Carpenter Hall House

General

Classification

State Heritage

Register status

Entered

Date entered

10 December 2021

Type

Residential: Detached house

Themes

6.4 Building settlements, towns, cities and dwellings: Dwellings

2.10 Exploiting, utilising and transforming the land: Responding to climate and climatic events

Architect

Hall, Russell

Construction period

1986, House

Historical period

1970s–1990s Late 20th century

Location

Address

86 Main Avenue, Wilston

LGA

Brisbane City Council

Coordinates

-27.43152378, 153.0236021

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Significance

Criterion AThe place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland’s history.

Carpenter Hall House (1986), an excellent example of a late 20th century architect-designed timber residence, is important in demonstrating the evolution of Queensland’s domestic architecture. The house was designed by Queensland architect, Russell Hall (1947-). Through its form, structure, use of traditional materials (including timber and metal sheeting), design response to its setting, internal layout, and passive climate design features, the house is a distinctive and exceptional example of the way the state’s architectural profession was reworking the characteristics of traditional Queensland housing in late twentieth century architecture.   

Criterion DThe place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places.

Carpenter Hall House is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a late 20th century architect-designed residence inspired by traditional Queensland domestic architecture. Highly intact, the place retains the principal characteristics of this class of place including its: timber-framed and -clad structure with single-skin walls with diagonal bracing; pitched roof clad with corrugated metal sheets; climate responsiveness through broad roof eaves, sun shields, and abundant passive cross ventilation of the interior; and the provision of semi-outdoor rooms and garden spaces.

Distinct within this type is Russell Hall’s architectural work. Carpenter Hall House embodies architectural concepts Hall developed and refined over his career, including: Hall’s single-skin wall frames with diagonal bracing and gang-nail plates; extensive use of clear-finished Queensland timber; open plan layouts; dimensions based on the imperial system; and creative elements such as its allegorical stair balustrade, rooftop rain sprinkler system, and prominent rooftop crown with light-refracting prism.

Criterion EThe place is important because of its aesthetic significance.

Carpenter Hall House is important for its aesthetic significance as a building of exceptional architectural quality. Highly intact, it possesses beautiful attributes derived from its symmetry, form, scale, materials, detailed and meticulous assembly, and careful manipulation of natural ventilation. It possesses picturesque qualities derived from the unfolding views to, and movement through, its faceted tower-like form in a lush garden setting, large sun shields angled and repeated across its exterior, open plan interior, and winding stair through voids. 

The refraction of light throughout the interior of the house and into its garden setting from coloured glass doors and windows and rooftop prism enhances the place’s picturesque qualities.

The architectural quality of the house has been recognised by its extensive representation in architectural publications and it having received numerous architectural awards since its construction.

Criterion FThe place is important in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period.

In its highly intact form, materials, and details, Carpenter Hall House demonstrates a high degree of architectural excellence as an experimental design, finely tailored to the client’s specific requirements and interests. It is important for its cohesive aesthetic, high level of craft and creative detail, extensive use of Hall’s wall frame system, light refracting prism, and carefully considered mechanisms for abundant natural ventilation of the interior. Its extensive representation in publications and architectural awards since its construction are evidence of its recognition as a place noted for its creative and technical achievement in Queensland architecture.

History

Carpenter Hall House (occupied 1986) is a five-storey tower-like residence at Wilston, approximately 4km north of Brisbane’s CBD. Built between 1984 and 1986, and completed incrementally until 2018, it was designed by Queensland architect, Russell Hall, for his sister, Jennifer Carpenter Hall. The timber-framed house is situated on an elevated hillside beside the Eildon Hill Reserve, and has extensive views south to the city. Hall used traditional Queensland materials and construction techniques in a modern way to produce a non-traditional building form. The exterior walls of the house use Hall’s patented wall frame system, prefabricated and assembled on site. The house embodies Hall’s architectural philosophies developed throughout his career, including expressive and extensive use of Queensland timbers, carefully considered natural light and ventilation mechanisms, as well as whimsical features such as a large skylight of fluid-filled prisms that refract colours and rainbow spectra into and out of the house. Highly intact, the house is an excellent example of the evolution of Queensland architecture.   

Prior to European settlement, the area now known as Wilston was part of the traditional country of the Turrbal people. Non-Indigenous residential occupation of the area began when merchant, William Wilson, took up 300 acres (121.4ha) of land and built a stone house in c1876, which he called ‘Wilston' (QHR 600344) after his birthplace in Ireland. The later suburb, located between Newmarket and Windsor, took the name of Wilson's house. During the 19th century, Wilston remained a predominantly rural area.

