Harry Seidler
Encyclopedia
Harry Seidler, AC OBE (25 June 19239 March 2006) was an Austrian-born Australian architect
who is considered to be one of the leading exponents of Modernism
's methodology in Australia and the first architect to fully express the principles of the Bauhaus
in Australia.
Harry Seidler designed more than 180 buildings and he received much recognition for his contribution to Architecture of Australia
. Seidler consistently won architectural awards every decade throughout his Australian career of almost 58 years across the varied categories - his residential work from 1950, his commercial work from 1967, and his public commissions from the 1970s.
, the son of a prosperous Jewish merchant of Romanian
origin. He fled as a teenager to England soon after Nazi
Germany occupied Austria in 1938.
by the British authorities as an enemy alien, before being shipped to Quebec, Canada and continued to be interned until October 1941, when he was released on parole from internment to study architecture at the University of Manitoba
.
Although he was ten years old when the Bauhaus was closed, Seidler's analysts invariably associate him with the Bauhaus because he later studied under emigrent Bauhaus teachers in the USA. He attended Harvard Graduate School of Design
under Walter Gropius
and Marcel Breuer on a scholarship in 1945-46, during which time he did vacation work with Alvar Aalto in Boston drawing up plans for the Baker dormitory at MIT. He then attended Black Mountain College
under the painter Josef Albers
, and then worked for Marcel Breuer
in New York. Seidler also worked in Rio de Janeiro
with the architect Oscar Niemeyer
, who heavily influenced some of his early residential works, such as the Rose Siedler House and the Meller House.
Seidler's parents migrated to Sydney
and later commissioned him to design their home which became known as the Rose Seidler House
(1948–1950), in Wahroonga, on Sydney's North Shore . This project was the first domestic residence to fully express the philosophy of the Bauhaus in Australia.
In the 1960s Seidler again broke new ground with his radical design for the Australia Square
project (1961–67). At the time Australia Square was the world's tallest light weight concrete building. The design introduced the two principles of incorporating large public open spaces and circular forms to office towers in Australia.
He was a founding member of the Australian Architecture Association
. In 1984 he became the first Australian to be elected a member of the Académie d'architecture
, Paris and in 1987 was made a Companion of the Order of Australia
, an honour which he accepted in his trademark suit and bowtie. Over the years Mr Seidler was also awarded five Sulman Medals by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects
, as well as the Royal Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal
in 1976, and the Royal Gold Medal
by the Royal Institute of British Architects
in 1996.
on 15 December 1958, they had two children, a son Timothy and daughter, Polly.
Seidler enjoyed photographing architecture around the world and some of these are documented in his photography book The Grand Tour. He also enjoyed skiing.
Penelope Seidler, herself an architect, gained her Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Sydney
and joined Seidler and Associates in 1964 as architect and financial manager.
On 24 April 2005, Harry Seidler suffered a stroke from which he never fully recovered, and died in Sydney on 9 March 2006 at age 82.
Many of Seidler's designs were a highly demonstrative enactment of his Modernist design methodology, which he saw as an amalgam of three elements: social use, technology and aesthetics. He always insisted that he had no fixed 'style', since these three elements were in constant flux, and so his work constantly evolved throughout his 57 years of designing in Australia.
The form of Seidler's work changed as building technology changed: from his timber houses in the 1950s, to reinforced concrete houses and buildings in the 1960-1780s, and the development of curves with advances in concrete techhnology in the 1980s and later, as well as developments in steel technology that allowed for curved rooves in the 1990s onwards (e.g. Berman House). Upon celebrating 50 years of architectural practice in Australia, Seidler noted that developments in building technology allowed for more richness of form in his then soon-to-be completed Horizon apartment tower: "I could not have built Horizon twenty years ago...in earlier building technology (the way one could) span distancesit was very limited. (But Horizon) is made (possible) by devices such as prestressed concrete which is ...economic and quick. And that also gives you greater freedom of the shapes that you can use. Nowadays we can span huge distances and to do so (by) not just putting steel mesh or something into the concrete but to put steel, high tensile steel wire into it and pull it tight and that makes it easy to span distances and give this kind of change of shape of a building which would have been very difficult to achieve any other way." (Express, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 7.10.1998).
