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Her Home Will be
Really Her Own
To the lay woman one of the most attractive aspects of Miss
Phyllis Slater's career as an architect is that the flat she and her
architiect fiance will live in when they marry, and any future home
they may build for themselves, will be really her own in the sense V
that she has had a lot to do with the planning and creating of it. '
Nevertheless, Miss Slater
doesn't believe a woman should
become an architect "just to
design kitchens," and, in com-
mon with many women archi-
tectural students, gets just a
little tired of the laywoman's
assumption that this is the
chief end of her study.
Although still a student —
she has two terms of her fifth
year to complete before gra-
duation — Miss Slater has had
practical experience with ar-
chitectural firms during her
course, and while abroad with
her parents for 10 months in
1947 had a chance of compar-
ing architectural styles in seve
ral European capitals.
In last year's examinations
Miss Slater topped her class
of 67 men and women.
Her fiance, Mr. John Mur-
phy, is also a fifth-year archi-
tectural student.
Working Partners
The flat which is to be their
first home is providing Miss
Slater and her fiance with
their first experience as work
ing partners— "and we work
very well together," added Miss
Slater.
Their task is the conversion
of an old home in East Mal-
vern owned by John's father,
and they are dividing It into
two modernised fiats — one for
their own use, the other to be
occupied by the owner.
Phyllis and John plan to be
married as soon as the flat
they have been converting for
their use is completed, probab-
ly some time this year. They
hope to practise together soon
after graduation, and they
would like to have a firm of
their own some day when they
have gained the necessary ex-
perience.
Minimum of
Housework
Explaining the basic princi-
ples they have kept in mind
In constructing their flat, Miss
Slater said that she believed
in spacious rooms — uncluttered
with too much furniture — and
keeping the housework down to
a minimum. This latter con-
sideration is naturally most
important to a woman who
wishes to carry on with her
career after marriage.
To achieve this they have
knocked down several interior
walls, removed all superfluous
ornament — such as mantel
pieces — and now have & living-
cum-bedroom measuring 20 by
13 feet, a big studio, which is
equipped with unit cupboards,
and will also serve as a dress
ing room, a sun room ("because
I'm such a sun lover, though
I suppose It sounds a luxury,"
explained Miss Slater disarm-
Ingly), and a kitchen and din-
ing alcove.
Parts of the original house
are 80 years old, and It has
some lovely door and window
frames, which have been re-
tained and picked out in
white.
The original floor boards
have been kept and polished,
and extensive use has been
made of Baltic pine boards,
polished In their natural honey
color, to relieve the grey-
painted walls.
All the furniture is as light
and movable as possible, and
designed for comfort and sim-
plicity.
Overseas Ideas
Among the capitals visited by
Miss Slater during her trip
abroad were London, Paris and
Stockholm. In London the
historic Interest of the build
ings, and in Paris the layout
of the city, delighted her, but
she found Stockholm the most
impressive from the point of
view of modern architecture.
Not only the buildings In
Scandinavia, but the quality of
design exhibited in their china,
pottery, glassware and furni-
ture appealed to Miss Slater's
trained eye.
In Stockholm the problem of
housing a large number of
people in a small area has been
achieved very simply by means
of communal fiats and co-
operative housing schemes.
Blocks of flats for families of
average income were compar-
able with our luxury flats in
the services they offered, said
Miss Slater.
They had a communal res-
taurant, as well as a kitchen
working all day who could be
engaged by the hour by any
housewife living in the block,
and were surrounded by gar-
dens looked after by a paid
gardener.
Most flat dwellers also had
their own little window boxes,
and each flat, though small by
our standards, had its own
balcony. Families were able to
live in smaller flats than were
usually considered practicable
here, because the Scandina-
vians were accustomed to make
rooms do double duty. For in-
stance, a diningroom well
equipped with built-in cup-
boards could be used as a bed-
room at night.
With this kind of generally
accepted communal living
women were much freer to
carry on a job or career after,
marriage. Miss Slater met one
woman with three small chil-
dren who managed to hold -
down a nine to five job with
no difficulty.
Standard Required
A certain standard In matri-
culation mathematics is a pre-
requisite for the architecture
course at the University of
Melbourne, but the mathemati-
cal part of the course itself is,
mainly confined to applied
maths, and a certain amount
of practical engineering.
Miss Slater thinks it is less
these facts than the length of
the course — five years — which
accounts for the comparatively
small number of women doing
architecture.
Though her record shows
that Miss Slater is an excep- .
tionally well-balanced student
in both the theoretical and
practical sides of her profes-
sion, she modestly insists that
she needs a lot more experi-
ence before putting forward or
attempting to put into practice
any of her own theories.
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