(now
BUILT
ENVIRONMENT AND BIBLICAL THEOLOGY
MAKING
CONNECTIONS: DISCERNING RELATIONSHIPS
MICHAEL POWELL
Doctor of Philosophy February 2003
14 - HOMES: EPISTLES AND REVELATION
Also
marvellous in a room is the light that comes through the windows of that room
and belongs to the room. The sun does not realise how wonderful it is until
after a room is made. A man's creation, the making of a room, is just nothing
short of a miracle. Just think, that a man can claim a slice of the sun,
(Louis Kahn).
14.1
Purpose
The purpose of this Section is to consider the topic of
housing and home as it arises in the contexts of
Via contemporary
14.2
Nature of the theme
Housing, from mansion to cottage, forms a major part of
the built environments of
Design and technical aspects, rich in detail, help
forge connections between countries and eras.
The theme is both physical and spiritual in nature.
14.3
This section can only provide some examples of the
housing and homes facet of
Abraham (1988) and Foreman (1990, 1999) contribute
texts on Hylands House, the former being an architectural text
and the latter one of more general local history. Abraham notes the beginning
of Hylands in the early eighteenth century as being `a large, though
unpretentious, Early Georgian, two-storeyed mansion built of red brick with
stone quoins, the front having a range of seven windows, the central three
flanked by pilasters carrying a pediment, and crowned by a dormer roof rising
behind a high parapet'. (Abraham 1988:7).
The client was Sir John Comyns, MP for Maldon, at one
time Chief Baron of the Exchequer, and the builder probably a local person
familiar with this type of property.
A subsequent owner, Comelius Kortright,
commissioned Humphrey Repton to suggest improvements:
From contemporary observations in [Repton's Red Book
report since lost] and from references to Hylands by Repton himself, we can
catch a glimpse of what he proposed for the old house and the extra
accommodation his client wanted: a winged villa, clothed in a
"modem" or "Grecian" style (as he called it), with a
tetrastyle portico in the Corinthian Order carried through both storeys on the
south front. This would associate well with the gentle landscape of
(Abraham 1988:8)
Repton's work included the covering of the red
brickwork with white stucco. An east wing was added as part of the scheme.
Abraham notes that Hylands has always retained the neoGreek architecture and
naturalistic landscape given it by Kortright and Repton. The next owner was
the Dutch-Huguenot born banker Pierre Labouchere who acquired Repton's Red
Book and `completed the symmetrical composition by adding a matching west wing
to house a servants hall and quarters' (Abraham 1988:9), thus making the
neo-classical mansion complete. Subsequent owners added unbalanced additional
height to the wings and replaced much of the classical interior decoration.
The house fell into dilapidation and decay, being bought by Chelmsford Borough
Council in 1966.
Foreman (1990,1999) explains that in 1967 Hylands
became a Grade II Listed Building and a Grade ll* (meaning that restoration
work must achieve highest standards of authenticity and be approved by English
Heritage) in 1975. In 1985 a major grant from English Heritage enabled work to
begin on restoration of the house to its early nineteenth century design. The
house was opened to the public in 1995. Renovation continues in parallel with
the use of the building for civic and other functions.
Chelmsford Borough Council (www.chelmsfondbc.gov.uk/leisure/04/03/00)
describes the process of restoration, noting the partnership between
craftsmen, some of whom worked on the restoration of
In the town,
some sites experienced what today would be called change-of-use to housing
of a good quality. For example, in 1776 the White Horse Inn was sold to John
Harriott, who, Grieve informs us, pulled it down to build two brick private
houses. Grieve continues:
One of these, `fitted up in the most elegant manner',
with a coach house and walled garden planted with fruit trees, was occupied in
1787 by Dr William Kirkland. The other was taken by Mr and Mrs Roffe, who ran
a boarding school for young ladies and gentlemen in the front part of it. The
back part was let by the Roffes as `genteel lodgings' suitable for an elderly
gentleman or lady with one servant, free from the noise of the school, and
'commanding a prospect nearly equal to
(Grieve 1994:191)
1n the 1830's good quality house developments were
taking place in the
The New London Road Developers had laid a brick barrel
drain close to the road, discharging into the
(Grieve 1994: 335)
To gain insight into the contemporary housing scene we
will follow the map published by Chelmsford Borough Council and Essex County
Council (undated) of the extensive cycle routes that link the town centre with
the newer and extensive residential areas. As well as passing
through housing areas, the routes pass through parks, particularly
Current developments (in 2001), such as
The houses being built are themselves high, having
three if not more storeys. Views from upper windows are wider than the views
from the ground. These developments, designed for high density and the most
economic use of land are the reverse of `colonial' bungalow developments.
