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Yule House is a diminutive five story office building situated at 309-311 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria. It was constructed in 1932 and designed by Melbourne architecture firm Oakley and Parkes. The Yule House was one of Melbourne’s first commercial buildings to exhibit the Streamline Moderne style (a branch of Art Deco) of architecture and served as a prelude to its rise in popularity throughout the 1930’s, being adapted to suit department store, office block, and cinema design. The current Yule House stands as a redesigned fireproof replacement of the original which was destroyed by fire in 1931. William Yule had been the owner of the land since the early 1900’s and remained property of his estate until 1985.

Description
The wealthy business man and owner of the site William Yule had been familiar with Percy Oakley of Oakley and Parkes and commissioned the firm to redesign the Yule house following the fire. By Parkes’ accounts the new construction was greatly impacted by the weak economic climate at the time. However, the redesign still managed to use modern materials in a new and interesting way while achieving fire resistance as per Yule’s request. Consequently the base structural material was reinforced concrete, perpetuating the Streamline Moderne direction of the design. The Collins street façade features light-coloured terracotta faience tiles sourced from an Australian tile company Wunderlich Ltd. Large protruding horizontal beams banded with three thin recessed strips of green tile define the floor levels and characterise the Streamline Moderne Style. Large steel-framed multi paned windows sit between each beam; their thin vertical struts offering relief from the bold horizontality of the façade. The narrow site width made the span of these windows possible and allowed the maximum level of natural light to penetrate the building; a desirable feature given the built up surroundings. In san-serif Eric Gill style letter face, ‘YULE HOUSE’ features embossed in elegant plate metal above the entrance on the first floor horizontal beam. Both the street number and the construction date are inscribed on the second and top beam respectively. Highly suggestive of the Moderne period the parapet is finished asymmetrically with the right hand column extending beyond the roof line. The ground floor includes two retail shops with a central entrance tiled in beige terrazzo, with pink skirtings. While one shop front window has since been altered, the original design featured two steel-framed symmetrical curved glass showcases. Terrazzo tiles continue into the building, lining the walls of the entrance, lower staircase and housing the glass showcases, tenants’ directory, and the original brass cased fire alarm. Office spaces are situated above the first floor; the small width of the building meant that a continuous column free vertical span could be achieved providing unobstructed space on each floor.

Key Influences
The Yule House can be said to be one of Melbourne’s if not Victoria’s first Commercial Streamline Moderne building. Its design exhibited no attempts to revitalise past architectural styles, but did however show indications of early 1900’s European stylings. The tight geometric formations of the terracotta tile were indicative of the work of Architect Walter Gropius, and the 1920’s department stores of Erich Mendelsohn. Only by the investment of the Yule estate did the design pioneer the wave of Streamline Moderne architecture in Victoria.

Awards
In 2009 the Yule House was nominated by the Art Deco and Modernism Society for the Victorian State Heritage Register; subsequently it was accepted in 2010.