Visionaries in Suburbia

Griffin Houses in the Sydney Landscape

In 1920, when Walter Burley Griffin's association with the design of Canberra was coming to a frustrating end, he and his architect wife Marion Mahony Griffin began to refocus their creative energies on the development of the Sydney harbourside suburb that would become known as Castlecrag.

It was the recommencement of a love affair with the city that began when the Griffins sailed into Sydney Harbour from their native Chicago in 1914.

From Castlecrag to Clifton Gardens, Pymble to Avalon, Visionaries in Suburbia explores the Griffins' 22 surviving Sydney houses, as well as their designs for many unbuilt projects. It charts the evolution of their domestic architecture in response to the Sydney landscape, but also brings to life the far-sighted environmental, community, spiritual and creative ideas that propelled their lives and careers.

Today, as Sydney grapples with unprecedented housing, planning and environmental challenges, the Griffins' philosophies, as expressed in the legacy of their surviving work, are of enduring significance.