page_title: Robert Joseph Haddon
section_title: Former Fourth Victoria Building
hierarchical_section_title: Robert Joseph Haddon / Key projects / Former Fourth Victoria Building
caption_attribution_description: English: 243 Collins St, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Built 1884, remodeled 1912 by Robert Joseph Haddon
context_page_description: Robert Joseph Haddon was an England-born architect who practised in Victoria in the 1900s-1910s. He was a major figure in the profession in Victoria, championing the Arts & Crafts in his writing and teaching. He designed some of the most original buildings of the period, featuring restraint, balanced asymmetry and Art Nouveau details.
context_section_description: The Fourth Victoria Building, at 273 Collins Street, Melbourne, was originally a brick warehouse, built in 1884 and remodelled in 1912 by Robert Haddon for its new owner, the Fourth Victoria Building Society. The remodelled design differed greatly from the architectural scape of Melbourne at the time. The building's Eastern Façade is approached as a whimsical interpretation derived from his passion in the arts and crafts movements in Europe. Above the ground floor shop front and awning, the first floor façade is covered with a panel of green glazed tiles, surmounted by a stylised wrought iron balcony. The façade above this is of plain white render pierced by windows without architraves. Above the fifth level are two large majolica medallions, containing green lions' heads, and trunk-like elements dribbled from these down the façade. The innovative ideas implemented through the materiality and design placed this building in a close threshold of Early European Modernism. The significance of Haddon's approach on Australian architecture thereafter was noted by Robin Boyd. Following the completion of the building, an article by the title "Art and architecture: the possibility of tiles" published in The Argus newspaper on 17 March 1915 complimented the architect and encouraged the architecture to be inspired from innovative materiality as a notion of breaking apart from tradition. Later on, many buildings like Her Majesty's Theatre and Melbourne Town Hall incorporated the use of the green glazed tiles and publicised its identity as a façade element.
caption: Former Fourth Victoria Building
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "3456", "Image ImageLength": "5184", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS Kiss X4", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2014:05:02 21:23:15", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "292", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1174", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6798", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/80", "EXIF FNumber": "63/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Unidentified", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:05:02 13:39:48", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:05:02 13:39:48", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "51/8", "EXIF ApertureValue": "43/8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "4", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "25", "EXIF SubSecTime": "20", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "20", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "20", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3456", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "5184", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1048", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "1036800/181", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "691200/119", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}