Suburban growth intensified with the arrival of the railway at nearby Newmarket in 1897. In 1899 the railway line was extended to Enoggera and the town of Windsor, incorporating Wilston, was proclaimed in 1904. The train line to Newmarket station had a stop at Wilston, and settlement spread northwards from there to the desirable elevated slopes of Eildon Hill. The population of Wilston increased further following the establishment of the Grange electric tramway along Days Road in 1928.[1]

A reservoir was constructed in 1929 by the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board on Eildon Hill, situated between the suburbs of Wilston and Windsor. The hill had long been a popular vantage point for views around Brisbane and a favourite place for picnics and recreation. With the increasing population in the area, the Greater Brisbane City Council deemed it necessary to construct the reservoir to ensure residents had a reliable source of clean water. Once the reservoir had been completed in 1930, the hill was replanted and a formal drive to the top, with stately entrance pillars and gates, was constructed. Eildon Hill continued to be utilised by residents as a vantage point.[2]    

In 1924, following the earlier subdivision and sale of the land below Eildon Hill, Richard Avison, a railway employee, purchased Lots 130 and 131 of Portion 261, totalling 32 perches (809m²), and by 1929 a house had been built on the site. Avison resided in the address until the late 1940s, after which the property was sold to a succession of new owners. In 1981 Jennifer Anne Carpenter Hall purchased the property and in 1984 asked her brother, architect Russell Hall (1947-), to design a house for her.[3] By this time, the original house had fallen into disrepair and was demolished between 1981 and 1983.[4]

Brisbane in the late 1970s and early 1980s was a city attempting to transition itself away from the reputation it had in other states - a sleepy, unsophisticated, large country town. The conservative Bjelke-Petersen state government had been in power since 1968. In local politics, the long serving Lord Mayor, Clem Jones (mayor from 1961 until 1975), had encouraged inner-city development, with many new high-rise buildings replacing older ones.[5]

The almost unabated building boom of the 70s and early 80s in the inner-city areas had resulted in the demolition of many of Brisbane’s older buildings. This came to the fore when the Bjelke-Petersen government had the Belle Vue Hotel, a grand Victorian-era iron lace building, on the corner of William and Alice streets, torn down in the middle of the night in April 1979, despite protests from the Brisbane community. In November 1982, another much-loved landmark, ‘Cloudland Ballroom’ in Bowen Hills, was clandestinely demolished in the middle of the night. In the suburbs, traditional character housing, or ‘timber and tin’ areas, were increasingly eroded, with developers permitted to replace the early timber housing with modern brick houses and the ubiquitous ‘six pack’ of brick flats:

[I]n Brisbane the building boom trebled investment and brought a population increase of 35%. Moreover, there was a significant change in the use of building materials – the climatically-adapted weatherboard [house] on stilts was discarded for southern-oriented brick and brick veneer.[6]

Homogenous home designs from building companies such as AV Jennings appeared in suburbs throughout the country, often with little appreciation of the climatic and environmental context of the place in which they were constructed. In Brisbane, a heightened focus on the protection of the city’s heritage (prior to heritage legislation) and a renewed appreciation of Queensland’s traditional timber houses - the aesthetics, materials, and construction methods - emerged in the community.[7]  

The Queenslander house developed during the 19th century as a response to the local subtropical climate, including the need for ventilation, dry open-air living space in summer, and termite control. It was generally elevated on timber stumps and had verandahs on some or all sides that shaded and protected external walls. Roofs were pitched and sheeted with corrugated iron. Timber (hardwood and softwood) was extensively used due to the abundant supply, and many houses were single-skin, with timber stud framing and cross-bracing exposed. Decorative features that screened the sun or ventilated the interior evolved over the decades.[8]

The distinctive single-skin timber construction technique evolved in Queensland from the mid-1860s. In this period, architects Richard George Suter, working for the Board of General Education in Brisbane, and Richard Hugo Oswald Roehricht, as chief draftsman for the Great Northern Railway at Rockhampton, were exploring similar architectural ideas for what was initially called ‘outside studding’. Exposing the structural frame and the outside face of the internal lining to the exterior increased the architectural expression of buildings and allowed for economic construction. Schools and churches built using this technique were a key influence in the widespread adoption of single-skin timber construction throughout colonial Queensland.[9]

