Books & Media
50/60/70 Iconic Australian Houses: Three decades
of domestic architecture
From the 1950s to the 1970s Australia experienced an economic
boom period in which architects questioned the type of houses
Australians should call home.
Drawing inspiration from the work of some of the leading international
practitioners of the time they set about defining a new style
of domestic architecture.
Some of the best surviving examples of the homes they produced
have been documented in a new book by Karen McCartney.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bydesign/stories/2007/2105916.htm
Aphrodite and the Mixed Grill – Greek
cafes in twentieth century Australia
With names like the Paragon, Olympia and the Parthenon and
often with an art-deco facade, the Greek cafe used to be a
part of every day life. A Queensland researcher, Toni Risson,
is documenting this part of Australia's history and has released
a self-published book, Aphrodite and the Mixed Grill.
It can be bought by phoning 0419 760861. Cost: $49.50 plus
$11 postage and handling.
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2007/s1954849.htm
Age of elegance
Sydney's flirtation with city living created Australia's
first precinct of apartment buildings, built in and near Macquarie
Street after 1900.
The precinct reached its social and architectural pinnacle
in 1923, with the completion of The Astor in Macquarie Street...
Homes
in the Sky, Apartment Living in Australia,
by Caroline Butler-Bowdon and Charles Picket.
The featureless buildings that stole our humanity
The best architecture becomes a repository of our ideals.
So if a house embodies dollars merely, but not ideals, what
is its symbolic message, both outwardly, and inwardly?...
Elizabeth
Farrelly in the Sydney Morning Herald.
House rules
Joern Utzon's Opera House is just one of many buildings to
display his unique ability to design works of art. It is instructive
to look back on the front page of The Sydney Morning Herald
for January 30, 1957, and see how close we came to missing
a miracle...
Geraldine
O'Brien in the Sydney Morning Herald
Genius doesn't mean pleasure
Genius is a big deal in architecture. As the focus of intense
feeling and yet more intense - some might say - exaggerated
expectation, genius occupies what you might call architecture's
G-spot. And it keeps popping up...
Elizabeth
Farrelly in the Sydney Morning Herald
Main picture: private residence in Killara, Sydney.
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