Back to search results

MURRAY GRIFFIN HOUSE
52 Darebin Street HEIDELBERG, Banyule City

All information on this page is maintained by Banyule City. Click below for their website and contact details.
Banyule City
52 Darebin Street
52 Darebin Street
52 Darebin Street
On this page:

Statement of Significance

52 Darebin Street is of considerable historical and architectural significance. The house was designed by prominent architect Walter Burley Griffin, constructed of Griffin's innovative concrete knitlock system. The house was briefly the home of painter, graphic artist and teacher, Vaughan Griffin who was an official government artist during World War Two and won the Grouch and F. E. Richardson prizes in 1935 and 1939..
Show more
Show less

    • Physical Description 2

      MURRAY GRIFFIN HOUSE - Physical Description 2

      Property Description - Part CA 17/19, Warringal Village. J O'Brien, 4/5/1853

      Usage/Former Usage

      MURRAY GRIFFIN HOUSE - Usage/Former Usage

      Original Use: Residence

      Current Use: Residence

      Physical Description 1

      MURRAY GRIFFIN HOUSE - Physical Description 1

      52 Darebin Street has a cruciform plan with walls of Griffin's concrete 'knitlock' tesseral blocks and a low pyramid roof clad with Marseilles-pattern tiles. The casement windows, set between columns of vertebral blocks, have Griffin's typical chevron glazing bars. The characteristic lath and cement roof-eaves, with surface mounted downpipes, are generally intact.

      Physical Conditions

      MURRAY GRIFFIN HOUSE - Physical Conditions

      Fair

      Intactness

      MURRAY GRIFFIN HOUSE - Intactness

      Good

      Historical Australian Themes

      MURRAY GRIFFIN HOUSE - Historical Australian Themes

      The Vaughan Griffin house is an example of Griffin's extensive work in Heidelberg and Ivanhoe and is one of two knitlock houses in the area, the other being Pholiota, Griffin's own house. It was the childhood home of Vaughan Murray Griffin, one of the many artists to reside in the City of Banyule.'Knitlock' was described by Griffin as a segmental system in which mechanisation could be used to create a variety rather than a stereotype, as with precast or insitu concrete when money was in short supply. He wrote that

      Technically there are only two kinds of segments - vertebral, which lock together to make the framework or skeleton, and tesseral, which lock together for two-ply curtain walls, attaching to and stretching between the vertebral columns.

      The block patent was approved in 1918 and the tile in 1919; the Knitlock Co. was formed in 1922.

      Heritage Study and Grading

      Heritage Study and Grading

      Banyule - Banyule Heritage Study

      Author: Allum Lovell & Associates
      Year: 1999
      Grading: A

      Banyule - Heidelberg Conservation Study

      Author: Graeme Butler and Associates
      Year: 1985
      Grading:

Public contributions

Note: Developments may span multiple time periods
Timeline browser

< to 1849
< - 1849
1850 to 1879
1850 - 1879
1880 to 1909
1880 - 1909
1910 to 1939
1910 - 1939
1940 to 1969
1940 - 1969
1970 to 1999
1970 - 1999
2000 to >
2000 - >