Design emphasis on sustainability and conservation of energy means that
windows are small. Thus one has to go to the window and make the effort to
look out. Only a visit at night would enable one to see the sky through the
skylights, which occur on top floors where the rooms are partly in the roof.
Where there is no good 'window-with-a-view' the houses feel quite enclosed,
almost ark-like. The workmanship, to the informed but casual visitor, seems of
a reasonable standard. With features such as skylights it needs to be as good
as Noah's bitumen work appears to have been. In one area some relatively
ordinary houses have high ornamental gates to their carport areas, again
evoking a sense of quite marked enclosure.
The `bible' for these new developments is the Essex
Design Guide. It encourages the use of local styles. Some of the
weather-boarded (or equivalent material) houses are reminiscent of the coastal
areas of Maldon and Bumham-on-Crouch. In one case the developers combine this
kind of elevational treatment with an open style internal layout, which leads
them to describe the house as 'colonial'. The conservatory is an integral part
of the house, making it very light. The evocation is of
This approach to design endeavours to be local and
moderate - although the boldly coloured red or blue elevations of a small
number of the largest houses may give some observers cause for doubt. One of
the new developments immediately adjoins the area known as Melbourne, (itself
adjoining the Boarded Barns estate) and Chelmsford's only 1960's highrise
block of flats, the fifteen-storey Melbourne Court. When one approaches
Frankland (1992) uses illustration to reveal the story
of South Woodham Ferrers, the major township within the Borough
of Chelmsford. He sees South Woodham Ferrers as largely a product of the
twentieth century, although he traces the early history of the riverside and
market settlement comprehensively. A key event was the opening of the railway
in June 1889 with a junction at Woodham.
In the decade after the opening of the railway, Woodham
became the scene of what came to be termed plotland development. Farmland had
become uneconomic. The 538-acre Champions Farm was sold in 1893 to an estate
agent who laid it out in plots suitable for individual sale. A similar
procedure was followed at Eyotts Farm. In the latter case, the estate owners
provided neither made up roads nor services but they did lay down requirements
on minimum value of property, a 20 foot building line, prohibition of
structures such as huts and caravans and the obligation for properties to have
their frontages to the road. Purchasers included Londoners and the local
reception was mixed: For example, newcomers were described as squatters whose
style of living `might do in the Australian bush or the American backwoods but
it is hardly what one might expect in the highly civilised
Frankland's photographs show the properties to be of a
simple timber clad nature. He comments that requirements on minimum value seem
not always to have been observed. The 1920's saw the construction by
Chelmsford Rural District Council of the first four council houses in the area
and of fully complete homes for sale by private developers. Metalled roads,
telephone and electricity services arrived at this time but main drainage not
until 1966. Proposals for major development arose in the 1970's, with a growth
in population from the 900 of the late 1950's to a projected 18000. In the
early 1960's much of the development was in the form of uninspired roads of
speculative houses. Later stages have followed design recommendations and
criteria, under which South Woodham Ferrers' houses have utilised designs and
materials typical of more established places in the county. By the 1980's
families were moving in at the rate of ten per week. A full complement of
social and community buildings has since been built. Frankland's overall
conclusion is positive:
Although the town has largely succeeded in achieving
the county council's basic planning aims, established at the commencement of
the project, it is perhaps in achieving an unwritten and understated objective
that particular success can be claimed. Rather than creating just another
ordinary housing development, the public and private agencies concerned with
the town's growth have succeeded in creating a place with a distinctive
character which, as the town matures, should stand as a dear demonstration of
what positive planning can achieve.
