Your building's date

 Last week we looked at furnishing a historic building, which leads us to the question of what style and date our building is, so that we can make decisions in harmony with its architectural era. In South Africa, the earliest dwellings in a Western style date to the 18th Century in the Cape Dutch style, characterised by whitewashed walls, thatched roofs and decorative plaster gables. This style remained popular into the early 1800s, and saw a revival in the 20th Century, often with copies of the gable at Groot Constantia, the most famous of the original Cape Dutch homesteads.

Groot Constantia, a Cape Dutch homestead

(creative commons licensed: https://jenikirbyhistory.getarchive.net/media/cape-dutch-building-fbbb50)

From 1820, we see the introduction of British influence, initially in the Georgian style with often very plain white plastered walls, elegantly proportioned timber windows and slate or metal sheeting for the shallow-pitched roofs. Through the 19th Century, this style was gradually replaced by the much more elaborate Victorian style, which lasted into the early years of the 20th Century, by which time, the houses were often very complex in their forms and highly decorated with timber verandas or decorative cast iron that was imported from Scotland. At the same time, the more modest houses retained the Georgian simplicity, but often with a veranda on the street side as we saw at the village of Rhodes in the Eastern Cape.

Victorian house in Pietermaritzburg
(creative commons licensed: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:9_2_436_0006-Overpark1-122_Loop_Street-Pietermaritzburg-s.jpg#/media/File:9_2_436_0006-Overpark1-122_Loop_Street-Pietermaritzburg-s.jpg)

Throughout the 20th Century, a number of styles often co-existed, in the earliest years of the century with the more formal Edwardian style seen alongside the Arts and Crafts. The Edwardian style is characterised by the use of classical detailing, with columns in the classical orders, arches and shallow triangular pediments. The layouts tend to be very formal and symmetrical. By contrast, the houses in the Arts and Crafts style have a more free-form plan, expressing the different rooms each with its volumetric articulation. The materials tend to be naturalistic, with facebrick, natural stonework, unpainted wooden windows and doors, and wooden shingles for the roof. 

Arts and Crafts house by Lutyens 
(creative commons licensed: https://get.pxhere.com/photo/architecture-villa-mansion-house-building-chateau-palace-home-chimney-castle-property-place-of-worship-uk-england-monastery-english-britain-stately-estate-traditional-surrey-vernacular-manor-house-country-house-rural-area-stately-home-arts-and-crafts-goddards-abinger-common-lutyens-jekell-landmark-trust-historic-site-551776.jpg)

As we move through the 20th Century, there is a blurring line between styles, and many styles proliferate. For example, in the 1930s, we see Art Deco merging with the International Style with the Streamline Moderne, which borrow imagery from the Modernist repertoire, but in a more free-style template,often employing symmetry, whereas the purist Modernist architects would tend to opt for asymmetrical forms that articulated the different elements of the design.

An Art Deco apartment block
(creative commons licensed: https://www.sapeople.com/fab-south-african-stuff/art-deco-buildings-springs-south-africa/)

Mid-century, we see Modernism dominating, with simplified forms and detailing, flying under the banner of "form follows function" with a functionalist aesthetic. In this era, a common plan form for individual houses has the livingroom, dining room and kitchen grouped together at one end of the house, with a passage off which are the bedrooms in a line facing north and the bathrooms on the cooler south side of the passage. This is also the era in which apartment buildings started to proliferate, many of which use a combination of facebrick and plaster with open balconies to articulate the exterior of the building.

From the 1960s, there is a reaction to this austere approach, and Post-modernism appears, with great diversity of style, for example the often derided Tuscan. In the 21st century, we are finding a return to many of the principles of modernism, but with a greater emphasis on environmental sustainability with features such as sun-shading, green roofs and vegetated walls. 

So how can we find the actual date of our building? If you are the building owner, a great idea is to visit your municipal offices and ask to see the plans for your property. They will allow you to make copies, which are always useful for visualising your ideas, even if you are not planning any building work that would require you to submit plans to the local authority. On your file, you should find all of the additions and alterations that have taken place over the years.

For older buildings, the original plans may not exist, so you may need to explore your local heritage organisation such as the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation https://joburgheritage.org.za/ or visit the Heritage Portal if your building has a Blue Plaque https://www.theheritageportal.co.za/. Another valuable site for buildings of architectural merit is https://www.artefacts.co.za/