Homes in the Sky

Apartment Living in Australia

Dr Charles Pickett and Caroline Butler-Bowdon

Foreword by Frank Moorhouse. Published with the Historic Houses Trust of NSW.

Beautifully illustrated with more than 250 photographs and architectural renderings, Homes in the Sky is a celebration of apartment living in Australia.

Awards

Winner at the Energy Australia National Trust Heritage Awards 2008, in the Interpretation and Presentation - Corporate & Government Category.
Bates Smart State Award for Architecture in the Media

Opinion

Every nook and cranny of Australia's houses has been pored over, analysed, feted and recorded by writers, artists and academics over the years but an in-depth look at the apartment life has been largely neglected . . . The first weighty book on the subject, Homes in the Sky: Apartment Living in Australia, rectifies this -- and it's a beauty.

-- Robert Bevan, Vogue Living, 1/6/07

The authors have looked at all aspects of apartment-dwelling and development including the controversies, the transition from small and convenient dwellings to luxurious and aspirational permanent homes, the redevelopment of commercial buildings to apartments and the various forms of ownership. In the process, they have written a fascinating history of Australian cities.

-- Beverley Johanson, The Age, 9/5/07

About this Title

Australian cities are being remade by an unprecedented apartment boom with more apartments than houses being built in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

Homes in the Sky features many of the best known and most sought-after apartment buildings in Australia, and is the first comprehensive look at this controversial yet celebrated form of architecture.

Since apartment buildings first appeared in Australia one hundred years ago, their proponents and critics have argued as to how they have transformed our cities' urban and social structure and architectural character. While historians and other image-makers commemorated Australian suburbia, another way of life was flourishing.

Focusing on the range of apartments from public housing to luxury housing-from Sydney's Erskineville Housing Estate to Melbourne Mansions-Homes in the Sky is lavishly illustrated with more than 250 photographs and architectural renderings. Many of the historic apartments are seen through the lens of Australia's best known architectural photographer, Max Dupain. In addition, specially commissioned photographic essays highlight Australia's most stunning apartment buildings.

Including profiles of iconic buildings such as Sydney's Blues Point Tower, Melbourne's Cairo and Brisbane's Torbreck, Homes in the Sky showcases an integral part of the Australian way of life.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
1 Slums of the future?: A century of controversy
2 Commodius and comfortable flats: The first apartments
3 The pulsing heart of city life: Inner-city apartments 1920-50
4 A new style of living: Inner-city apartments 1950-80
5 Homes for working couples: Public apartments
6 A series of three-storey buildings: Suburban and seaside apartments
7 Downtown is a desirable address: Contemporary apartment living
Notes
Picture credits
Acknowledgements
Index

About the Author

Caroline Butler-Bowdon was Curator at the Museum of Sydney (1998-2003) where she curated Art Deco, Federation Sydney 1880-1910 and Leunig Animated. She is co-author of Sydney Then and Now (2005), co-editor of Debating the City: An Anthology (2001) and Talking about Sydney: Population, Community and Culture in Contemporary Sydney (2006), and a contributor to Bridging Sydney (2006). Caroline is now Project Curator at the Historic Houses Trust, where she has curated an exhibition to coincide with the launch of Homes in the Sky. Caroline is completing a PhD on apartments in Sydney at UNSW.

Dr Charles Pickett is a curator at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney. His books include The Fibro Frontier: A Different History of Australian Architecture (1998), Refreshing! Art Off the Pub Wall (1990), Cars and Culture: Our Driving Passions (1998) and Observer & Observed: A Pictorial History of Sydney Observatory and Observatory Hill (2002). Charles has also curated numerous exhibitions on Australian design and social history, including the recent exhibitions Gambling in Australia: Thrills, Spills and Social Ills (Powerhouse Museum) and Drinking Customs (Sydney Customs House).

Like most city-dwellers, the authors have lived in both apartments and cottages.