Pre-cut construction systems: John Dalton’s ‘budget houses’ in Queensland

Commissioned by Reverand John and Maureen Strugnell to design <br/>their home in Pullenvale, Brisbane, John Dalton Architect elected to <br/>use the Lockwood system, a proprietary engineered building system by <br/>the New Zealand based Lockwood Group, utilizing Western Red Cedar <br/>imported from Canada. How did the Lockwood system, designed <br/>in 1953 by émigré Dutchman Johannes La Grouw for New Zealand <br/>conditions, became a viable option in sub-tropical Brisbane, Australia, <br/>a region with its own timber framing tradition derived ironically from a <br/>discontinued pre-cut house system? <br/> <br/>This paper describes a set of market forces – freer trade settings <br/>between New Zealand and Australia harnessed by a timber industry <br/>forced to re-structure by an inflationary business climate – and their <br/>intersection with local debate around an authentic modernism. By <br/>selecting Western Red Cedar in the context of this debate Dalton <br/>knowingly aligned himself with the work of West Coast Regionalist <br/>architects and maybe Auckland based Group Architects. Shared <br/>is an expression of tongue and groove boards. Intrinsic to pre-cut <br/>timber house systems, tongue and groove boards result from the <br/>mechanization of log cabin construction, and it is that most humble of <br/>settler structures that becomes an aesthetic reference. <br/><br/>Discussion around Dalton’s Strugnell House (1971), and the earlier <br/>Salter House (1970) for Lockwood Systems’ Brisbane franchise owner <br/>Peter Salter, provides an opportunity to trace through timber supply <br/>networks in Australian and New Zealand to describe how a material <br/>sourced in Canada and incorporated into a proprietary system delivered <br/>‘authentic’ and environmentally tuned modernist homes in Brisbane.