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Airdate: Streets of Your Town

Tim Ross presents a look at Modernism and how Australia led the world in egalitarian home design, for ABC.

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On Tuesday ABC premieres Streets Of Your Town, a 2 part series presented by Tim Ross.

The Mint Pictures production looks at Modernism and how Australia led the world in egalitarian home design.

Streets of Your Town is a two-part series focusing on the aesthetics of our suburbs. Tim Ross – comedian, broadcaster and architecture enthusiast – is our tour guide for this very personal journey exploring how and why our suburbs look the way they do.

From the Modernist boom in the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s to the McMansions that came to dominate our suburban landscape from the ‘90s, our design decisions say a lot about the times we live in, our shifting aspirations, and our confidence in the world.

Australians used to build small modest homes designed by pioneering architects including Robin Boyd, Syd Ancher, Roy Grounds and Harry Seidler but we now build the biggest houses on earth, 10% larger than the average American home.

Travelling the country and gaining unprecedented access to some of our most iconic homes and meeting their owners, peeling back their history and revelling in their beauty, Tim poses the question: from Modernism to McMansionism – how did we get there?

Beginning in Palm Springs, Tim reveals the origins of modernism; a philosophy of design that emerged in the early 20th century, where architects rejected ornamentation and embraced the materials of the era like concrete, glass and steel. However, Tim quickly trades California for Canberra, and his Buick convertible for a trusty Holden to reveal how Modernism took hold in Australia in an unexpected and unique way – as the forerunner of a domestic design revolution in our suburbs.

8:30pm Tuesday on ABC.

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