His visual approach to two-dimensional and three-dimensional spacial arrangement was consistent throughout his whole career. He articulated his approach in his first work, the Rose Seidler House. "This house explodes the surfaces that enclose a normal house or space, and turns it into a continuum of free standing planes, through which the eye can never see an end, you are always intrigued what’s beyond, you can always see something floating into the distance, there is never an obstruction to your vision, it is a continuum (of space), that I believe 20th century man’s eye and senses responds positively to that, we crave this”.Harry Seidler quote from “Rose Seidler House – the House that Harry built” (Review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, 14 April 1991).
In 1991, Seidler acknowledged that that his first house (Rose Seidler House) which was built of timber, despite the north facing sunshades "is generally too vulnerable to temperature changes...I didn't fully appreciate the intensity of the Australian sun"(Harry Seidler quote from “Rose Seidler House – the House that Harry built” Review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, 14 April 1991). Thus, later in his career, he sought to use more thermally stable materials like reinforced concrete and to respond to Australian climate by the extensive use of sunshades and flamboyantly-shaped rain protecting canopies on his skyscrapers, (such as Grosvenor Place, Riverside Centre, and QV1), large covered balconies in his houses, as well as shaping his designs to maximize views and enjoyment of the outdoors from inside.
, Frank Stella
, Lin Utzon, Victor Vasarely
, Norman Carlberg
(a fellow but later student of Josef Albers
), and many others, by far the most important of the collaborators was his mentor Albers. Seidler included works by Albers - perhaps the single person most influential on his design philosophy - in a number of projects (notably the MLC Centre with 'Homage to the Square' and 'The Wrestle'). As Paul Bartizan indicates in his obituary tribute to Seidler, these works of art were not mere 'plop art
'; they were really planned to be integrated with and complementary to the buildings into which they were placed: "In many of his projects, Seidler worked with artists whose works became an intrinsic component of his designs."
who is considered to be one of the leading exponents of Modernism
's methodology in Australia and the first architect to fully express the principles of the Bauhaus
in Australia.
Harry Seidler designed more than 180 buildings and he received much recognition for his contribution to Architecture of Australia
. Seidler consistently won architectural awards every decade throughout his Australian career of almost 58 years across the varied categories - his residential work from 1950, his commercial work from 1967, and his public commissions from the 1970s.
, the son of a prosperous Jewish merchant of Romanian
origin. He fled as a teenager to England soon after Nazi
Germany occupied Austria in 1938.
by the British authorities as an enemy alien, before being shipped to Quebec, Canada and continued to be interned until October 1941, when he was released on parole from internment to study architecture at the University of Manitoba
.
Although he was ten years old when the Bauhaus was closed, Seidler's analysts invariably associate him with the Bauhaus because he later studied under emigrent Bauhaus teachers in the USA. He attended Harvard Graduate School of Design
under Walter Gropius
and Marcel Breuer on a scholarship in 1945-46, during which time he did vacation work with Alvar Aalto in Boston drawing up plans for the Baker dormitory at MIT. He then attended Black Mountain College
under the painter Josef Albers
, and then worked for Marcel Breuer
in New York. Seidler also worked in Rio de Janeiro
with the architect Oscar Niemeyer
, who heavily influenced some of his early residential works, such as the Rose Siedler House and the Meller House.
Seidler's parents migrated to Sydney
and later commissioned him to design their home which became known as the Rose Seidler House
(1948–1950), in Wahroonga, on Sydney's North Shore . This project was the first domestic residence to fully express the philosophy of the Bauhaus in Australia.
In the 1960s Seidler again broke new ground with his radical design for the Australia Square
project (1961–67). At the time Australia Square was the world's tallest light weight concrete building. The design introduced the two principles of incorporating large public open spaces and circular forms to office towers in Australia.
He was a founding member of the Australian Architecture Association
. In 1984 he became the first Australian to be elected a member of the Académie d'architecture
, Paris and in 1987 was made a Companion of the Order of Australia
, an honour which he accepted in his trademark suit and bowtie. Over the years Mr Seidler was also awarded five Sulman Medals by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects
, as well as the Royal Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal
in 1976, and the Royal Gold Medal
by the Royal Institute of British Architects
in 1996.
on 15 December 1958, they had two children, a son Timothy and daughter, Polly.
