What's wrong with Australian domestic architecture?

I am on holidays in Europe right now and I've got to ask: What's wrong with Australian domestic architecture?

The more I travel the more I realize how much boring contemporary residential architecture there is in Australia. There are too few attempts to step outside the brick veneer mindset that seems to have taken a pathological grip on the thinking home builders and housing estate developers. One rarely sees poor residential housing in Europe and never in France. Is it because the average French home builder, due to his country’s aesthetic history, appreciates architectural form more than us uncultured, beer swilling, yobbos in Australia?



It seems that many European developers are much more willing to step outside the box and produce innovative, attractive residential environments.

Here’s what a Dutch developer is trying to do. They take a street and build ten modestly priced houses that are all quite different but still sit harmoniously together. This streetscape works because it plays with volumes. Has any residential developer in this country ever tried to be so innovative?