Capitol Cinema, Asmara

The Capitol Cinema in Asmara is a rather brutal building that looks to me more like a prison than a cinema. The most striking feature is the four bands of small windows with thick conrete frames in the upper part of the facade. Smaller versions adorn the the curved corners of the lower level.

It was built as the Cinema Augustus in 1938 by architect Ruppert Saviele towards the end of the Italian colonisation of Asmara. Surprisingly Asmara, is still a very Italian city. Every corner has a cafe or a bar and the favourite pastime is the passeggiata or evening stroll when it seems whole city take to the streets greeting firends and catching up with that day's events. If a little bit of Italy in an African setting sounds like your kind of place, Asmara fits the bill perfectly.

Reference:
Asmara: Africa's Secret Modernist City~ Edward Denison, Guang Yu Ren & Naigzy Gebremedhim

Presgrave Building, Melbourne

The Presgrave Building is tucked away down Little Collins Street and at first glance looks rather plain. On closer examination, however, you will notice the name spelt out in a pleasant art deco font and a series of strong horizontal elements.

Firstly the long horizontal bands of metal windows and then the lines on the spandrels between each band. The are lines on the top of the columns and also on the top and bottom of the each window.

Finally at the top corner of the building a rounded tower creates an asymetrical parapet and it too carries a series of horizontal lines.

You will also notice the curved windows on the corner of the building which mirror the tower which also curves around the corner.

The tower itself has the name of the building chiselled into its surface and is topped with a wooden flagpole. You may even notice that the horizontal lines around the tower are interrupted at the base of the flagpole by a circle motif as if providing a full stop to the buildings identity while echoing the button on the top of the pole.

I have often by-passed this building without taking the time to look at it properly. I've come to the conclusion that it is a very stylish Moderne building and in a way it is a shame that Little Collins Street is too narrow to take it all in and really appreciate it.

In a more prominent position, the Presgrave Building would truly shine.

Halsbury Chambers, Napier

The Halsbury Chambers in Napier, New Zealand's Art Deco city, is a modest single storey building. Located in Tennyson Street, the building is rich in decoratioin, proudly displaying its name above the entrance. It was built is 1932, the year after most of Napier was destroyed by a major earthquake that struck early on the morning of Feb 3, 1931.

To me the design echos an earlier time but the arrangement of rectangular decoration and the simple stepped roofline give it a distinctive deco feel. I was lucky the day I took this photo as the sportscar makes it difficult to date the photo. Possibly it was taken shortly after the chambers opened unless you notice the head of the parking metre lurking in the shadows of the doorway. The photo was actually taken in Feb 1999 when Napier hosted the 5th World Congress on Art Deco.

City Sanitation Office, Asmara

The former City Sanitation Office is on the Massawa Road on the outskirts of Asmara. It was built around 1938 and is now used as an office/garage.

The building has symetrical wings constructed in red brick with a entrance topped with a clock tower and a large semi-circular balcont. The clocktower, in turn, is topped by two thin flagpoles. This central section is concrete or rendered and painted white contrasting with the simple red bricks of the rest of the building.

Reference:
Asmara: Africa's Secret Modernist City~ Edward Denison, Guang Yu Ren & Naigzy Gebremedhim

Central Railway Station, Helsinki

Helsinki Railway Station is where I get myself into trouble. Many people will argue that it is not an Art Deco building. I have seen it described as late Finnish Art Nouveau. I don't really care, I think it has some deco elements but what is more important, I like it.

Eliel Saarinen won the competition to design a new railway station for Helsinki in 1904 and over the following ten years the pink granite building was completed. The entrance to the station is placed in a huge arch-shaped wall supported but two rectangular columns. Several stepped arches are laid into the brickwork culminating in a large grid-patterened window above the canopy of the doors. A clock is centred in this window. The arch itself is topped with a copper apron turned green with exposure to the elements.

Flanking the doors four statues of mythical giants or gods holding spherical lamps stand welcoming travellers into the station. The figures were designed by Emil Wikstrom and offer a very creative way to incorporate lights onto the front of a building. My picture shows two of the statues with snow on their heads and shoulders.

The whole building is crowned by a copper-topped clock tower. The copper work is a collection of simple geometric shapes including several series of stepped rectangles and domed pineapple shapes. (Do you like my technical architectural language?) Above each clock face is a piece of decoration which reminds me of the winged-sundisk motifs of Ancient Egypt which became popular with later architects, especially after the discovery of Tukanhamen's tomb by Howard Carter in 1922.

Is the Helsinki Railway Station Art Deco? The short answer is probably 'No', mostly because of the time it was designed and built. I think it does, however, show the development from the organic architecture of Art Nouveau to the more geometric architecture of Art Deco as part of a gradual process over many years incorporating many influences. All art movements take time to evolve there is rarely a big bang which creates a new movement. There is always something that has gone before that has inspired others one way or the other.

Olympic Pool, Maryborough

Maryborough is about two hours drive from Melbourne in the heart of the Victorian Goldfields. Given that the Victorian goldrush was centered the middle part of the 1800s, it is possibly the last place you would expect to find an Art Deco gem. The Municipal Olympic Pool was built in 1939-40 using umemployed and voluntary labour. It was designed by local Maryborough architech E.J. Peck and opened in time for the Australian summer on 7th December 1940 by Sir Frank Beaurepaire.

Frank Beaurepaire was Lord Mayor of Melbourne at the time but previously had had a successful swimming career winning 3 silver and 3 bronze medals representing Australia at the London (1908), Antwerp (1920) and Paris (1924) Olympic Games.

The complex consists of three outdoor pools. An Olympic size 50m pool and toddler pool were part of the original design while an intermediate pool was added during the 1970s.

Like so many Art Deco buildings, the pool features a semi-circular entrance providing space for a cashier office and kiosk with symetrical wings housing the male and female changing rooms. A stepped decoration topped with a flagpole has pride of place above the rounded office windows.

Not so long ago this building was under threat of closure but community action with support from the Art Deco Society in Melbourne led to the complex being restored and is now proudly included as one of Maryborough's attractions.

Adelaide High School, Adelaide

Located on West Terrace, on the edge of the parklands which surround the CBD of the South Australian capital, the Adelaide High School is a stunning building. Built in red brick, architects Edward Fitzgerald and John R Brogan have combined simple geometric shapes to produce this lovely building.

Construction began in 1947 when the existing nearby buildings no longer met the needs of the growing high school with the current building opening in 1951. The main entrance is set back from the street protected by a semi-circular office area protruding from the building face. This part of the building is a mass of rectangles of different sizes and heights allowing the building to present itself on multiple three-dimensional planes.

The two-storey wing of classrooms sweeping in a elegant curve to the left of the office make the building for me. Even this facade is not a single dimension surface. The first third of the wing juts out several metres from the remaining two thirds. A concrete eyebrow provides shade for the ground floor windows. The continuous horizontal bands of windows accentuate the sleek look of the building.

Adelaide High School took my breath away when I got to see it in person. One of my all time Art Deco favourites, but then I've got so many.