(Frankland 1992 above plate 169)
It is beneficial that this different type of
development is within the present Chelmsford Borough area.
14.4
In
Early Tasmanian homes have been a preoccupation for
writers, painters and photographers. Today's visitor spends a considerable
amount of time reflecting on houses as he walks the streets or drives through
the rural areas. Cocker (1972) published a collection of some 50
paintings, which she produced from older photographs and sketches. She loved
these places and wanted to record them, I love old houses and their history...
I intended making a record of old homes for myself, as so many have been
demolished, or are about to be'. (Cocker 1972:11). Between 1982 and 1991, the
local newspaper, The Advocate, sponsored
an annual photographic exhibition in the
The more enterprising and fortunate settlers built
pleasant homesteads such as Hawley House,
1878, whose architect and builder was William Gadsby, and Larooma, also
1878, which Cocker believes to have incorporated shipwreck timber. Cocker has
this to say about the house known as Woodcote:
`Woodcote', North Down, is believed to have been built
about 1863. A pit over a bank about twenty yards on the south side of the
house held the saw for the split timber. Exterior and interior walls and
ceilings are of split palings, with the exception of a few which have been
replaced. Originally the roof was shingles. They are now covered with
corrugated iron. The front door opens into a passage 7 feet wide and 15 feet
long, which widens into a hexagonal ha11.2 The six doors, some
cedar and some Blackwood, open into various rooms and passages. All the
floorboards were pit sawn, as indicated by the semi-circular groove marks.
(Cocker 1973,1984:30)
Ramsay (1957,1980) tells of a
newcomer to Don industry in 1872, John Henry. Sent from
Mr Henry lost no time in making his home at Don
and towards the end of the same year he called for tenders for the erection of
a residence for himself and his family. He selected a beautiful situation to
the southwest of the village high up on the hill where a lovely panorama could
be obtained. The house contained ten rooms, lathed and plastered, with large
veranda and it was given the name of Symbister.
(Ramsay 1957, 1980:108)
Sir Edward Braddon, Premier of Tasmania, bought
Treglith and carried out considerable improvements to it. He died in 1904.
Regrettably:
His old house was destroyed by fire in October 1913....
It was a two storey building containing many rooms, and stood in the midst of
beautifully laid out grounds. It commanded one of the most extensive views in
the north of
(Ramsay 1980:97)
Although
James Fenton's activities and interests ranged across the whole of
In
June 2001, to mark the centenary of James' death, the only surviving part of
James and Helena Fenton's gravestone was brought from Launceston, where they
had both died and been buried, and incorporated in a cairn in the cemetery
looking down over the
On the edge of the cemetery the local Lions Club is (in
2001) restoring a tiny, traditional cottage. The foundation and plinth of
small, hand-placed rocks is exposed. Part of the timber cladding is off,
showing the rough timber framing. This is someone else's future home in the
making.
For the fourth in the Homes of Devon series on
the theme of `the rural poor' the photographer chose as his topic the
homes of the rural poor as found in solitary, remote places all over Devon.
The commentary says:
All the houses in this portfolio are distinctive,
largely because these homes have been built by the people themselves. Eucaiypt
and Sassafras Pine have something brick doesn't. The conventional homes of the
suburbs have largely been put in place by contractors using common building
blocks. As a result they do not have the same feel that Peter Manchester has
been able to capture. The architectural style is that of the bits and pieces
house. The material has come from a large number of separate
sources. The window frames and doors may have different origins. Roofing iron
takes on a patchwork experience as conditions permit or demand.
