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Best Overend
Acheson Best Overend ARAIA ARIBA (15 October 1909 – 28 July 1977) was an Australian architect who worked mostly in Melbourne. He is known as one of the first architects in Victoria to be truly committed to Modernism (from the early 1930s), promoting the approach in articles in popular magazines and newspapers. He did not however design many notable independent works, the exception being the Cairo Flats in Fitzroy, built 1935–1936, a daringly Modernist design for Melbourne in the 1930s.
Acheson Best Overend, generally known as Best, was born in Launceston, Tasmania on 15 October 1909. He was the son of Harold Acheson Overend, a Methodist minister and Emily Trahair, a businesswoman, and was educated at Wesley College, Melbourne.
In 1926 he became an articled pupil in the practice of architect Hugh Vivian Taylor, who gradually became expert in acoustics. Partnering with Garnet Argyle Soilleux in 1928, the firm became Taylor & Soilleux, which soon specialised in the re-design of cinemas during the conversion to sound films after 1929. An unusual project at this time was the new 2AY Broadcasting Studio in Albury, completed in 1930. He also attended classes in architecture at Swinburne Technical College and later the evening classes at the University of Melbourne Architectural Atelier.
On completion of his studies, and in the face of the effects of he Great Depression, Overend moved to London in 1931, where he first worked for Raymond McGrath, a fellow Australian who was then working on the interiors of the BBC's Broadcasting House. Overend soon left in July 1931 to work for modernist architect and designer Wells Coates, where he worked as chief draftsman for over eighteen months when the office was developing the landmark Modernist Isokon Flats (completed in 1932), as well as the interiors of Broadcasting House.
In September 1931 he received a job offer from another noted Modernist Serge Chermayeff, but Wells did not agree. Overend passed his RIBA examinations in 1932 and joined the Architectural Association. The people he met and worked for, and the experiences he had overseas, rounded off his formal architectural education.
Overend returned to Melbourne in March 1933, and soon was elected as an Associate of the RVIA. He was then offered a partnership with his old firm, which became H. Vivian Taylor, Soilleux and Overend in May 1933. The firm soon moved on from re-designing cinemas to designing numerous new ones, amongst the most stylish and innovative of the many designed in the Art Deco style in the 1930s. Important examples included the Windsor Theatre, Windsor, 1936, the Padua Theatre, Brunswick, 1937, and the Regal Hartwell, cnr Camberwell and Toorak Roads, Camberwell, 1937, all now demolished. Other commissions included a series of service stations, and a series of houses. The Armytage House, Mont Albert Road, Balwyn, 1933, was noted by the Australian Home Beautiful for the simplicity of materials, and he sweeping concrete stair 'apparently unsupported' and expressed on exterior by a curved corner tower (demolished in 1980).
While working at Taylor & Soilleux, and drawing on influences from his time working under Wells Coats in London, he designed Cairo Flats in 1935, a two story block of flats in Melbourne, for which he is best known. Completed in 1936, they are arranged around a central garden, with many flats facing north, opened to the light through large windows and narrow balconies. Access to the upper level was via three daringly curved cantilevered staircases, and most apartments are studio flats with tightly planned kitchens and bathrooms, a type that was almost unheard of in Melbourne.
In 1937 he left the partnership to travel overseas again, sailing for Japan, but was diverted to Shanghai, where he found work with Lester Johnson & Morris, and worked on the design of an ultra-modern skyscraper for the Bund waterfront. The project was halted with the Japanese bombardment of the city in September, which Overend reported on extensively for the Australian press. He then travelled to London, working again for Wells Coates, but soon came back to Melbourne.
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Best Overend
Acheson Best Overend ARAIA ARIBA (15 October 1909 – 28 July 1977) was an Australian architect who worked mostly in Melbourne. He is known as one of the first architects in Victoria to be truly committed to Modernism (from the early 1930s), promoting the approach in articles in popular magazines and newspapers. He did not however design many notable independent works, the exception being the Cairo Flats in Fitzroy, built 1935–1936, a daringly Modernist design for Melbourne in the 1930s.
Acheson Best Overend, generally known as Best, was born in Launceston, Tasmania on 15 October 1909. He was the son of Harold Acheson Overend, a Methodist minister and Emily Trahair, a businesswoman, and was educated at Wesley College, Melbourne.
In 1926 he became an articled pupil in the practice of architect Hugh Vivian Taylor, who gradually became expert in acoustics. Partnering with Garnet Argyle Soilleux in 1928, the firm became Taylor & Soilleux, which soon specialised in the re-design of cinemas during the conversion to sound films after 1929. An unusual project at this time was the new 2AY Broadcasting Studio in Albury, completed in 1930. He also attended classes in architecture at Swinburne Technical College and later the evening classes at the University of Melbourne Architectural Atelier.
On completion of his studies, and in the face of the effects of he Great Depression, Overend moved to London in 1931, where he first worked for Raymond McGrath, a fellow Australian who was then working on the interiors of the BBC's Broadcasting House. Overend soon left in July 1931 to work for modernist architect and designer Wells Coates, where he worked as chief draftsman for over eighteen months when the office was developing the landmark Modernist Isokon Flats (completed in 1932), as well as the interiors of Broadcasting House.
In September 1931 he received a job offer from another noted Modernist Serge Chermayeff, but Wells did not agree. Overend passed his RIBA examinations in 1932 and joined the Architectural Association. The people he met and worked for, and the experiences he had overseas, rounded off his formal architectural education.
Overend returned to Melbourne in March 1933, and soon was elected as an Associate of the RVIA. He was then offered a partnership with his old firm, which became H. Vivian Taylor, Soilleux and Overend in May 1933. The firm soon moved on from re-designing cinemas to designing numerous new ones, amongst the most stylish and innovative of the many designed in the Art Deco style in the 1930s. Important examples included the Windsor Theatre, Windsor, 1936, the Padua Theatre, Brunswick, 1937, and the Regal Hartwell, cnr Camberwell and Toorak Roads, Camberwell, 1937, all now demolished. Other commissions included a series of service stations, and a series of houses. The Armytage House, Mont Albert Road, Balwyn, 1933, was noted by the Australian Home Beautiful for the simplicity of materials, and he sweeping concrete stair 'apparently unsupported' and expressed on exterior by a curved corner tower (demolished in 1980).
While working at Taylor & Soilleux, and drawing on influences from his time working under Wells Coats in London, he designed Cairo Flats in 1935, a two story block of flats in Melbourne, for which he is best known. Completed in 1936, they are arranged around a central garden, with many flats facing north, opened to the light through large windows and narrow balconies. Access to the upper level was via three daringly curved cantilevered staircases, and most apartments are studio flats with tightly planned kitchens and bathrooms, a type that was almost unheard of in Melbourne.
In 1937 he left the partnership to travel overseas again, sailing for Japan, but was diverted to Shanghai, where he found work with Lester Johnson & Morris, and worked on the design of an ultra-modern skyscraper for the Bund waterfront. The project was halted with the Japanese bombardment of the city in September, which Overend reported on extensively for the Australian press. He then travelled to London, working again for Wells Coates, but soon came back to Melbourne.