Restoration Australia Season 2 Episode 6 - Gasworks

AFL fanatics John and Rosie have bought an iconic 19th century gasworks building overlooking the North Melbourne Football Club and oval, and they want to turn into their dream home.

The final episode of season 2 of Restoration Australia (still on ABC iview) involves conversion of the North Melbourne gas outstation. It was built in 1887 as part of the distribution network from the West Melbourne Gas Work. Described on the VHR as having:

“…finely modelled brickwork. The window arches are in rubbed cream brick, cornice lines are in brick specials with pressed and shaped brick clay bracket work, and recessed parapet panels are in bi-chrome brickwork. The interiors are of hard plaster walls in panels with an acanthus capital to the intermediate engaged pilasters, lath and plaster ceilings with deep cornices and ceiling roses, as well as other features which give a domestic decorative appearance unusual in an industrial building.”

A building is a primary source document that records human endeavour. Outwardly and inwardly it reveals the fashion and attitudes of its creators and of the times, whether the staid and respectable Georgian, flamboyant and ambitious Victorian, or national character-forming Federation, which we in turn interpret and imbue the building with meaning.

The polychrome brickwork, and architectural features reflect the wealth of the Melbourne Gas Company in the 1880s at the height of Melbourne's Building Boom, when the West Melbourne Gas Works was pushing out millions of cubic feet of coal gas to provide light, heat and cook for the growing urban middle class. The North Melbourne installation with its 3 million cubic foot gasometer, governing and pressure raising plant was needed to help meet this demand. The building is considered significant for its "substantial character of the building, especially its unusually decorative interiors, reflects the importance of the new gas industry in the 19th century city."

The place is heritage listed for its historical, architectural and scientific significance. We should probably also add social significance for the importance it has to the local community, as explained in a brief Restoration Australia interlude by local historian Lorna Hannan, "when the gasometer was dismantled in the 1980s it left a great big gap in the skyline and our hearts". Fires in 1891, 1924 and 1949 with flames 200 feet high, also revealed the danger to workers and residents. While its location adjacent to the Arden Street oval of the North Melbourne Football Club, it provided the backdrop to the exploits of towering ruckman Mick Nolan known as the “Galloping Gasometer”.

This is not restoration but what on earth is it?

The Architects claim their approach:

"...is to leave the core building virtually untouched these spaces are invariably empty shells to start with their beauty is in the history, texture, the height, sheer volume, the ornate or sometimes the austerity and within these remnant spaces we create architecture we hope will start a new dialogue completely separate to the original fabric in look as well as structurally… so that you can easily read the old from the new there is no guessing as to what was original as opposed to new  it’s kind of obvious that’s the intent the original floorplate was regardless randomly punctured to allow for the siting of large machinery and gas pipes to run from the basement to the upper floor and beyond, blah blah blah"

"It's about maintaining the buildings integrity" they say. They almost get it, but what does this interference mean? They demolish the main floor then reinstate half of it. They cut a hole in the ceiling and insert a 'pod' (more of this later). They fill the space with partitions and walls of a dozen different finishes.

Rather than discuss the process of restoration, the program is about what they cut out and then stick into the building, treating it only as a shell, that they can't touch on the outside because the facades are state heritage listed. The program becomes all about the pod. Restoration has been done. The nice white plaster and neat brickwork were fixed up years before as part of the adjacent apartment development. Lovell Chen worked out in detail how to treat the building to bring back its earlier look and fix up some of the unfortunate modern damage.

We don't hear about any of this however. The architect's blog fleetingly refers to the holes cut in the floor marking where machinery and fittings once went. Some re-positioned valves outside are briefly glimpsed in the background. The stories that the building could tell, and which can be revealed in the careful analysis and conservation of the fabric were lost. This process is the scientific significance that the Burra Charter again enlightens us on - evidence of the fabric can reveal information that may not otherwise be available, such as the position and form of the plant and machinery installed in the building, and therefore the technology employed and the method of operation. we have some documentary information, but just how this interfaced with the structure is a mystery, probably now insoluble.

The standard Heritage Victoria conditions provide for capturing this significance:

Should it become apparent during further inspection or the carrying out of alterations that original or previously hidden or inaccessible details of the place or object are revealed which relate to the significance of the place or object, then the exemption covering such alteration shall cease and the Executive Director shall be notified as soon as possible. 

Next door is the New York style loft that John reckons they can do better than. It has 3 bedrooms, one bathroom, a car space in the adjacent development and minimal change to the fabric. The windows are all usable, the patina of aged flaking paint, brick and timber trusses is all on show, and the industrial space is still readable.

Restoration Australia however, has gone a different route. The stripped out floor means the basement level kitchen has no views, while the broken up ground floor has only narrow corridors near windows and other partitions block the views. But then, there is too much light in the sleeping pod so they have to install blockout curtains inside their stainless steel bag.

The architects call it adaptive reuse, but then they get a bit defensive when twitter explodes with outrage about it in a blog response to the tirade on Twitter. One in particular got “furious at the replacement of beautiful old architecture with ugly modern architectural overreach”. It was reported in the news even.

Outraged viewers tweeting disgust at what is described as the garbage bag bedroom. Other descriptions include:

tinfoil wrapped potato 
goon bag 
Tin Man’s nuts 
giant mesh Easter egg 
praying mantis eggs 
disgusted at the abomination!! 
The biggest botch job you will ever see on an architectural show. A total abomination...
arrogant & insufferable clients and incompetent, arrogant, clueless architects & landscapers.
a giant bucket of grey puss 
an old silver tarp that has been chucked over a bunch of stuff you don't want anyone to see!!
rouched pod dress 
a total wank 
what the fuck is this monumental piece of shit 

 

 

Most of the complaints, however, are about the look of the new internal architectural intervention - the shiny glass and metal and polished concrete bits. But a couple of comments focused on the impact on heritage:

I can’t believe how the internals of  this building have been totally ignored and that designers have held no respect for the feel and integrity of such an amazing building. This restoration is not just disappointing, it is . Thank god they can’t touch the exterior. 

We went from one man lovingly restored a home to it's former glory with his own hands, to utter wank architectural rubbish - wrapping a steel spud in foil, so it looked like a goon bag hanging from the ceiling.

The usual TV reality show dramatic plot trajectory is only limply adhered to (they should have followed the template more closely). The owners chose to head for the country rather than commit to a labour of love or invest any emotional attachment to a future home. so limited opportunity for conflict, although I thought John was about to cry when he realised he wasn't getting his man cave.  Drama only comes from a second-had Furphy - some other couple undertook a renovation and their marriage broke up – but this couple just went off the the country and let the architects do whatever they wanted. It makes me wonder if it was all just contrived to get the airtime and increase a future sale price.

The builder thinks the architects are space cadets. The architects helped John "understand that the thing he thought he wanted (a shed) he didn't really want." So he never got his man cave, but just a few artfully placed rocks in the narrow space between the back wall and the adjacent multi-storey apartment block

The soil is contaminated pf course, to the tune of $6-7000, which was completely predictable from the extensive Environmental Audit Report done in 2012, although the apartment development might have been expected to clean it up.

And its on the shortlist for the Victorian Architecture Awards in both the Heritage Architecture and Residential Architecture — Houses (Alterations and Additions). What a disappointment if they get the heritage award ahead of the firm that did the actual restoration.