An investigation into the nature of modernism and modernity during the 1930s in Perth, Western Australia, through the study of specific buildings and related art and design forms

[Truncated] The primary object of this thesis has been to establish a broad base of knowledge for understanding the nature of the "modern" movement as it applied to building and related art and design forms in Perth during the inter-war years, with particular emphasis on the 1930s. The purpose has been to not only explore and possibly refute widely held assumptions about the nature of modern building here but also to broaden the context in which the subject can be discussed and understood.For this reason the thesis has sought to address social and cultural issues in relation to building rather than purely architectural ones such as the relationship between construction and technology, the formal values of mass, form and volume and designing for space and light. While these latter areas of study are important, and information about them is included, they are secondary to the broader investigation which is more about the perception of modernity through the built environment than an indepth analysis of floorplans and elevations. Hence the use of contemporary imagery and language about the city and early modern buildings as reproduced in the media have been fundamental to this study. Often such imagery was found to have been deliberately constructed to mask the real nature of the city which in many respects had not greatly altered from its form and ambience established during the late nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth century.