Planning rules should be designed to protect modernist housing in Canberra to prevent architecturally and culturally significant buildings from being inadvertently lost, a new study has recommended.
Promoting Canberra as a modernist, designed city should also include community events, grants and advertising to local and international tourists, the study said.
The government-funded study commissioned by the National Trust ACT and completed by GML Heritage examined modernist housing built between in the territory 1945 and 1988 and found Canberra was "a place of opportunity for modernist architects".
The expansion of the modernist movement coincided with rapid expansion in Canberra after the Second World War.
Architects including Harry Seidler, Robin Boyd, Sydney Ancher, Enrico Taglietti and Roy Grounds designed significant modernist buildings in the capital.
"The confluence of need, opportunity, funding and architectural trends resulted in many of these buildings being designed in the modernist style," the study said.
The modernist movement "was inspired by a belief that new technologies applied rationally to architecture and urbanism could contribute to a better world".
Modernist design minimised decoration, reduced the colour palette and often emphasised horizontal lines and asymmetrical compositions.
The study identified a preliminary list of more than 80 modernist housing sites in the ACT.
"Rather than making them less important, the proliferation of modernist residences in the ACT makes Canberra's modernist legacy a unique and outstanding contribution to global understanding of this design era as well as to the identity and character of the city," the study said.
"The familiarity of Canberra's modernist housing means at times it is at risk of being under-recognised and under-protected, and contemporary issues such as housing supply may incorrectly be considered as inconsistent with the protection of heritage."
The study recommended an audit to identify all mid-century modernist residences of potential heritage significance, followed by a program of significance assessment to determine whether the residences have heritage significance and need to be listed.
Planning regulations should recognise and protect modernist heritage and a program to document modernist heritage - including photographs, documentary records and oral history research - should be commissioned.
"The suitability of current heritage regulations to protect the ACT's modernist heritage should be reviewed, for example as part of the ACT heritage review or other projects. This could consider whether thresholds for listing heritage places are appropriately calibrated, and how heritage listing can be integrated with the needs of a growing city," the study said.
National Trust ACT president Gary Kent, who led the call for an audit of Canberra's modernist housing in May 2021, welcomed the findings of the government-funded heritage study.
"The report confirms Canberra's status as a world-leader in the development of modernist housing and the need to safeguard this unique heritage," Mr Kent said.
"The unique designs of these dwellings help make Canberra the place it is today and the trust will work with the ACT government and the community to ensure they receive the recognition they deserve."
GML Heritage will present the findings of the study at the ACT Region Heritage Symposium on Saturday, August 17.