(Devonport Gallery and Arts Centre 1985, unnumbered)
The loneliness of these homes was, one senses from the
text, both marked and relieved by the postal box that each one had at the
entrance of its access lane. `Usually a piece of wood with a container perched
atop, it was a visible link with the outside world. A singularly important
medium for communication. Each letter box had that impact.' (Devon port
Gallery and Arts Centre 1985, unnumbered)
There were many poor homes in the townships. Gardam (1996)
describes the basic cottage of her own childhood and reflects on the
arduousness of life within such homes:
The cottages of my ancestors at River Don were humble
in the extreme, as were the majority of others there. Our particular
inheritance was of timber construction lined with scrim and paper and had a
verandah on two sides. Design-wise its floor plan resembled a hot cross bun,
divided into four equal rooms. Ours had no hallway,- each room just
led into the next...
The bush carpenters' workmanship was poor; draughts
found their way behind the wallpaper, and walls whistled on windy nights_ Ours
was obviously built without any geometrical aids. Few comers were square, nor
were the doors perpendicular. What it lacked in architecture, however, it made
up for in strength. The roof construction was a veritable maze of timber
struts which probably held the whole building together and prevented it from
falling over when on occasions the front foundations collapsed...
(Gardam 1996:283)
The construction of the hydro gave rise to the need for
temporary homes for a new generation of immigrant workers. Poles who had
served with the Australian army in World War If came to work on these massive
projects in very harsh conditions. The Tasmanian novelist Flanagan captures
the adversity of the situation:
[They] knew it to be a snow-covered Hydro
Electric Commission construction camp called
In this land of infinite space, the huts were built
cheek by jowl, as if the buildings too cowered in shivering huddles before the
force and weight and silence of the unknowable, that might possibly be benign,
might possibly even not care about people, but which their terrible
histories... could only allow them to fear....
It was the time of the beginning of the great dam
building boom. The time the new Australians came to do the wog-work of dam
building, because work in the cities, which the new Australians would have
preferred, was Australians' work.
(Flanagan 1997:4)
Things got better in time. Lupton
tells of
(Lupton 1999:180)
Within the framework of The Homes of
The most popular departure involved a T-plan, with the
roof divided into two ridges at right angles to each other, one ending in a
projecting gable. The front room, usually the lounge, jutted forward on one
side of the entrance, making the house asymmetrical. The recessed side
invariably had a short verandah added... [H]ouses on this plan.... were built
most frequently of weatherboard, though brick examples are not hard to find.
Some ornamentation was added in the form of either cast iron lacework or
decorative joinery along the verandah. The more expensive houses, both brick
and weatherboard, usually had a bow window to add light and space to the front
room.
(Binks 1984: unnumbered)
Binks sees these houses of the 1880's and 90's as
having `solid worth' and suggests that their builders adopted `whatever
features were useful and decorative'. (Binks 1984: unnumbered).
The 1920's and 30's saw the arrival from
The heavy, low-pitched roof spread protecting across
the house, dipping to low jutting eaves, with a broad gable facing forward and
usually one or two others at the sides. The front gable overhung the entrance
alcove and this gable was supported by sturdy brick pillars, which tapered
upwards from broad bases... The bungalow allowed a range of minor variations
and materials, brick and tile being favoured, stucco and diamond windows
coming later.
(Binks 1984: unnumbered)
By the 1970's and 80's other features of Devonport's
housing had become apparent, such as the raising of the house on a high
foundation wall so that garage, store, workshop and playroom could be
accommodated beneath. At this time, home ownership `became the expectation of
every couple... a fully furnished, carpeted, venetian-frtted brick veneer
house of fifteen or twenty squares. And it was within the reach of every
couple - the banks, the building societies and the developers made sure of
that.' (Binks 1984).
The need for social housing is a significant
matter. A discussion with Housing
Tasmania, successor to the Housing Commission and the co-ordinating agency
for social housing, revealed that a development of two multi-purpose units (MPU's)
is taking place in Latrobe. These are units adaptable for disabled and other
users. This is the only current new-build social housing project in a whole
area administered from and including Devonport. No judgements or conclusions
should be made about this bare fact because it is the policy of Housing
Tasmania to spot purchase existing properties spread around the community
to meet needs that arise and avoid any stigma.
