Block of flats, Arcadia, Pretoria

Abstract

This block of flats was designed shortly after the Nicolson and Gascoyne houses. Articulated staircases, horizontal emphasis on windows, rounded edges for alcoves and a flag staff all bear the Gestalt of the Modern Movement. The rounded forms were possibly influences of the German expressionist architect, Erich Mendelsohn. Rex Martienssen had visited his Schocken Store (1927), Stuttgart, in 1930 and was inspired by it. Eaton's mentor, Gordon Leith, was also attracted to the work of Mendelsohn – see Leith's Queen Victoria Maternity Hospital (1943) in Johannesburg. The first time the rounded balconies would appear in Eaton’s domestic work, was in Cottage Smook, Sunnyside (1933).