AUSTRALIAN STYLE OF ARCHITECTURE. 681 



home, is modified, and the veranda is made a more emphatic if 

 less artistic feature than in America. But in the average home we 

 look in vain for features '' racy of the soil." We have, in Brisbane, 

 one example of the Japanese house. It was designed and con- 

 structed in Japan, and erected here by Japanese workmen. This 

 house, while in" many respects unsuitable to our mode of living, is 

 eminently suitable to the climate. A study of such a house, together 

 with Eastern dwellings generally, and a careful selection of those of 

 their features fit for our requirements, may gradually give rise to an 

 original style only indirectly traceable to its origin. 



It is in this more tropical State that original character should 

 first appear. In the past poverty has crippled Queensland efforts, but 

 in a few instances a distinctive treatment of the veranda as an 

 integral portion of the dwelling gives hope for originality in the 

 future. 



It is in civil architecture that Australia has, so far, made most 

 advancement. The best of our modern architects are encouraging a 

 feeling of simplicity of design in place of the florid decoration which in 

 some older buildings strives to hide bad proportion. Our wealth of 

 building materials, such as marbles, granite, and all classes of stone, 

 should in the future enable us to progress effectually on these lines 

 of elegant simplicity. 



That the final style adopted will be one having the horizontal 

 lines emphasised seems certain. Even if this were not suggested by 

 the climate, the prevalence of the awning or colonnade over the 

 footpath would make it obligatory. High-gabled roofs, suggestive of 

 a snowy climate, will gradually give place to flats roofs and roof 

 gardens. The point from which we shall probably make our own 

 departure will be the buildings of Italy — either Florence or Venice. 

 In most of our capital cities the streets are too narrow to allow of 

 an architectural treatment of the awning as an integral portion of 

 the building. In laying out new cities it might be advisable to allow 

 width enough on the kerb to enable a colonnade to be erected in 

 stone. In any case, the city authorities might justly insist that awn- 

 ings erected on the public thoroughfare should be solid and artistic. 

 This in itself would give our cities a distinctive character. In all 

 main streets it would be advisable, before it is too late, to pass regula- 

 tions fixing the maximum and minimum height of buildings, leaving 

 enough margin between the two to avoid monotony of sky line. 



The Australian style, when it comes, will not be the outcome of 

 any conscious effort ; rather will it be the reflex of a well-defined 

 national character and the result of gradual changes of ancient types 

 to suit our climatic and general conditions. 