Following World War II, the traditional house broadly fell out of favour, with an increasing preference for modern residential designs and materials.[10] However, the 1960s gradually saw a renewed awareness and appreciation of the state’s architectural history, especially its distinctive domestic tradition. Architects such as John Railton, Graham Bligh and John Dalton are recognised as among the earliest designers whose work expressed these influences. Students at the University of Queensland and the Queensland Institute of Technology, taught by architectural educators such as Peter Newell, Ian Sinnamon and James Birrell, began undertaking surveys and research of traditional buildings as part of their studies, advocating for its qualities and retention of this architectural heritage.[11]

Russell Hall Architects was one of several firms that were, increasingly from the 1970s, taking inspiration from the traditional ‘Queenslander’ house to develop a contemporary expression for Queensland architecture. These were predominantly residences, although in an abstracted form.[12] Differing in execution and often experimental, the work of Queensland architects such as Hall, Rex Addison, and Gabriel Poole drew upon this tradition.[13] Characteristics they drew inspiration from included: materials (predominantly timber and corrugated metal sheets); form (elevated above ground, box-like, and having a dominant roof); construction techniques (lightweight stud wall framing, often single-skin); use of smaller repeated timber members (battens, slats, and lattice); provision of semi-outdoor spaces (verandahs, decks, courtyards, and outdoor rooms); and mechanisms to allow abundant natural light and ventilation of the interior while providing protection from harsh weather (cross ventilation, shaded operable windows, and wide overhanging eaves).[14]

Russell and Jennifer Hall grew up on a farm in the small town of Harrisville, in the Fassifern (now Scenic Rim) district. Russell received his education from Scots College, Warwick and Brisbane Grammar School (QHR 600124). He studied architecture at the University of Queensland and Queensland Institute of Technology (QUT in 2021), graduating in 1974. After working briefly in architect, James Birrell’s firm, Hall accepted a role with the Papua New Guinea Housing Commission in 1976 and worked in Papua New Guinea until 1979. On returning to Australia, he established his own architectural practice in Buderim in 1980 and then in Brisbane in 1986, as Russell Hall Architects. In 1991 Hall also established a sheet metal design and manufacturing business, Ripple Iron Curving Company, that produced high quality metal products such as street furniture.[15]         

Hall’s architecture has been described by contemporaries as inventive, rational and yet, romantic.[16] Hall’s houses employed traditional materials and forms, building scale and lot siting, and fitted well into traditional streetscapes. The typical Hall house is small, single skin, and with an unusually shaped roof with wide overhanging eaves for shelter from rain and sun. They are generally raised from the ground and are light and airy in character. They are connected to their sites and usually topped by a ventilator. The buildings use clear-finished timber extensively, especially on the interiors for floors, walls, and ceilings and the primary structural timbers were left exposed. Other examples of Hall’s work in Queensland include Hall House, Mons, in the Sunshine Coast hinterland (1982), which was built as his own home and used upturned tree trunks with exposed roots as the main structural support for the roof; Judge Residence, Camp Island in North Queensland (1988); Prasser House, Ashgrove in Brisbane (1984); the restoration and redevelopment of the Rialto Theatre, West End in Brisbane (1995); and the Varitimos Buildings on the corner of Boundary and Vulture streets, West End in Brisbane (1996-98).[17]

Work began on the Carpenter Hall House project in 1984-85.[18] The initial design submitted to the Brisbane City Council (BCC) for Carpenter Hall House differed to what was built, with the final design approved by the BCC in 1984.[19] The appointed builder for the house was Maroochydore based, Dave Berg.[20]

The site sloped steeply to the south and was adjacent to the Eildon Hill Reserve to the north and east, with only one neighbour to the west. The new house would take up approximately 16 percent of the land to accommodate a large garden. The topography of the site allowed Hall’s design to make use of the northern sun and afford southern views toward the city.         

The decision to construct the house from timber followed Hall’s design philosophies of experimenting with construction techniques and materials of traditional Queensland houses.[21] His work in Papua New Guinea for the National Housing Commission had developed a technique that used exposed stud and single skin construction as a response to the consistent hot, humid climate, coupled with cost restraints.[22]

ArchitectureAU described Hall’s design for the house in 2019 as:

A five-storey building…For the body of the house, he used a traditional nineteenth-century timber construction technique of exposed stud bracing, single-skin walls and tall timber stumps, which he wrapped in diagonal sunshades of galvanised steel that beautifully compliment the pattern of the timber structure. In terms of its materiality, the residence conforms to Queensland’s timber-and-tin building tradition. However, this is about all that is ‘traditional’ about this house.[23]

