Modernism Comes to Australia

I'm attempting to get my mind around Australia's architecture scene and will be writing a few posts about the architectural history of the place.

Australia's first forays into Modern architecture happened in both Melbourne & Sydney. While the International Style of the 1960s, which favored clean, precise steel & glass buildings, introduced Modernism to the wider Australian public, and was predominantly a Sydney affair, the early work done in Melbourne laid the groundwork for later developments that would usurp the International Style (shown below).

The work of Grounds, Romberg, & Boyd, based in Melbourne, provided some of the first examples of Modern Architecture to Australia and would serve as a counter-point to the unsustainable building practices of the 60s. The firm preferred the expression of structure and natural materials over white, pure forms. Their Olympic Swimming Pool project is an early example, featuring the rhythm of an exposed tensile structure.

Robin Boyd, of the aforementioned firm, would go on to become especially influential in Australia, due to both his buildings and writings. If the formal and spatial layouts of his houses seem similar to the work of Richard Neutra or Gregory Ain in California, his attitude towards materiality and expression of construction is markedly different. The Modernists of the 40s and 50s generally focused on creating the clean, streamlined look of the International Style(exceptions such as the Schindler House not withstanding). In contrast, Boyd championed the use and expression of cheap, natural materials that were readily available during the post-WWII era.

A quick anecdote... I remember, at a time of relative naivety, my shock upon visiting "Neutra Place," a cul-de-sac in Los Angeles that features several of the architect's timber-framed buildings. Photos depict Neutra's buildings as pure, white, steel constructs, when the reality is often one of flaking paint and sagging timber. If the early Modernists couldn't always build with steel, they were content to advance an aesthetics that looked as if they could.

Image (white steel):

Reality (painted timber):

While Neutra's work is great for a number of reasons, honestly of materials isn't one of them. In fact, viewing the works as expressions of theatricality could provide a link to the seemingly different ideologies of Gehry or even EOM, but that's a story for a different post.

Boyd's work strikes a different cord. The architect's own house, as well as the Boyd Baker House, would prove influential in the development of the "Sydney School" of architecture, which emphasizes practicality alongside a romanticized version of life in "the bush."

The Baker House itself was built out in the bush. It is a simple courtyard scheme that contains all the usual elements of Modernism, including the blurring of boundaries between inside and out. Already, the project uses natural materials and adopts the colors and material palette of its surroundings.

[image from Boyd Baker House]

From Boyd's work, the Sydney School would emerge, whose ideals continue to be influential today.