Seidler enjoyed photographing architecture around the world and some of these are documented in his photography book The Grand Tour. He also enjoyed skiing.
Penelope Seidler, herself an architect, gained her Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Sydney
and joined Seidler and Associates in 1964 as architect and financial manager.
On 24 April 2005, Harry Seidler suffered a stroke from which he never fully recovered, and died in Sydney on 9 March 2006 at age 82.
Many of Seidler's designs were a highly demonstrative enactment of his Modernist design methodology, which he saw as an amalgam of three elements: social use, technology and aesthetics. He always insisted that he had no fixed 'style', since these three elements were in constant flux, and so his work constantly evolved throughout his 57 years of designing in Australia.
The form of Seidler's work changed as building technology changed: from his timber houses in the 1950s, to reinforced concrete houses and buildings in the 1960-1780s, and the development of curves with advances in concrete techhnology in the 1980s and later, as well as developments in steel technology that allowed for curved rooves in the 1990s onwards (e.g. Berman House). Upon celebrating 50 years of architectural practice in Australia, Seidler noted that developments in building technology allowed for more richness of form in his then soon-to-be completed Horizon apartment tower: "I could not have built Horizon twenty years ago...in earlier building technology (the way one could) span distancesit was very limited. (But Horizon) is made (possible) by devices such as prestressed concrete which is ...economic and quick. And that also gives you greater freedom of the shapes that you can use. Nowadays we can span huge distances and to do so (by) not just putting steel mesh or something into the concrete but to put steel, high tensile steel wire into it and pull it tight and that makes it easy to span distances and give this kind of change of shape of a building which would have been very difficult to achieve any other way." (Express, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 7.10.1998).
His visual approach to two-dimensional and three-dimensional spacial arrangement was consistent throughout his whole career. He articulated his approach in his first work, the Rose Seidler House. "This house explodes the surfaces that enclose a normal house or space, and turns it into a continuum of free standing planes, through which the eye can never see an end, you are always intrigued what’s beyond, you can always see something floating into the distance, there is never an obstruction to your vision, it is a continuum (of space), that I believe 20th century man’s eye and senses responds positively to that, we crave this”.Harry Seidler quote from “Rose Seidler House – the House that Harry built” (Review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, 14 April 1991).
In 1991, Seidler acknowledged that that his first house (Rose Seidler House) which was built of timber, despite the north facing sunshades "is generally too vulnerable to temperature changes...I didn't fully appreciate the intensity of the Australian sun"(Harry Seidler quote from “Rose Seidler House – the House that Harry built” Review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, 14 April 1991). Thus, later in his career, he sought to use more thermally stable materials like reinforced concrete and to respond to Australian climate by the extensive use of sunshades and flamboyantly-shaped rain protecting canopies on his skyscrapers, (such as Grosvenor Place, Riverside Centre, and QV1), large covered balconies in his houses, as well as shaping his designs to maximize views and enjoyment of the outdoors from inside.
, Frank Stella
, Lin Utzon, Victor Vasarely
, Norman Carlberg
(a fellow but later student of Josef Albers
), and many others, by far the most important of the collaborators was his mentor Albers. Seidler included works by Albers - perhaps the single person most influential on his design philosophy - in a number of projects (notably the MLC Centre with 'Homage to the Square' and 'The Wrestle'). As Paul Bartizan indicates in his obituary tribute to Seidler, these works of art were not mere 'plop art
'; they were really planned to be integrated with and complementary to the buildings into which they were placed: "In many of his projects, Seidler worked with artists whose works became an intrinsic component of his designs."
who is considered to be one of the leading exponents of Modernism
's methodology in Australia and the first architect to fully express the principles of the Bauhaus
in Australia.
Harry Seidler designed more than 180 buildings and he received much recognition for his contribution to Architecture of Australia
. Seidler consistently won architectural awards every decade throughout his Australian career of almost 58 years across the varied categories - his residential work from 1950, his commercial work from 1967, and his public commissions from the 1970s.
