Introduction

Off the (Curtain) Wall is the result of a critical dialogue on the “modernist” curtain wall; its history, significance in Australia and the environmental failures of deracination. This project suggests a possible prototype to preserve and retell the story of historically significance curtain wall buildings within the context of a post pandemic Sydney.

These discussions and eventual proposal conclude around the protagonist of the story, “Berger House” a commercial building within the Sydney CBD. Berger House, located at 82-88 Elizabeth Street, a city block north of Hyde Park, was originally permitted in 1951 as a residential tower titled the “Morley Building” complete with “smart open batten sunshades above all windows and a highstyle multiple arch entrance canopy”1 designed by C. A. Gaskin (Figure 1), although due to financial constraints, was put on hold until 1954 when it was altered and redesigned as a commercial office building by Stephenson and, as described in the march 1954 edition of the University of Melbourne’s Architectural Magazine “Cross Section” “stripped for an austerity finish, it has a graph-paper simplicity unknown on the front elevations of Australian bldgs”.2

This stripping of climate specific features serve as a metaphor to the treatment of the modernist curtain wall at the hands of developers and manufacturers.

The following sections will briefly discuss the history of the curtain wall, the part they play in the history of the Australian urban landscape and environmental failures. These points build the criteria in which this project was grounded and are evident throughout the design process and proposal.