Roy Grounds: Experiments in Minimum Living

When architect Tony Lee purchased a studio flat in Moonbria in Toorak, his intention was to clean it up and sell it, but a meeting with fellow architect Donald Hendry Fulton changed that and led Lee on a journey of discovery – and on to this book.

Roy Grounds is best known for his monumental buildings, particularly the National Gallery of Victoria and the adjacent Arts Centre with its distinctive spire, but his early career was influenced by personal circumstances and by the concept of the ‘minimum flat’ whose goal was, in the words of Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius, to provide ‘every grown-up person his own room even if it is the very smallest.’ The idea was to develop a low-cost, well-designed, efficient space in which essential furniture and equipment were provided which could accommodate couples or singles. The minimum flat concept was introduced to Melbourne from the UK by architect Best Overend with his Cairo project in Fitzroy. Grounds worked in London around this time and also came into contact with the movement. Grounds returned to Melbourne in 1934 and soon got work for wealthy clients. One of these was Betty Ramsay, wife of Thomas Ramsay, managing director of Kiwi Boot Polish. Grounds worked on their home in Toorak and was then commissioned by Betty to design a small house overlooking the bay in Mt Eliza; Betty used her own money to fund the project and the budget was constrained so Grounds drew on the principles of the minimum flat to keep construction costs to a minimum.

The relationship between Grounds and Betty became an intimate one and her husband took Betty and the children to London. A besotted Grounds followed Betty to London and Betty announced that she wouldn’t be returning to Melbourne; Ramsay cut off all payments to Betty and the young couple were left unemployed, with little money and by necessity had to live in small, frugal spaces. How to make spaces like these work became an intellectual challenge for Grounds. With war imminent, the couple returned to Melbourne and through Betty’s connections Grounds got his first major commission – a block of eight flats in Armadale. It was the first of four apartment projects, Clendon, Quamby, Clendon Corner and culminating in the ambitious Moonbria development where, almost 60 years later, Tony Lee purchased his apartment. All these developments were built to rent and were mostly studio or one-bedroom apartments for singles or couples. Grounds drew on the principles of the minimum flat to design and develop the projects. Often the furnishings were built in and designed by Grounds. They were designed to be comfortable, economic, efficient spaces that used local materials and were low-cost to build. In this wonderful book, Tony Lee records a groundbreaking era in Australian architecture that became an intellectual precursor to today’s Nightingale projects.