However 1803 properties were owned in Devonport in 1999
(www.dhhs.tas.gov.au/housingl p321/17l09/01) Some of these are in small
estates and others embodied in general areas. Anglicare community workers in Devonport indicate orally that often
people with short term housing need cannot be accommodated locally and have to
be sent to Launceston or
Anglicare
feel
that in Devonport there are acute contrasts between magnificent housing for a
few, adequate housing for most, and lack of it for a vulnerable minority. This
contrast became strikingly apparent to the writer in
At the time of writing current housing projects in
Devonport included about a dozen high specification bungalows being built in
prestigious locations by what appeared to be speculative developers. In
addition, a handful of prestigious Victorian or similar age houses were
undergoing substantial refurbishment.
14.5
General Built Environment texts
Two texts are considered. The first connects housing in
Davison (2000) traces patterns of
connection between Australian homes and their European antecedents. He starts
by explaining the complexity of the term `home' in this context. On the one
hand, it is the home country, such as
Davison believes that many of the immigrants from
Rudlin and Falk (1999)
focus on neighbourbood in the
Their answer is that urban environments need to be
created and recreated in ways that encourage people back to towns and cities,
renewing the option of urban living. They go into much detail of:
how
conservation needs to be envisaged, how choices need to be made
how
community is involved and how costs need to be managed.
They argue that planning by itself is unable to bring
about the necessary quality of change; organic growth is also necessary:
The plan has provided little more than the trellis up
which the vine of the city can grow. It gives form to the whole and this form
can enhance the beauty, function and coherence of the city. But the trellis
does not sustain the vine and many of the world's most beautiful cities have
grown organically without such artificial support. The city planner may be
able to guide and shape this process of natural growth but cannot replace it.
Where this has happened, as in modem planned cities such as new towns, the
result has been to create artificial, soulless places which have not proved
popular. It is this process of organic growth that we need to study if we are
to rediscover the art of creating successful urban neighbourhoods...
(Rudlin and Falk 1999:232)
The organic approach depends on a sense of evolving and
developing tradition, `an understanding of the town, its people and its
history and an empathy with the place... Change needs to be incremental, thus
allowing `the town to evolve gradually in response to changing circumstances
and economic conditions, so that it is constantly able to reshape itself to
meet its needs while retaining a continuity of character.' (Rudlin and Falk
1999:235). The symbol needs to be that of a garden or an orchard. Rudlin and
Falk's conclusion is at once a vision and a powerful challenge:
The challenge is no longer to criticise the present or
to visualise utopia, but to mend what we have inherited and to make what we
add truly sustainable. The central issue is not how we spend money but how we
use resources ...The twenty-first century will rediscover that towns and
cities are not only mankind's greatest invention and cultural achievement, but
that sustainable urban neighbourhoods will give us back the time and balance
that we have lost.
(Rudlin and Falk 1999:259)
14.6
General Biblical Theology texts
Three texts have been chosen for comment here. One
refers to biblical times and two to contemporary
Deist (2000) in his consideration of
The Material Culture of Me Bible, distinguishes
sharply between constructions erected by private people on farmsteads or in
villages, towns, or cities, and royal and administrative type buildings. The
latter 'were mostly carefully planned, firmly constructed and situated in
well-planned quarters of cities and towns'. (Deist 2000:195). Farmhouses,
Deist explains, were single or double storeyed and built of dry-laid limestone
or sun-dried bricks of mud or straw. In plan they were rectangular, varying in
area from 400 - 1200 square metres. The area was partly enclosed and partly
open as a courtyard, divided into an earth-floored domestic area and a paved
area for the storage of supplies and tools.
If planning is the underlying philosophy for the
development of royal, civic and military structures, it is custom and
customary practice that are at the heart of house construction for private
individuals. Custom is not `decided' upon; custom `happens'. Customs `pervade
the economic, social, political and religious behaviour of a cultural unit and
regulate behaviour and procedures in all things cultural: ploughing, sowing,
harvesting, winnowing, making wine, buying and selling, constructing a
building, manufacturing jewellery...'(Deist 2000:236). Customs such as these
develop from routines for which people find they share common values.
