Federation Details: Federation Free Style

Sunday, August 5, 2018

Federation Free Style

Federation Free Style [c1890-c1915]

Turn-of-the-century architects had problems designing commercial premises using the domestic styles of Federation, and Federation Arts and Crafts.

Thus the adoption of 'Federation Free' styles, allowing the architecture of domestic styles to apply to larger buildings as well.

This style is remarkably only defined by the book "A Pictorial Guide to Identifying Australian Architecture" by Richard Apperly, Robert Irving and Peter Reynolds.

(Buy this book secondhand from Biblio or from Abebooks, was $49.95)

They write that:

"Federation Architects were not unduly concerned with advanced technology;

they sought to design honestly with traditional materials while avoiding being shackled by stylistic dogmas from the past...
In Australia, the greatest volume of Federation Free Style work came from the office of the NSW Government Architect, Walter Liberty Vernon" [1]

"By definition, a 'free style' is not unduly constrained by rules, and Federation Free Style is no exception.

Designers did not hesitate to use asymmetrical planning and massing,
Classical elements, if used at all, were frequently distorted, incomplete or placed in an unusual context.
Touches of Art Nouveau were often introduced, especially in the lettering applied to the facades of buildings." [2]

Gallery of Federation Free Style

Completed 1909. A fanciful freestyle composition with art nouveau elements.

8/10

“Throughout the Victorian and Federation periods, Academic Classical and Free Classical styles co-existed, which is to say that some buildings were more correctly classical than others."

Federation Free Style was a flow-on from the Victorian period.

This style includes modern simplicity without a full panoply of columns, pilasters, entablatures and pediments
This style also includes distorted or unfamiliar uses of classical elements and proportions.

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