Housing the Worker

Abstract

The industrialization of Sydney and the increasing prevalence of factories in the city centre and outer suburbs from the mid-nineteenth century meant that worker housing was in high demand. The opportunity to capitalize on this need for housing was taken up by many entrepreneurs, known as speculators. The industrial landscapes, which were created, as a result were in no way planned, but a case of the material and social processes interacting. In the study area of the Balmain Peninsula in Sydney, the construction of worker housing was not under the control of one individual, in contrast to many company towns. The purpose of the thesis is to examine the relationship between social processes and the material by examining the extant houses on the Balmain Peninsula. The aims of this thesis are to examine the nature of piecemeal housing and the degree of standardization in worker housing. The changing building strategies used in order to capitalize on the demand for worker housing will also be considered. The results of the survey were compared to three equivalent urban areas of Sydney; The Rocks, Pyrmont and Haymarket. The results of the survey of worker housing on the Balmain Peninsula indicated very little standardization, which is a direct result of the degree of speculative building. The material of existing buildings and the landscape had a major influence on the direction of future development, which ultimately led to a piecemeal environment, as depicted by contrasting building phases built beside each other. There was an obvious change in the way worker housing was constructed from the mid nineteenth century to early twentieth century, as shown by the introduction of building strategies in order iii to build more densely. Industrial urban landscapes in Sydney were not planned and the intent of speculative builders was not aimed at a particular pattern of daily life. The creation of the urban landscapes was rather the product of a number of factors including the pursuit of capital investment, macro-economic processes and the constraints exerted by the material itself.