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    OnShift Education

    Reading by chapter

    These links lead to sources and further reading for the chapter. Read each source with the qualifications in the annotated collection below.

    1. A Building Is a Team's Work

    2. Knowing What You Can Rely On

    3. How Drawings Describe Space

    4. The Site Before the Visit

    5. Turning Observation into a Measured Record

    6. Reading the Shape of the Ground

    7. The Grammar and Evidence of Architecture

    8. Colonial, Victorian and Federation Buildings

    9. From Inter-war Experiments to Contemporary Design

    10. What Structural Materials Can Do

    11. Heat, Moisture and the Building Envelope

    12. From Ground to Floor

    13. Frames, Masonry and Roofs

    14. Where Building Systems Meet

    15. Interiors, Finishes and Everyday Use

    16. Reading a Coordinated Drawing Set

    17. Making a Reasoned Design Record

    Sources and further reading

    This collection accompanies the chapters. Follow the named section or page rather than treating a source's title as its whole meaning. Building regulations, product documents and site records have different purposes. The chapter explains the relationship being taught; the source lets you examine its basis.

    The research date for this edition is September 2026. Publication of a National Construction Code edition does not establish which edition applies to a particular project. Check the state or territory's adoption, transition arrangements and relevant approval circumstances.

    Building practice, codes and safety

    • ABCB: NCC 2025. Start with the edition and adoption information.
    • NCC 2025 Volume One. Governing requirements A6 concern classification; C2D2 addresses construction type. This book uses classification and type as distinct ideas.
    • NCC 2025 Volume Two and Housing Provisions. Read an application provision before its detailed pathway. Relevant teaching locations include structural provisions, glazing, fire safety, wet areas, amenity and safe movement.
    • Safe Work Australia: safe design of structures. Model guidance; establish its status in the relevant jurisdiction.
    • Standards Australia catalogue. A catalogue entry establishes identity and publication metadata, not access to every technical clause. Use the edition required by the project's applicable pathway.

    Sites and measurement

    For chapter 4, open the Nemco Hillcrest detail survey and read its title and notes beside the site drawing. For chapters 12–13, open the STS Avium report, then follow file pages 1–3,6,7 and 10–11 in the sequence discussed. These are separate source documents. They are linked for reading, not reproduced here.

    Materials and building systems

    Drawing sets used in chapter 16

    The Design For Place house designs provide the source packs for the Banksia and Telopea examples. Start with the drawing companion, then return to the complete technical drawings and Design Options documents. The printed sheet scale is meaningful only with the correct output size; enlarging a screen image does not create a reliable ruler scale.

    The separate Dundas Public School upgrade source page links the consultant documents discussed near the end of chapter 16. Use the structural set, file pages 16–17; mechanical set, pages 4–5; and hydraulic set. Read each cover and legend before following the references discussed in the chapter. These copyrighted consultant drawings are external viewing sources, not included assets.

    Keeping design information usable

    The Australian Signals Directorate provides small-business security guidance and backup advice. Use them alongside the organisation's authorised information-management procedures.

    Following the evidence

    Use these links alongside chapters 7–9. Start with the source for the building you are studying, then use the named section or page to find the relevant passage. PDF page numbers below count from the first page of the file unless a printed page is explicitly identified. An undated page is labelled undated; a heritage record's update date describes that field, rather than the age of the building.

    Keep a short record of the claim, its source and the exact passage that supports it. Separate the source's description from your interpretation. When a record changes, retain the earlier dated note and add the revised note beside it.

    Chapter 7: buildings, phases and evidence

    Building or research taskSource and route through it
    Como: custodian overviewNational Trust of Australia (Victoria), Como House and Garden and The history of Como House. Undated pages; begin with the historical overview.
    Como: construction and conservationNational Trust, Como restoration and Conservation projects. Find the Como entry and compare each account's sequence of work.
    Como: household and roomsNational Trust, Como Historic House & Garden: Primary Teachers' Notes, undated. File p.2, “The Estate”; file pp.3–4, the ground- and first-floor introductions. Use the room descriptions alongside the chapter.
    Walsh Street: custodian accountRobin Boyd Foundation, Walsh Street history: Overview, undated. Read the opening architectural description and the photograph credits separately.
    Walsh Street: closer architectural readingBen Sheridan, Understanding Design: Walsh Street (Boyd House II), 2012, two pages. Start on p.1 with the street-level discussion; continue to p.2 and its drawing caption.
    Walsh Street: a collection recordMuseums Victoria, Architectural Model — Boyd House II, item SH 891691, undated catalogue record. Read “Summary”, “Physical Description” and the model fields. The recorded object is a model, so distinguish its measurements from building measurements.
    Tusculum: layered stylistic historyHeritage NSW, Tusculum, State Heritage Inventory item 5045157. Read “Statement of Significance”, “Physical Description” and “History”. Significance field updated 3 July 2012.
    Finding house recordsCarmen Quick, State Library Victoria, Researching your home. Follow the sections on different record types to extend your own research.

    A worked reference record

    FieldExample
    Claim to checkTusculum's record distinguishes an earlier Regency villa from its later Italianate transformation.
    SourceHeritage NSW, Tusculum, State Heritage Inventory item 5045157; linked above.
    Passage“Statement of Significance”, checked against “Physical Description” and “History”.
    Version informationSignificance field updated 3 July 2012; source inspected in September 2026.
    Interpretation boundaryThis is a record of phases. It does not date every visible detail to the earliest building work.
    Your next recordNote the detail you are investigating, the evidence for its phase and anything the source leaves uncertain. If a later source changes the account, add its date and explanation without erasing this record.

