House

7 Bunangib Court, Frankston

History
Built: 1958
A building application was made in 1956 for the construction of a house on Lot 9, Bunangib Court, to the design of B.J.E. Reib, a Hawthorn architect.1 Leonard Henry Gillam, the owner, built the brick and timber dwelling himself.2 Estimated to cost £7,000, the two-storey residence was completed in 1958.3 Leonard Gillam, a manager, occupied the property with Edith Harriet Gillam, possibly his wife.4

Description
Drawings, dated October 1955, depict this timber and brick house as: (ground floor) 'entrance' (to stair hall), laundry, shower, guest bedrooms and workshop; (first floor) open dining-living, kitchen bedroom, bath and dressing rooms. A 'verandah' and 'open terrace' abutted first and aground floor levels on the north side.5

The main design aspect was, however, the exposed triangulated timber portal frame (two 2" x 2") at 14 feet centre's, which (when viewed in sections) rested on two points and supported shaped plywood 'girders' at the roof (like the Myer Pelican house) and a pergola sun screen and a timber floor at first level. Timber-framed window walls enclosed the internal spaces and a sparse metal balustrade enclosed the first floor verandah. The original roof was built-up felt membranes laid in 'hot bitumen' over tongue and grooved boarding. The house occupied a small part of a large L- shape block which already held a studio on the west side.

The expression of triangulated structure was a fixation of the period, whether in detail elements such as Boyd's Kireep Road, North Balwyn, house or main structure such as Chancellor and Patrick's Atunga Way, Mount Martha house. Both are from a similar era to this house. Other examples include the Ken McIntyre house and Blackfriars Close, Toorak house by Boyd.

External Integrity
Generally original

Context
Sited at the end of a court, it has some affinity to the other generally-later houses therein.

Significance – Study Grading B
Architecturally, this is one of a small group of notable 1950s house designs, which boldly revealed their structural frame on the outside as a show of the great enthusiasm felt by architects for structure=born design: of regional importance.

Historically, a superior example of the architect-designed houses found in parts of Frankston, but uncommon in many of the new suburbs of the 1950s. These houses distinguish Frankston as especially important in the 1950s suburban boom: of regional interest.