Assi (2002) states that there are 5000 houses in the
Old City of Jerusalem that need an average of $US25000 spent on them in major
repairs. For historical and political reasons there are special needs in
Palestinian areas. There are problems with absentee landlords and lack of
clear ownership. A planned programme of work is in hand. Its aims are:
ˇ
to provide minimum
comfort standards
ˇ
to keep the
Palestinian population safe
ˇ
to make use of
traditional craft skills
ˇ
to raise cultural
awareness for the architectural patrimony and historical environment of the
Assi presents a case study of the restoration of two
courtyard houses in Area 21, Hosh Nseibeh and Hosh Jaber. The former is
250-300 years old and the latter dates from the seventeenth century. Hosh
Nseibah, two floors high, is occupied by three families and Hosh Jeber, three
floors high, by eight families totalling 80 persons. Work began with a
detailed survey and analysis of the dwellings, noting the alterations made
over time, some of them inappropriate and of poor quality. Proposals for works
such as the formation of new bathrooms in the courtyard areas and the
subdivision of rooms have to be carefully negotiated between the occupants and
the technical officers responsible for the standards of the new works. Assi
explains further:
Rehabilitation requires a different way of working than
the design of new houses. It is distinct, both in the construction work and
how it is organized. Time spent in understanding faults and supervising work
on site is much greater than generally expected. Site work cannot be expected
to run as smoothly as new construction. Though the scale of design may be
limited, this does not make it trivial. Altering houses to modem standards,
while preserving their essential character, requires considerable sensitivity.
(Assi 2002:81)
Assi concludes her paper thus: `The architect is faced
with many challenges when trying to retain as much of the authenticity of the
buildings as possible and, at the same time, fulfilling the wishes and needs
of the residents.' (Assi 2002:85).
Assi's professional view of
I felt tall and absurdly omniscient when I stared from
our windows. There were seven, all told, six of which had rounded tops and
long, graceful sides, sunken into the walls... the windows possessed ghostly,
calming properties: Standing still and looking out, I had a peculiar feeling
of privilege at being able to peer at the world from above, as though I truly
had come to rest at the earth's epicentre, the Jerusalem of the medieval
maps...
..... what I could see from my perch was not really a
view, in the obvious tourist snapshot sense of the word, but an average
landscape made breathtaking by my enchanted angle. On a clear day it was
possible to drag a chair close to the second window in the front room, stand
delicately on it, pitch to the left, and catch a comer of the chocolate
wrapper gold that glittered from the Dome of the Rock.
(Hoffman 2001:7)
The block in which Hoffman's apartment was located was
four storeys high. It brought her near to the sky. `Most astounding of all',
she writes, Was the sky.... Living beside it meant subjecting one's moods to
its whims. Rolling grey storm clouds would amass, then yield to dainty flecks
of cumulus; pungently-chilled air heralded rain, in its season, and during
summer the hot desert wind would creep through our windows, making movement a
strain.' (Hoffman 2000:9).
It seems that here, in a
14.7
Epistles and Revelation
The Epistles are addressed to the saints at
The kenotic text of Philippians 2:5-11 implies Christ
leaving a home with God and subsequently returning to it.
Revelation 21:2-3 cs explicit in stating that there
will be a New Jerusalem and then `... the home of God [will be] among mortals.
He will dwell with them.' Malina (2000) sees the New Jerusalem as a terminal
city, to which all shall come
.
14.8
Synthesis and centripetal dynamic
Of all the Sections, cones of meaning and dynamic
trajectories considered this has been the most straight forward.
It has moved across the surface of the world from
Wherever and whenever there are human
beings, there is the matter of housing and home, the physical artefact and the
spiritual concept. Although Rudlin and Falk address the practical situation,
their approach to stewardship, mending, renewal and return to the city may be
regarded as a profoundly spiritual one.
Similarly, wherever there is
biblical theology there is the idea of a
The centripetal pull is of all homes into one.
This
completes the ten detailed studies.
General discussion is resumed in Sections 15
and 16 which now follow