    Chapter 8: Country, colonial settlement and later domestic traditions

    Topic or placeSource and route through it
    Gunditjmara Country and built placesGunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation, Gunditj Mirring fact sheets, undated. Read the stone-house, weir and channel sections together, including the account's continuing cultural context.
    Budj Bim contextBudj Bim Cultural Landscape, About us and World Heritage, undated. These are place-specific accounts; keep their scope attached to your notes.
    Elizabeth FarmHeritage NSW, Elizabeth Farm, item 5051394. Use “Physical Description” and “History”, including the garden account. Significance updated 5 December 2003; condition entry dated 24 March 2016.
    Grossmann and Brough HousesNational Trust, History of Grossmann and Brough, undated. Read the house histories and later uses alongside the merchant-house discussion.
    HaberfieldMichelle Bateman, National Trust, A suburb full of surprises, 11 February 2026. Locate the estate history, showroom discussion and Vincent Crow's observations. Keep a precinct observation separate from evidence about an individual house.
    Comparing regional domestic featuresHeritage Council of Victoria, What house is that?, third edition. Read the scope on file p.6, then Late Victorian pp.12–13, Queen Anne pp.14–15 and Edwardian pp.16–17. Regional guide; its dates are a separate framework.
    Eryldene: house and later phasesHeritage NSW, Eryldene, item 5045350. Read the significance, physical-description and history fields. Significance updated 12 June 2007.
    Eryldene: collected interiorsEryldene Trust, Eryldene Collection, undated. Follow the collection account and distinguish the dates of objects, decoration and building work.

    Chapter 9: interwar to contemporary examples

    Topic or placeSource and route through it
    Interwar regional comparisonsContinue with Heritage Council Victoria's What house is that?, linked above: Bungalow, file pp.18–19.
    Calthorpes' HouseACT Historic Places, About Calthorpes' House, undated; then Anne Bickford, revised Elaine Lawson, Calthorpes' House Museum Guide, © ACT 2003, first published 1987. Start with printed p.9 (file p.13), its plan and accompanying account; continue through the room descriptions.
    Queensland catalogues and house formsState Library of Queensland, Plans of Queensland bungalows, 1937, 25 January 2019; Christina Ealing-Godbold, Under the transverse gable: Queenslander house styles of the mid-1930s and 1940s, 19 January 2024. Read the catalogue discussion before treating a published design as evidence of a built house.
    Rose Seidler HouseHeritage NSW, Rose Seidler House, item 5045033. Read the physical description and history; significance updated 3 June 2025, condition entry 12 November 2024. Harry Seidler & Associates also provides a project gallery.
    Magney HouseArchitecture Foundation Australia / Ozetecture, Magney House, Bingie Point, undated project page. Read its brief, plan/section discussion and final garage note; retain the underlying publication credits at the foot of the account.
    Glenn Murcutt's wider workThe Pritzker Architecture Prize, Glenn Murcutt, 2002 laureate. Read the announcement and jury citation as accounts of his wider practice.
    Postmodern architecture and its published imageTimothy Moore, National Gallery of Victoria, John Gollings: Building myths, 7 July 2026. Locate the Kay Street discussion. For the international decorative context, see NGV's The Language of Ornament: artwork labels, file pp.1–3 and 8.
    Australian Parliament HouseParliamentary Education Office, Australia's Parliament House, and its opening milestone. Follow the sections on the building and its principal interior spaces.
    National Museum of AustraliaNational Museum of Australia, The Museum building, undated. Use “Architecture and design”, “Postmodern structure”, “Gandel Atrium” and “Loop and Uluru line” to locate the chapter's discussion.
    WA Museum Boola BardipWestern Australian Museum, Art and architecture; Hassell, WA Museum Boola Bardip, project year 2020. Read the custodian and designer accounts together. The WA Government opening statement is dated 21 November 2020.
    Nightingale 1Nightingale Housing, Nightingale 1 and Shared spaces, undated pages. Keep the individual project record separate from the provider's general explanation.
    Adaptability and liveabilityAustralian Government, YourHome, Liveable and adaptable home. Read the introductory distinctions and design guidance; author and update credits appear at the foot of the article.
    Yellow RockAustralian Government, YourHome, Yellow Rock, New South Wales, 2024. Start with “Sustainability features” and the project details. Compare Blue Eco Homes' project record and Hamish Dunlop's A home for all seasons, 29 August 2023. Identify which statements come from each source.

    Reading the Walsh Street photograph

    Outdoor stair. Follow the visible route from the paving to the upper door. Describe where the route meets the wall, railing, overhead cover and planting. Then identify what would require an interior view or a plan to establish.

    Caption: Outdoor stair at Walsh Street / Boyd House II, South Yarra, photographed 2 April 2012.

    Credit: Rebecca D.G, Boyd House II img stairs.jpg, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. Photograph reproduced without alteration.

    This photograph records an exterior route in 2012. It does not supply an interior view or establish the house's original condition. For further viewing, start at the Robin Boyd Foundation's Walsh Street overview or 3D house tour page.

    Sources remain credited to their authors and institutions. Linking to a document does not grant permission to reproduce its photographs or drawings. YourHome states its Commonwealth material's CC BY 4.0 terms and exclusions; third-party photographs require their own rights check.

    The chapter 8 Emerald example can be examined at the State Library of Queensland cooperative image record. This external viewing source is not reproduced in the Fieldbook.

    Commonwealth Your Home material used in this Fieldbook is adapted in original explanations, with source links above. © Commonwealth of Australia 2026, licensed under CC BY 4.0 except identified exclusions and third-party material. The adaptations are this Fieldbook’s explanations; the original sources have not been amended. Design For Place drawing extracts carry their separate credit in the drawing companion.