Unlike most conventional houses, Carpenter Hall House’s axes were vertical, rather than horizontal.[24] He based his design on the geometric shape of the dodecagon and in a 2013 interview, Hall explained his design:

In laying out Jennifer’s house, I divided the thing into parts of 12, into a dodecagon … on her house, I thought, if I could make it look more like an overall sculpture, it’s an exercise in dodecagon, with final form being the full dodecagon which is the loft. The other ones [floors] are various divisions of a dodecagon, and then you’ve got to move through it, there was a fair bit done to try and make it interesting to move through … just by the staircases and the voids and how much area you have on this level… you can look through the house and look through 3 or 4 levels … so you get the feeling of, you’re not just a floor, a floor, a floor’.[25]

At the top level of the five-storey house (Level 5) was the loft, fitted out as a sewing room and open to the prism skylight above; Level 4 was the main bedroom with ensuite bathroom; Level 3 was the living room; and Level 2 was the kitchen, dining, and main entrance to the house. Level 1 was another bedroom, bathroom, laundry, and a separate entrance. Connecting each floor were timber staircases with elaborate (and allegorical) timber balustrades. Throughout the interior of the house, polished Queensland timbers have been used, and windows include coloured glass and lead-light by glass artist, Norman Birrell.[26]

Hall, a self-confessed proponent of imperial measurements, rather than metric, believed that the use of imperial has ‘a straight relationship with the human body’ and the design of the house was not only an exercise in numbers, but also an exercise in geometry. 

Hall used his patented wall frame system for the exterior walls of the house. This system ‘uses nail plates to join the wall framing members, to form a high strength, yet attractive timber frame. This enables factory production of wall frames which can also act as trusses, allowing the possibility of eliminating some bearers and footings’.[27] All were prefabricated in a factory in Maryborough, and Hall has stated Carpenter Hall House was the highpoint of the use of this technique.[28]

Consideration for comfort within Brisbane’s subtropical climate was foremost in the design of the house. Traditional Queenslanders incorporated sun-shading, including verandahs with wide overhangs, and natural ventilation through the house. Considered and innovative sun-shading was a key component, as Hall explains:

shading devices were installed to improve the climatic performance of the house and to reduce the need for maintenance. These are made from 16 gauge flat, galvanised steel which is folded, eliminating the need for supporting battens. The angles at which these awnings have been placed reflect the sun control needs to the various elevations.[29]

The shade devices also provided the house a particular feature of its distinctive aesthetic.    

The verticality of the house assisted with the ventilation in the house with a turbine vent installed on the roof of the loft to extract hot air away from the voids.[30] Additionally, a cooling system was installed on the roof to spray water onto the roof to help cool the house.[31] The skylight at the top of the house was an inventive feature which used fluid-filled prisms to refract coloured light and rainbows into and out of the house.[32] The skylight was experimental and after several failed attempts to create a fluid-filled skylight that would refract coloured light, and with technical help from advisors from the QIT (QUT in 2021), the skylight was developed and installed. Although it was not entirely complete, Jennifer Carpenter Hall occupied the house by 1986.[33]

When referring to Carpenter Hall House, architectural critic, Graham Jahn described Hall: ‘his ideology resides outside the mainstream themes of wider architectural practice, especially in terms of metaphor, allegorical allusions and handicraft motifs’.[34] With a focus on traditional, craft-based methods, the interior timber work throughout the house reflects Hall’s philosophy.[35] An admirer of Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi’s work, Hall embedded fairy tales and story within the design of the house – the tower design, staircase balustrades, and lead-light windows.

In August 1987, Carpenter Hall House was featured in the Sunday Mail Colour Magazine’s ‘Design for Living’ section, which highlighted its innovative architecture to a broad audience. The house was described as a ‘castle in the sky…something special has happened to architecture. It has found its artistic heart’. The article included an interview with Hall who explained the design of the house and its creative features. Large photographs showcased the interior and exterior of the house, and the article also included the architectural plans.[36]  

Further work on Carpenter Hall House was carried out incrementally over the years to complete the final design, including the completion of the timber balustrades to the staircases c1992. Jennifer and Russell Hall declared the house complete in 2018.[37] In 2021 Hall designed a detached, two-storey garage and art studio in the garden at the front of the house, lower down the slope.[38]

The extensive sub-tropical gardens surrounding the house have been planted by Jennifer Carpenter Hall over the years and consist of an array of predominately native Queensland species with a focus on attracting native animals and birds. The garden extends across the house lots onto the adjacent unformed road reserve east of the house, Silvester Street, which also contains the driveway and entrance stair to the house.  

