietnam War was not considered favourably by the younger generation who resisted conscription and protested about the reasons for the war. Many young people however went to the war and did their duty for their country but received little support from their own generation for this duty.

Music was the instant message for the younger generation. Music coming out of England and the USA talked about concepts such as love, beauty, peace and a world unity. Unfortunately these same musicians sufferred at the hands of instant fame and a lack of privacy and often took drugs to escape their conditions.

In architecture and art practitioners began questioning social values and tried to portray the concepts of love, beauty, peace, neighbourhood, and a sensitive approach to the environment. The thoughtless use of the environment was questioned and hippy communes experimented with communal living styles, alternative energy systems, low cost and low energy materials and saw the natural environment as an integrated whole. Concepts of a biodiverse garden horticultural environment that could provide food and sustain the occupants became a difficult ideal. Communes and alternative housing sprang up around Australia and in particular in places such as Byron Bay, Nimbin, and parts of Victoria.

 
Nimbin shop 1979, All users of this image are required to attribute this work to Peter Terry" and the url: " http://www.nambassa.com " is to acompany all use. Older shop parapets were painted in rainbow colours to reflect a new appreciation for beauty and higher levels of consciousness.

The alternative housing of the 1960-1985 period used natural materials of mud bricks, earth floors, pole structures, recycled bricks and timber and windows, prototype solar collectors and solar hot water heaters, shingle roofs, corrugated metal roofing and walling, and experimented with earth filled tyres, glass walls, and single lining to walls.


A typical venacular style of building in communes. Natural and often recycled timbers, windows, doors, paving, etc were used. This is from a commune in the US Ta Chai (photo by Rashaun 2006)

Technology had some major advancements. New technology was being used in the music business. Bands such as the Beatles, Pink Floyd, used new multitrack sound recording tecchniques which enabled different parts of a piece of music to be recorded at different times and then combined for a completed song or piece of music. Sound effects electronically generated were experimented with artists such as Jimi Hendrix and the Who. Householders bought more sophisticated sound system with stereo speakers, quadraphonic speakers, casette players, headphones etc. Old valves were replaced with resistors which brought down the size of the equipment. The LP vinyl record was like a primitive computer disk storing around 12 music tracks. Music started to have a visual component and this became the video clip. Wireless radio was transmitted to most areas of Australia.

The journeys to outer space also provided an immense development in technology. NASA needed computers to automate space craft operations when in outer space and these computers needed to fit into smaller and smaller areas. Computers initially would require whole office tower floor areas and would only perform simple functions. The development of the silicone chip in the 1970's began to revolutionize the completion of mundane and complex tasks and began replacing people so as to save labour costs. Architecture began to be specified and drawn on computers in the 1980's. This allowed architects to more fully understand the final appearance and functioning of 3D spaces and allowed the programing of services to heat and cool buildings naturally and artificially. Prior to this engineering was a complex manual task often built upon empirical knowledge rather than mathematical analysis.

 Solar hot water and solar/wind power started to be used in alternative housing and more avante garde building from about 1970 onwards. The concept of peak oil and greenhouse gas emissions began to be discussed. At first these concepts were considered largely irrelevant as the world powers ploughed on with old environmentally damaging technologies of coal fired power stations, nuclear fuel, oil heating, and the dramatic increase in the number and usage of motor vehicles. Oil was still abundant and cheap and CO² emmissions were not seen as having any major impact on the environment.

 The alternative hippy cultures didnt often help their cause as the participants often found it hard to cope in what they saw as an uncarring world. They resulted to drugs to escape reality and some also blatantly used others to become rich and powerful while espousing concepts of love and peace. The hippy entrepreneur found a gullible and willing market. As a result of these aspects of the alternative lifestyle hippies were often not taken seriously which damaged their true message of care for the environment, personal empowerment, the pursuit of artistic goals, better buildings and cities and the usage of alternative technologies.

At the same time modern architecture continued. It seemed to rebel against the hippy alternative movement and became brutal with the use of raw off form concrete, concrete balconies, monotonous brick claddings and repetitive glazing patterns. One section of the community started searching for a wholistic view of building and environment and the the other section of the community tried in vain to hold onto past values of using the earth, building only for profit and maximising lettable area.

The Sydney Opera House, designed by Jorn Utzon architect, was built during the 1960's and this had a considerable effect on the attitudes of the Australian population. Here was a building that was modern and yet it also had artistic composition, generous curved shapes, water craft and wave metaphor in its giant sails, a unique palette of materials, tile, concrete, and timber, and a beautiful belonging to its site by the harbour at Circular Quay. The Opera House showed that a building could belong in a timeless state and be purpose designed and not copy other types of architecture from other countries or other periods. The government at the time couldn't quite understand the concepts and iconic stature of the design and interefered changing the practical effectiveness of the theatre and opera rooms. Still it was at the forefront of an emerging Australian design responding to Australian conditions in practice and concept.

Sydney Opera House designed by Jorn Utzon architect, Photo by Enoch Lau 2004 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Sydney_Opera_House_Sails.jpg

Australia Square, Sydney, designed by Harry Seidler, architect, and completed in 1967. (photo by Paulscf see enwikipedia, here) For a period it was Sydney's tallest building.