ARCHITECTURE Australiana Biography

• [xiv], 367 p. : ill. (some col.), 1 geneal. table, plans, ports. ; 25 cm. #290824 (bookplate on fpd)
• First published: Carlton South, Vic. : Miegunyah Press, 1995.
• Bibliography: p. [349]-352.
• Boyd, Robin, 1919-1971
• Architects — Australia — Biography

• Robin Gerard Penleigh Boyd CBE (3 January 1919 – 16 October 1971) was an Australian architect, writer, teacher and social commentator. He, along with Harry Seidler, stands as one of the foremost proponents for the International Modern Movement in Australian architecture. Boyd is the author of the influential book The Australian Ugliness (1960), a critique on Australian architecture, particularly the state of Australian suburbia and its lack of a uniform architectural goal.

  Like his American contemporary John Lautner, Boyd had relatively few opportunities to design major buildings and his best known and most influential works as an architect are his numerous and innovative small house designs

  Boyd is arguably the most influential architect there has been in Australia. Through his writings Boyd inspired the general community and through his architecture he has become an acknowledged leader in the design and architectural professions. He was a renowned Victorian architect, author, critic, and public educator in the 50s and 60s, a leader in Melbourne’s Modern Architecture movement, a visionary in urban design, and outspoken on the ‘Australian Identity’.

  Robin Boyd was a public educator. He was passionate about good design and devoted his life to creating a wider public understanding of its benefits. Acting as the cultural conscience of the nation, Boyd encouraged people to extend their thinking and expectations beyond ‘the known’ and ‘the given’. He urged people to reassess and innovate and, most importantly, he led by example.

  ‘Walsh Street’, the house Boyd designed for his own family in 1957, is his most well-known work. It has been extensively published both nationally and internationally as an exemplar of modernist Australian architecture and a house that continues to influence architectural thinking. It is now the home of the Robin Boyd Foundation.