Carpenter Hall House has been included in many Australian architectural publications including books, journal articles and magazines. Titles such as Contemporary Australian Architecture, Eight Great Houses, Australian Architecture Since 1960, Architecture in Brisbane, ArchitectureAU, Houses, Architecture Australia, and International Architect have celebrated the house’s attributes and the architect’s creativity. In 2008 it was included in the Australian contribution to the prestigious Venice Biennale of Architecture.[39]  

Russell Hall has been the recipient of several prestigious awards for the design of Carpenter Hall House. In 1988 Hall was awarded the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA), Queensland Chapter, Innovation Award for his patented wall frame system used on the house. In 2009-2010 the house was included on the Australian Institute of Architect’s (AIA) ‘Nationally Significant 20th-Century Architecture’ Heritage Register, and was described as an ‘extraordinary beacon of individual expression … an extremely inventive conception in pushing vernacular forms into unfamiliar geometry to produce a highly individual yet functional result’.[40] In 2018, after it was declared complete, Hall won an award for Carpenter Hall House in the AIA’s Queensland Architecture Award in the Residential Architecture - Houses (New) category.[41]

In 2021, the house continues to be a private residence and remains highly intact.

Description

Carpenter Hall House (1986-2018) is a tower-like, timber-framed house in Wilston, approximately 4km north of the Brisbane CBD. The house stands on two allotments (totalling approximately 809m²) fronting Main Avenue to the south with Silvester Street, an unformed road reserve, on its eastern side. Located on the southern slopes of the Eildon Hill Reserve, the land is steep, and the five-storey house stands on the rear (northern) part of the yard at its high point, affording impressive panoramic views. The house has two bedrooms, and its small footprint is surrounded by a lush sub-tropical garden setting, which stretches across into the Silvester Street road reserve.

Standing adjacent to the road in the front yard is a two-storey garage/art studio (2021), also designed by Russell Hall, which is not of state-level cultural heritage significance.

The place is highly intact and has a high degree of integrity.

Features of the place of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• House
• Garden Setting and Views

House

The house is a five-storey, timber-framed and -clad, freestanding residence with a corrugated metal sheet-clad roof. Its incremental construction period (1984-2018) has seen a number of small changes made to it over time, either completing the original design, or corrections and embellishments to it, designed by Russell Hall. The building is well crafted, particularly in the use of Queensland timbers, and features architectural mechanisms to allow abundant ventilation of the interior while providing protection from the sub-tropical climate.

The house is approached via a concrete vehicle driveway or adjacent tiled stair from Main Avenue in the south, up the steep slope of Silvester Street (east of the house), to arrive on the northern side of the house at a small terrace, the main entrance. 

The house stands on two flat terraces cut into the steep slope and retained by walls. The lowest floor is level with a small terrace on the southern side and the first floor is level with the northern entry, the main entrance. The building rises above this to a 12-sided, peaked roof, crowned by a cap that incorporates a multi-faceted, light-refracting prism and turbine ventilator. The building’s external walls comprise modular, single-skin timber wall frames with diagonal bracing members, forming an attractive lattice-like exterior skin. Wrapping this is a series of wide, galvanised metal-sheet fins, projecting from the walls and angled diagonally on the east and west faces of the house to shelter it from the low rising and setting sun.

The house fuses traditional and non-traditional Queensland building materials, construction techniques, and detailing. It has an airy, romantic character brought about by its tower-like form, lightweight construction, open plan and room layout, its small floor plate size, attention to cross ventilation, and whimsical features such as triangular windows with vibrant coloured glass and leadlights, and the prism which casts large rainbowspectra through the house and into the garden.  

The shape of the floor plan of each level is based on two concentric 12-sided polygons. The floor plates occupy part or all of those shapes, and the geometry of the house is faceted rather than rectilinear. Its walls and partitions meet at angles (multiples of 30 degrees) to form a variety of faceted or wedge-shaped rooms. The plan layout is typically one room deep, open plan, with open doorways rather than doors, and incorporates a winding stair with generous voids to facilitate natural cross-ventilation and emphasise the flowing, complex spatial form and arrangement of its rooms.

