Australia: Modern Architectures in History

Australia : Modern Architectures in History tells the story of the architects and buildings that have defined Australia's architectural culture since the founding of the modern nation through Federation in 1901.

1901 marked the beginning of a search for city forms and better buildings to accommodate the realities of Australian life and to express an emerging distinctive and, eventually, confident Australian identity. While Sydney and Melbourne were the settings for many of the major buildings, all states and territories developed architectural traditions based on distinctive histories and climates.

This book covers the flowering of these many variants, from the bid to create a model city in Canberra, through the stylistic battles that opened a space for modernism, to the idealism of postwar reconstruction and beyond to the new millennium. It reveals a vibrant and influential culture, at its best when it matches a civic idealism with the sensuality of a country of stunning light and landscapes.

'A first-class account of the history of architecture in Australia.' — Gevork Hartoonian, Professor of History of Architecture, University of Canberra

Harry Margalit
Published December 2019
Paperback
368 pages
220mm x 171mm
ISBN 9781789141245