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Daceyville

Daceyville

Designing Australia's Public Housing

Daceyville
Image courtesy Museums of History NSW.

DACEYVILLE

SYDNEY NSW | 1912-1916

NSW Housing Board (William H Foggitt, John Sulman and John Hennessy and HJ Maiden)and Samuel George Thorp (initial design competition winner)

Daceyville is based on the British Garden City movement idea of a series of selfsufficient,satellite communities that are linked by road and rail to the central city through a greenbelt. This radical design was to bring together the benefits of both countryside and city to provide an alternative for the industrial working class employed on farms or in ‘crowded, unhealthy cities.’ Daceyville is an integrated design of family homes, wide landscaped streets and parkland, supported by significant community infrastructure. The street design mixes broad ‘Paris’ boulevards and smaller pedestrian scaled residential streets that include cul-de-sacs to foster community interaction. This is supported by houses having large, fenceless front gardens which break down the boundaries between public and private space. The houses are designed in the Federation style, with big windows in most rooms to promote light and air access, and large verandas for sleeping out in warmer weather.

  • References

    Howard, E. (1902), Garden Cities of To-morrow (2nd ed.), S. Sonnenschein & Co, London

    Jackson-Stepowski, S. (2002) Dacey Garden Suburb: a report for Daceyville Heritage Conservation Area within its historical context, Botany Bay Council, Sydney, accessed 28 May 2024, www.botanybaycouncil.nsw.gov.au

    plus 1 / plus one / +one (2020) ‘Daceyville’ Architecture and Design, accessed 28 May 2024, https://www.architectureanddesign.com.au/features/comment/daceyville

    Sinnayah, S. (2012) Audaciousville: The story of Dacey Garden Suburb, Australia’s first public housing estate, City of Botany Bay Council, Sydney, p.5.

    Sinnayah, S. (2011) ‘Daceyville’, Dictionary of Sydney, State library of NSW, Sydney, accessed 28 May 2024, https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/daceyville#:~:text=Today%2C%20Daceyville%20is%20a%20tiny,Australia's%20first%20public%20housing%20scheme.