Level 1 (the lowest floor) accommodates a guest suite (bedroom, bathroom, and small sitting room) and laundry, and opens out onto the southern terrace via a secondary entrance to the house. Level 2 accommodates the main entry (on the northern side) and a kitchen and dining area. It opens out onto the northern terrace. Level 3 accommodates a living room and opens out on its northern and southern sides to raised decks. Level 4 accommodates the main bedroom, a walk-through dressing room, and ensuite bathroom. Level 5, the top of the tower, accommodates a sewing room.

Features of the house of state-level cultural heritage significance also include:

• building form, scale, materials, and details
• timber floor, wall, and roof framing, including a variety of Australian timber species (principally Queensland) including spotted gum (Corymbia maculata), brush box (Lophostemon confertus), Queensland blue gum (Eucalyptus tereticornis), Queensland maple (Flindersia brayleyana), silky oak (Grevillea robusta), cedar (Toona spp.), and Tasmanian oak (Eucalyptus spp.)
• modular construction, diagonal bracing, and gang-nail plates of wall framing
• tall timber stumps and their ant caps supporting northern deck and Level 5
• Level 3 northern raised deck and its timber balustrade and boarded valance and southern raised deck (2011 – adjacent windows were altered to provide access onto the deck) and its galvanised steel balustrade and structure
• corrugated metal sheet wall (external and internal) and roof cladding, metal water goods including decoratively-shaped gutter/downpipe trimmings, galvanised metal sheet fins (sunshades) including bracketed sun hoods and their metal ties and bracings
• roof ‘crown’, including its prism, turbine ventilator and hinged damper, conical cap, and lightning rod finial
• timber board linings of floors and walls, including timber species, changing floor board orientation aligning with geometry of the house, and alternating light and dark boards (Level 3)
• abundant natural ventilation of interior spaces
• plasterboard-lined ceilings and partition walls
• original materials palette and colour scheme, including unpainted metal goods, red-brown painted and clear-finished interior and exterior timbers (some primary structural timbers are painted and other timbers are clear-finished), blue painted door and window sashes and frames (exterior side), and white-painted plasterboard linings
• internal room layout, including open plan arrangement with flowing room connections (rather than doors)
• timber internal stair, including its landings, treads, handrails, allegorical fretwork balustrade across all levels (1992), and voids
• timber joinery (mixture of traditional and non-traditional detailing) including skirting boards, architraves, joinery of kitchen, bathroom, and wardrobe (cabinets, shelves, cupboards), doors, windows, sidelights, and fanlights, including hexagonal front door, triangular fanlights (Level 5), triangular fixed windows, and louvred window shutters, and services riser
• glazing including coloured and clear glass and leadlights
• metal filigree or louvred screens to openings - some screens were added c2013 to Hall’s designs
• original fixtures and fittings, including sinks, basins, toilets, mirrors, tapware, door and window hardware, and light fittings (internal and external)
• panoramic view from within the house and southern deck looking south to the surrounding suburb, CBD, and distant landscape.

Garden Setting and Views

The house opens onto a lush surrounding garden through its many openings with tiled terraces on the northern and southern side. The garden is dense and provides a screening buffer to the neighbours, cooling outdoor living spaces, and open space on all sides of the house to facilitate abundant natural ventilation of the interior. The garden stretches eastwards from the house into Silvester Street, and incorporates the driveway and entrance stair winding up its slope.

Planted and maintained by Jennifer Carpenter Hall since 1986, the garden has an informal layout and features many mature Australian native trees species, some of which were planted to match the timbers used in the house, including brush box (Lophostemon confertus), Queensland maple (Flindersia brayleyana), and silky oak (Grevillea robusta).

Features of the Garden Setting of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• northern and southern terraces and associated stairs including their chequerboard tiles and masonry
• southern terrace: masonry and metal pipe balustrade and its pier-mounted clothesline, built-in concrete fishpond
• limewashed finish on garden walls
• lush, secluded, vegetated character comprising planted understorey of vines and shrubs below tall trees
• mature trees including figs (Ficus hillii, Ficus benjamina), lacy tree ferns (Cyathea cooperi), hoop pines (Araucaria cunninghamii), and palms (Archontophoenix alexandrae and cunninghamiana)   
• entrance stair and its chequerboard tiles and concrete driveway.

Views of state-level cultural heritage significance include:

• view from the driveway and adjacent stair looking (west to northwest) to the house
• view from the northern terrace looking south to the northern elevation of the house.
• Features of the Garden Setting not of state-level cultural heritage significance include:
• Garage/Art Studio (2021) and associated landscaping and external structures
• metal bird statue (installed 2008) mounted to southern terrace balustrade
• boundary fences/walls, concrete surface of northern boundary retaining slope
• underground services
• all features within the Main Avenue road reserve except the overhanging tree canopies of trees planted within the house yard and Silvester Street road reserve
• median strip planting and its rockwork borders.

