Robin Boyd: Australian Architect, International Critic

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Robin Boyd was Australias foremost architectural writer and critic from the late 1940s until his death in 1971. He was also a talented architect, designing houses, apartments, commercial and university buildings, as well as exhibits to represent Australia overseas. This book situates his architecture and writings within the context of post-WWII global architectural discourse and production. A voice from the margins, yet one intimately engaged with contemporary US and European architecture, Boyds geographic impartiality also drew architectures from Australia and Japan into global dialogue. He also had a local mission: to build an architecture culture and discourse for his own country. But his acuity in design criticism, widely admired at the time, has been overlooked by subsequent historiography. This book will fill that gap - placing Boyd's work and writing into an international context for the first time. The book is structured into three parts: Dwelling; Discourse and Australia. The first, Dwelling, focuses on Boyds development of his theoretical ideas based on the laboratory of the single-family house. The second, Discourse, outlines Boyds fight to find a voice for Australian architecture and create a local pedigree for modernism and finally the third, Australia, focuses on Boyds commitment to a broader national project and the shaping of Australian identity.

Author Bio

Philip Goad is Chair of Architecture and Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor of Architecture at the University of Melbourne. He is the author of New Directions in Australian architecture (2005), editor of Bates Smart: 150 years of Australian Architecture (2004), co-editor of Modern Times: The Untold Story of Modernism in Australia (2008) and The Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture (2011), and co-author of An Unfinished Experiment in Living: Australian Houses 1950-65 (2017).