Back to search results »

Back to search page »

Xanadu

Other Name Xanadu Location 119 Doncaster Road BALWYN NORTH, Boroondara City Level Included in Heritage Overlay

[1/1] Review of B Graded Buildings

Statement of Significance

Xanadu, at 119 Doncaster Road, Balwyn, is of local historical and architectural significance. Constructed in 1948, it is a representative and externally intact example of a two-storey neo-Georgian brick residence with prominent hipped roof and chimneys, in this case executed in cream brick and distinguished by the asymmetrical treatment of its principal elevation. The house shows a characteristic palette of materials and forms for the interwar and early postwar period: cream brick, minimal aedicules and ornamentation; the octagonal 'keynote' window; and massing by simple overlay under a sheltering, flared roof. Xanadu reflects a mixture of both progressive architectural thinking (expression of function through fenestration), and studied traditionalism. Its detail is conscientiously applied and connected to the compositional whole, the two combining powerfully in a still quite contained building mass.