References

[1] Entry on the Queensland Heritage Register, Wilston State School (QHR 602855); Queensland Government, Map 1: South East Queensland Traditional Owner Groups, 2017.
[2] Brisbane Courier, 24 June 1925, p.8; ‘Eildon Hill Reservoir’, Brisbane City Council Heritage Citation, https://heritage.brisbane.qld.gov.au/heritage-places/1805, Accessed 2 July 2021.
[3] Department of Resources (Resources) Certificate of Title 186528; Queensland Electoral Rolls, 1925, 1936, 1937, 1943, 1949; Post Office Directories, 1930 and 1936.
[4] Brisbane City Council Archives, ‘Site Application Field Report’, Development Assessment File, 86 Main Avenue, Wilston.
[5] Ross Fitzgerald, From 1915 to the Early 1980s: A History of Queensland, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane, 1984, p.447; John.R.Cole, Shaping a City: Greater Brisbane 1926-1985, William Brooks Queensland, 1985, pp.238-241.
[6] Ibid., p.167.
[7] Fitzgerald, From 1915 to the Early 1980s: A History of Queensland, p.455; Rod Fisher, ‘Protecting the Buildings of Queensland’, Bygone Brisbane: Its History, Your Heritage, Brisbane History Group, 2016, pp.3-14.
[8] De Gruchy, Architecture in Brisbane, p.16; Robert Riddel, ‘Design’, in The Queensland House: a roof over our heads’, Rod Fisher and Brian Crozier (eds.), Brisbane: Queensland Museum, 1994, pp.49-62; Richard Hyde, 2013, ‘Climate responsive design: a study of buildings in moderate and hot humid climates’, pp.108, 207-208.
[9] Donald Watson, 2012, ‘A House of Sticks: A History of Queenslander Houses in Maryborough’, Queensland Review, Vol.19, June 2012, p.52, cited in Entry on the Queensland Heritage Register, North Pine Presbyterian Church (former) (QHR 600767).
[10] When Modernism became popular in Queensland following World War II, brick and concrete houses with rectangular plan forms became more common, and flat or low-pitched roofs were typical. Post-Modernist houses (c1970-80s) became more sculptural, with a mixture of flat and pitched roofs, and historical revival concepts produced an eclectic house form; De Gruchy, Architecture in Brisbane, pp.28-37.
[11] See Robert Riddell, 2015, ‘The Discovery of Queensland’s Architectural History’, in John Macarthur, Deborah van der Plaat, Janina Gosseye and Andrew Wilson (eds), Hot Modernism: Queensland Architecture 1945-1975, Artifice books on architecture, pp.104-109.
[12] De Gruchy, Architecture in Brisbane, p.38; Elizabeth Musgrave, April 2005, ‘Mapping the edge: an analysis of regional responses in the Queensland house’, thesis submitted for Masters of Philosophy, School of Geography Planning and Architecture, University of Queensland, p.31; Jennifer Taylor, Australian Architecture Since 1960, second edition, Red Hill, ACT: National Education Division. 1990, pp.131-37; ‘Critical Regionalism’, in John Fleming, Hugh Honour and Nikolaus Pevsner, The Penguin Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, fifth edition, England: Penguin Group, 1999, p.134; Riddell, 2015, ‘The Discovery of Queensland’s Architectural History’, p.109.
[13] Musgrave, April 2005, ‘Mapping the edge’, University of Queensland, p.31; Beck and Cooper, ‘The Contemporary Queenslander’, in Place Makers, p.25.
[14] De Gruchy, Architecture in Brisbane, p.38-45; Wallace and Stutchbury, Place Makers, pp.54-75, 118-131, 246-255.
[15] Digital Archive of Queensland Architecture, ‘Russell Hall: Biography’, https://qldarch.net/architect/summary?architectId=77 Accessed 14 July 2021; Russell Hall Architect Website https://russellhallarchitects.com.au/about-us-2/ Accessed 14 July 2021; Timothy O’Donnell, The Fassifern Connection: Russell Hall and the Exposed Stud Frame, Bachelor of Architecture Thesis, University of Queensland, 1987, Chapter 3, Russell Hall’s Use of the Exposed Frame’, p.35; Robert Riddell, ‘The Discovery of Queensland’s Architectural History, in John Macarthur, Deborah van der Plaat, Janina Gosseye and Andrew Wilson (eds), Hot Modernism: Queensland Architecture 1945-1975, Artifice books on architecture, p.108.
