Robin Boyd was Australia's 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, Boyd's 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 Boyd's development of his
theoretical ideas based on the laboratory of the single-family house.
The second, Discourse, outlines Boyd's fight to find a voice for
Australian architecture and create a local pedigree for modernism and
finally the third, Australia, focuses on Boyd's commitment to a broader
national project and the shaping of Australian identity.
