Newlands Estate

NEWLANDS ESTATE

MELBOURNE VIC | 1940-1953

Dr Ernest Fooks (architect) and Frank Heath (town planner) for Housing Commission of Victoria

In the Newlands estate, émigré Viennese architect Ernest Fooks introduced a sensitive approach to post-war urban transformation that was influenced by the Vienna Werkbundsiedlung. Fooks prioritised the human scale as residential spaces were seen as places of ‘rest and ease,’ as opposed to a workplace or a ‘machine for living’.

The Newlands estate sensitively incorporated a mixture of housing types and densities, including detached and semi-detached houses, shop-top housing and walk-up flats. It gradually transitioned from single-storey buildings at the edge of the estate to three-storey buildings at the centre. Community infrastructure, including a school and high street shopping strip, was located at the centre to foster a sense of community and to integrate the higher residential buildings into the community fabric.

The principles of the Garden City movement shaped the strong relationship of the estate layout with landscape and place. The curved street pattern responds to the undulating topography and the paths of the Merri and Edgar Creeks. The majority of the lots addressed the creek or parkland through the careful use of single-sided streets.