[16] Robert Riddell, ‘Carpenter Hall House’, Significant Queensland 20th Century Architecture – A Report, Royal Australian Institute of Architects, April 2005, p. 17.
[17] Jennifer Taylor, Australian Architecture Since 1960, Law Book Co., New South Wales, 1986, p.134; Digital Archive of Queensland Architecture, ‘Russell Hall: Biography’, https://qldarch.net/architect/summary?architectId=77 Accessed 14 July 2021; Russell Hall Architects Website <https://russellhallarchitects.com.au/about-us-2/> Accessed 14 July 2021.
[18] Janina Gosseye and Donald Watson, Interview with Architect, Russell Hall, Digital Archive of Queensland Architecture, 20 September 2013, https://qldarch.net/architect/interview/2515?architectId=77 Accessed 7 July 2021; Janina Gosseye, ‘Revisited: Carpenter Hall House’, ArchitectureAU, 21 February 2019; Conference Papers, Private Vices or Virtues: Architects in Search of Aesthetics of Resistance, School of Architecture, University of Queensland, 2017.
[19] Brisbane City Council Archives, ‘Minute of the Planning Policy Advisory Committee Meeting, 29 November 1984’, Development Assessment File, 86 Main Avenue, Wilston; Allenby Et al, Eight Great Houses, p.146.
[20] Sunday Mail Colour Magazine, 2 August 1987, p.20.
[21] Timothy O’Donnell, The Fassifern Connection: Russell Hall and the Exposed Stud Frame, Bachelor of Architecture Thesis, University of Queensland, 1987, Chapter 3, Russell Hall’s Use of the Exposed Frame’, p.35.
[22] Russell Hall, ‘Queensland Tudor’, Architecture Australia, Vol.67, 1978, pp.65-66.
[23] Janina Gosseye, ‘Revisited: Carpenter Hall House’, ArchitectureAU, 21 February 2019; Australian Institute of Architects, ‘Carpenter Hall House’, Nationally Significant 20th Century Architecture, Accessed 14 July 2021; Robert Riddell, ‘Carpenter Hall House’, Significant Queensland 20th Century Architecture – A Report, Royal Australian Institute of Architects, April 2005, p. 17.
[24] Allenby Et al, Eight Great Houses, p.144.
[25] Janina Gosseye and Donald Watson, Interview with Architect, Russell Hall, Digital Archive of Queensland Architecture, 20 September 2013, https://qldarch.net/architect/interview/2515?architectId=77 Accessed 7 July 2021.
[26] The Royal Australian Institute of Architects Queensland Chapter, 2021, Queensland Heritage Register application, Carpenter Hall House, information from application.
[27] Russell Hall Architects Website, Promotional Material, https://russellhallarchitects.com.au/wall-frame-system-1/ Accessed 15 July 2021; this document refers to the house as ‘Lambert Tower House’; De Gruchy, Architecture in Brisbane, p.44.
[28] Gosseye and Watson, Interview with Architect, Russell Hall; Allenby Et al, Eight Great Houses, p.137.
[29] Graham Jahn, Contemporary Australian Architecture, ‘Carpenter Hall House’, Gordon and Breach Arts International, New South Wales, 1994, p. 213.
[30] Ibid., p.215.
[31] O’Donnell, The Fassifern Connection: Russell Hall and the Exposed Stud Frame, p.54.
[32] Gosseye and Watson, Interview with Architect, Russell Hall
[33] Allenby Et al, Eight Great Houses, p.135.
[34] Ibid., p.213.
[35] Ibid., p.217.
[36] Sunday Mail Colour Magazine, 2 August 1987, pp.19-21.
[37] Janina Gosseye, ‘Revisited: Carpenter Hall House’, ArchitectureAU, 21 February 2019.
[38] The Royal Australian Institute of Architects Queensland Chapter, 2021, Queensland Heritage Register application, Carpenter Hall House, information from application..
[39] The Royal Australian Institute of Architects Queensland Chapter, 2021, Queensland Heritage Register application, Carpenter Hall House, information from application..
[40] Australian Institute of Architects, Nationally Significant 20th-Century Architecture, Heritage Register Accessed 26 July 2010.
[41] ArchitectureAU, ‘Winners Revealed: 2018 Queensland Architecture Awards’ Accesses 26 July 2021.

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