Abstract
The purpose of our study is to analyze from historical and morphological viewpoint Oceanian house and housing which have developed rapidly since the late eighteenth century. As is well-known, Oceanian houses created truly unique development in response to Oceanian climate, huge land and new life style, while they were strongly influenced by various architectural styles which were popular in England or U.S.A.. In Japan, however, we do not have any serious research on Oceanian house yet. Our study is carried out based on a field survey and material collection in Australia. We executed a field investigation during a month in the autumn of 1990, visiting most parts of Australian historic cities and districts. The number of houses we surveyed and recorded by photograph amounts to approximately four hundreds and the number of books we collected one hundred, pamphlets three hundreds. After we have made studies on this research subject from various viewpoints, this synopsis treats historical and morphological analysis of Australian houses built between the late eighteenth century and the late nineteenth century. Though previous studies on Australian houses pointed out English and American influence on them, they do not treat morphological aspects of houses in deep level. In other words, questions how European architectural styles have been transplanted to Australia and how they have been transformed there have not been discussed deeply yet. Our study, recognizing insufficiency of previous research, attempts to make clear formal, morphological, and stylistic characteristics of Australian houses through concrete an d detailed analysis of Australian important architects and domestic works.
