Australian architectural styles, like the revivalist trends which dominated Europe for centuries, have been primarily derivative.

Background

The Indigenous Australians were a largely nomad

Nomad

Nomadic people , commonly known as itinerants in modern-day contexts, are communities of people who move from one place to another, rather than settling permanently in one location. There are an estimated 30-40 million nomads in the world. Many cultures have traditionally been nomadic, but...

ic people, so there was little indigenous architectural style or tradition to influence the ideas and knowledge that the British settlers brought with them when settling Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 from 1788.

During the nineteenth century, Australian architects were inspired by developments in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. This is in part due to a large number of architects coming from England to Australia to practice. In the twentieth century, American and International influences dominated. As Australia gradually became a multicultural nation in the late 20th century, the influences of immigrants also became evident. Imported exotic styles earlier than this can be found in a small number of historically significant Joss house

Joss house

A Shenist temple or Chinese folk temple is a place for worshiping the variety of indigenous Chinese shen from Chinese folk religion and Chinese mythology....

s and synagogue

Synagogue

A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...

s. In more recent times, other global and South-East Asian influences have had a minor influence on Australian architectural styles.

Some architectural styles show the direct influence of local factors such as climate

Climate

Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods...

 (directly resulting in the "Filigree", "Queenslander" and "Federation Home" styles) and local materials

Building material

Building material is any material which is used for a construction purpose. Many naturally occurring substances, such as clay, sand, wood and rocks, even twigs and leaves have been used to construct buildings. Apart from naturally occurring materials, many man-made products are in use, some more...

 and skillsets. Some Australian Architects were also seen at the forefront of various movements, particularly residential architects like Harry Norris

Harry Norris

Harry Norris was an Australian architect whose works are spread across Melbourne. He was well known for his strong Art Deco Style combining American and Australian architecture. He was one of the most prolific commercial architects between 1920 and 1930...

, Roy Grounds

Roy Grounds

Sir Roy Burman Grounds , wasone of Australia's leading architects of the modern movement.-Biography:Born in Melbourne, Grounds was educated at Scotch College and then Melbourne University and worked for the architectural firm of Blackett, Forster and Craig...

, Robin Boyd

Robin Boyd

Robin Gerard Penleigh Boyd CBE was an influential Australian architect, writer, teacher and social commentator...

, Frederick Romberg

Frederick Romberg

Frederick Romberg, , born on June 21, 1913 in Tsingtao, China, is a Swiss-trained architect who migrated to Australia in 1938....

 and Harry Seidler

Harry Seidler

Harry Seidler, AC OBE was an Austrian-born Australian architect who is considered to be one of the leading exponents of Modernism's methodology in Australia and the first architect to fully express the principles of the Bauhaus in Australia.Harry Seidler designed more than 180 buildings and he...

.

Categories of styles

Australian Architectural Styles can be divided into 2 main categories: "Residential" and "Non-Residential". Residential styles are the most widespread and account for the majority of the buildings constructed in Australia, but non-residential buildings display the greater variety of styles.

Styles in detail:

• Australian residential architectural styles
  Australian residential architectural styles
  Australian residential architectural Periods can be broadly categorised as follows :*Pre-Colonial Period 30,000 BCE - 1788 CE*Old Colonial Period 1788 - c. 1840*Victorian Period c. 1840 - c. 1890...
  
   30,000 BCE - present
• Australian non-residential architectural styles
  Australian non-residential architectural styles
  Australian non-residential architectural styles are a set of Australian architectural styles that apply to buildings used for purposes other than residence and have been around only since the first colonial government buildings of early European settlement of Australia in 1788.Their distribution...
  
  1788 - present

External links

• Australian architectural heritage - satire Interpreting paradise