Monday 28 July 2025
St Kilda Army and Navy Club, St Kilda
Members attended a presentation exploring how Melbourne's housing shortage after World War I contributed to the growth of flat development, particularly in St Kilda. By the mid-1930s, almost as many flats as houses were being built across Melbourne, and by 1947 St Kilda contained 5,500 flats, representing a quarter of all flats in the city.
Members attended a presentation exploring how Melbourne's housing shortage after World War I contributed to the growth of flat development, particularly in St Kilda. By the mid-1930s, almost as many flats as houses were being built across Melbourne, and by 1947 St Kilda contained 5,500 flats, representing a quarter of all flats in the city.
The presentation examined how many of these new flats were built by European migrants and how Melbourne newspapers came to describe a new form of domestic architecture as the "Continental Flat". Often distinguished by their Streamline Moderne facades, these buildings were frequently developed by owner-occupiers who lived in one apartment and rented out the remainder.
Using several case studies of interwar and post-war apartment developments in St Kilda and Elwood, the presentation demonstrated how European migrants helped change both the architectural and social character of the area. It also explored the growing influence of émigré architects from eastern Europe in the post-war period and how apartment living became an accepted alternative to detached housing and an integral part of the distinctive identity of the suburbs today.
Speaker
David Helms is a cultural heritage planner with more than 25 years' experience in the identification, assessment, protection and management of heritage places.
He is a heritage advisor to several metropolitan and rural municipalities, including the City of Port Phillip, and manages his own heritage consultancy practice. Since 2022, he has served as the Alternate Urban & Regional Planning Member of the Heritage Council of Victoria.