Photograph by John Gollings

Living the Modern Australian_Architecture
by Dr. Claudia Perren and Kristien Ring

From 12 September through 11 November, the DAZ German Center for Architecture in Berlin will explore residential architecture in Australia in its exhibition “Living the Modern_ Australian Architecture,” showcasing, through the work of 25 architects, the culturally and environmentally specific development of modern architecture in Australia. The exhibition will depict the tradition and transformation of a diverse Progressive Modernism.

By focusing on residential architecture, from free-standing homes to high-rise apartment buildings, the exhibition invites the viewer to look at personal, cultural and climate-specific aspects of life and living in Australia. By looking at the way people build their houses, we are granted a privileged glimpse into the private spaces where we may observe a wide range of personal preferences and opinions. Architects’ primary concerns in building living spaces in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Tasmania are balancing public and private spaces, achieving site-specific architecture and utilising alternative energy sources to create successful homes in Australia’s fascinating but very different regions.

The architects represented in the exhibition (and the accompanying publication) follow different theories and are exposed to influences from around the world; however, they still remain bound to the location in which they build. Right in the middle, on top, dug in or lifted up, their houses are never closed off from the surroundings. Australian architects have developed an extraordinary sense of their environment, both the wild and the urban landscapes. Each house reacts and interacts differently with its specific surroundings, and therefore would not function in another location.

In Australia, the transformation of modernism’s early glass house into an open house does not only pertain to glass boxes on stilts, elevated slightly above the landscape. The openness of the architecture can also be felt in houses that dig deep into the earth or are raised high above it, as seen in Denton Corker Marshall’s Farm House (1999). Yet another approach can be found in the work of Kerstin Thompson in the House at Lake Connewarre (2002) in Victoria and in the work of Stephen Varady in the Larson Kelly Residence in New South Wales (2000). These houses open up to the landscape incrementally via a succession of interior and exterior spaces that simultaneously overlap and integrate with the landscape.

In the exhibition, the projects have been grouped into six categories, with keywords that are intended to further the discussion on various aspects of modernism: Minimal, Sculptural, Frame, Interaction, Landscape, and East/West. Through the detailed presentation of nearly 50 architectural examples from these gifted architects over the past fifteen years, the exhibition provides the public with a view of a very personal Australian way of life and building culture. These examples, some profiled exclusively here in FuturArc in conjunction with the exhibition, prove that the enduring Australian spirit of adventure in design is one with Progressive Modern Architecture.

PROJECTS PROFILED IN FUTURARC
Minimal
Air, Ian Moore Architects
Foxground Residence, Studio Internationale
Farmhouse, Collins and Turner
Alexandria Row Houses, David Langston-Jones

Sculptural
Gottlieb House, Wood Marsh Architecture
Eureka Tower, Fender Katsalidis Architects
Dome House, McBride Charles Ryan
Watergate Place, Elenberg Fraser Architecture
Larson Kelly Residence, Steven Varady Architecture

Frame
Steel House, Grose Bradley BVN
Kangaroo Valley House, Turner + Associates
DOCK 5, John Wardle Architects
Kew House, Jackson Clements Burrows Architects

Interaction
House at Lake Connewarre, Kerstin Thompson Architects
Dunedin Street Residence, Iredale Pedersen Hook Architects
Fitzroy Terrace House, Shelley Penn Architect
Leederville Residence, Donaldson + Warn, Architects

Landscape
Farm House, Denton Corker Marshall
Liverpool Crescent House, Terroir
James-Robertson House, Casey Brown Architecture
Rosebery House, Andresen O’Gorman

East West
Poll House, Gary Marinko Architects
The Black House, David Luck Architecture
Butterfly House, Lippmann Associates
Ogilvie House, Kerry Hill Architects

About the authors
Dr. Claudia Perren and Kristien Ring are curators of the Living the Modern_ Australian Architecture exhibition and editors of the accompanying catalogue.