Do you know your Art Deco from mid-century modern? Your guide to five popular design eras

If you were walking down the street, could you pick a Victorian terrace from a Federation bungalow? 

Could you spot a postmodern pad from an Art Deco masterpiece?

While Australia's architectural history doesn't stretch back as far as some centuries-old cultures, our design past reflects global trends and the Australian spin we put on many of them.

Restoration Australia host and professor of architecture Anthony Burke walks us through five popular design eras.

And you bet, there is a test at the end!

Victorian 

What to look out for:

• Likely a terrace or a house with an adjoining wall
• Wrought iron balustrades
• Opulent and ornate decorations like ceiling roses and cornice trim
• High ceilings

Date: 1837 to 1901, the period of Queen Victoria's reign

As Burke says, the Victorian era in Australia saw an evolution from "stripped back" design in the early years to "detail and flamboyance" as the gold rush brought wealth to pockets of the country's south-east.

"Coming through the gold rush, coming out of early settlement … people have found their feet, they're setting up businesses, they're starting to express their success," he says.

"They're looking for ways to do that that moves architecture into a moment where we're no longer surviving, or just mimicking [what's come before], but we're trying to express something that's more of our own.

"We're enthusiastic about our own success into the future."

Burke says the opulence of Victorian architecture peaked in the 1880s and up until around 1890 "which is where things got tough" with an economic downturn post-gold rush.

"Then we hit the new century and things start to change," he says.

Federation 

What to look out for:

• Asymmetrical front with a living room that steps out, and recessed front door
• Porch at the front that sometimes wraps around
• Detailing in the brickwork
• Hallmark Federation colours are dark greens, creamy yellows, rich dark reds and whites
• Australian motifs in decorations

Date: Period around federation from roughly 1890 to 1915

Overlapping with the Victorian period, and sometimes called Edwardian, is the Federation era which, as Burke notes, sees Australia really begin to forge its own style.

"What we see now is the Australian version of the bungalow," he says.

"With the bungalow rather than the terrace we've got a slightly more relaxed, slightly more stepped-back kind of house.

"It moves a little further away from the front street and usually has a little bit more garden."

Burke says that while we're all pretty familiar with this type of house in suburban Australia now, at the time it was a "very patriotic and heroic" moment.

"What you see in a lot of decoration in the lead lighting and stained glass and things is a lot of Australiana," he says.

"Suddenly we're ... seeing things like kookaburras or flowers that are Australian flora.

"It's a moment where we started to really try and project a sense of what Australia is into our decoration and into the houses that we were building."

Art Deco

What to look out for:

• Futuristic and geometric patterned look
• Stripes in the facade and masonry of buildings to exaggerate the lines of the building
• P&O style — curved corners and porthole windows like cruise ships

Date: 1920s and 30s

The distinctive look of Art Deco originated in France in the early 20th century but, as Burke says, quickly spread around the world. 

"What it was trying to do was step away from looking backwards to tradition … and look forward into a new style, a new aesthetic," he says.

The period coincided with revolutionary machines like aeroplanes and trains which Burke says led to a "very futurist idea" focused on the technological future of speed and movement.

"We see buildings like the Chrysler Building in New York. It's super decorative and elaborate, it's all about a new expression of the era looking forward," he says.

"It's stainless steel and shiny, it's a bit space-agey ... it's the future."

Art Deco also includes P&O style — after the ocean liner business — that's defined by curved walls and porthole windows that mimic the look of a cruise ship.

"Again, boats and trains and movement is all stuff that's part of the future," Burke says.

He says out of the roaring 20s, the flamboyance of the movement began to slow down in the 30s as the Great Depression hit.

Mid-century modern

What to look out for:

• Minimal decorations
• Modest materials like brick and timber
• Exposed beams and clear structures
• Full-length glass windows
• Clearly defined spaces but beginning to open up rooms to each other and the garden

Dates: mid-1940s to mid-1960s

As Burke explains, mid-century modern design brought ideas like functionality from modernism into a home setting. 

It was also influenced by the aftermath of World War II.

"Returned soldiers were coming home, the military industrial complex that was building bullets and tanks and things like that had nothing to do all of a sudden," he says.

"They turned towards making houses and they looked for ways to use the same kind of industrial materials we were using during the war, and somehow find a domestic application."

Examples are walls of windows that let light flood in and lightweight steel trusses coming into view.

"We wouldn't have seen that before in a Victorian home because it would've had a ceiling and a ceiling rose and elaborate plaster work," he says.

Burke also notes that in mid-century modern, the furnishings were "as important" as the house itself.

Postmodern

What to look out for:

• Playful design
• Bringing life and colour to buildings
• Historic motifs like broken pediments which look like a gap in a triangular roof
• Colours like pastels, avocado and salmon

Dates: Started in the 1970s

Postmodernism might be the wackiest, and most fun, of the design eras so far.

As Burke explains, it was a moment when architects and designers rejected the austerity and blandness of modernism.

"Postmodernism wanted to bring the human back into the story," Burke says.

The result is often buildings or houses designed "with a sense of playfulness and irony". 

"When you see a postmodern house what you might see is something which might even look a little bit cartoonish," Burke says.

"You get this kind of pastiche of ideas and they didn't have to sit together in some kind of coherent hole which would've had to happen in earlier periods.

"In the postmodern period you can kind of get away with anything.

"It was a little bit cartoon, a lot of colour, a little bit crazy, definitely quirky."

Test your knowledge

Time to put your knowledge to the test.

Can you pick which architectural era these houses and buildings belong to?

Stream the new season of Restoration Australia free on ABC iview or watch tonight on ABC TV at 8pm.