, the son of a prosperous Jewish merchant of Romanian
origin. He fled as a teenager to England soon after Nazi
Germany occupied Austria in 1938.
by the British authorities as an enemy alien, before being shipped to Quebec, Canada and continued to be interned until October 1941, when he was released on parole from internment to study architecture at the University of Manitoba
.
Although he was ten years old when the Bauhaus was closed, Seidler's analysts invariably associate him with the Bauhaus because he later studied under emigrent Bauhaus teachers in the USA. He attended Harvard Graduate School of Design
under Walter Gropius
and Marcel Breuer on a scholarship in 1945-46, during which time he did vacation work with Alvar Aalto in Boston drawing up plans for the Baker dormitory at MIT. He then attended Black Mountain College
under the painter Josef Albers
, and then worked for Marcel Breuer
in New York. Seidler also worked in Rio de Janeiro
with the architect Oscar Niemeyer
, who heavily influenced some of his early residential works, such as the Rose Siedler House and the Meller House.
Seidler's parents migrated to Sydney
and later commissioned him to design their home which became known as the Rose Seidler House
(1948–1950), in Wahroonga, on Sydney's North Shore . This project was the first domestic residence to fully express the philosophy of the Bauhaus in Australia.
In the 1960s Seidler again broke new ground with his radical design for the Australia Square
project (1961–67). At the time Australia Square was the world's tallest light weight concrete building. The design introduced the two principles of incorporating large public open spaces and circular forms to office towers in Australia.
He was a founding member of the Australian Architecture Association
. In 1984 he became the first Australian to be elected a member of the Académie d'architecture
, Paris and in 1987 was made a Companion of the Order of Australia
, an honour which he accepted in his trademark suit and bowtie. Over the years Mr Seidler was also awarded five Sulman Medals by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects
, as well as the Royal Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal
in 1976, and the Royal Gold Medal
by the Royal Institute of British Architects
in 1996.
on 15 December 1958, they had two children, a son Timothy and daughter, Polly.
Seidler enjoyed photographing architecture around the world and some of these are documented in his photography book The Grand Tour. He also enjoyed skiing.
Penelope Seidler, herself an architect, gained her Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Sydney
and joined Seidler and Associates in 1964 as architect and financial manager.
On 24 April 2005, Harry Seidler suffered a stroke from which he never fully recovered, and died in Sydney on 9 March 2006 at age 82.
Many of Seidler's designs were a highly demonstrative enactment of his Modernist design methodology, which he saw as an amalgam of three elements: social use, technology and aesthetics. He always insisted that he had no fixed 'style', since these three elements were in constant flux, and so his work constantly evolved throughout his 57 years of designing in Australia.
The form of Seidler's work changed as building technology changed: from his timber houses in the 1950s, to reinforced concrete houses and buildings in the 1960-1780s, and the development of curves with advances in concrete techhnology in the 1980s and later, as well as developments in steel technology that allowed for curved rooves in the 1990s onwards (e.g. Berman House). Upon celebrating 50 years of architectural practice in Australia, Seidler noted that developments in building technology allowed for more richness of form in his then soon-to-be completed Horizon apartment tower: "I could not have built Horizon twenty years ago...in earlier building technology (the way one could) span distancesit was very limited. (But Horizon) is made (possible) by devices such as prestressed concrete which is ...economic and quick. And that also gives you greater freedom of the shapes that you can use. Nowadays we can span huge distances and to do so (by) not just putting steel mesh or something into the concrete but to put steel, high tensile steel wire into it and pull it tight and that makes it easy to span distances and give this kind of change of shape of a building which would have been very difficult to achieve any other way." (Express, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 7.10.1998).
His visual approach to two-dimensional and three-dimensional spacial arrangement was consistent throughout his whole career. He articulated his approach in his first work, the Rose Seidler House. "This house explodes the surfaces that enclose a normal house or space, and turns it into a continuum of free standing planes, through which the eye can never see an end, you are always intrigued what’s beyond, you can always see something floating into the distance, there is never an obstruction to your vision, it is a continuum (of space), that I believe 20th century man’s eye and senses responds positively to that, we crave this”.Harry Seidler quote from “Rose Seidler House – the House that Harry built” (Review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, 14 April 1991).
In 1991, Seidler acknowledged that that his first house (Rose Seidler House) which was built of timber, despite the north facing sunshades "is generally too vulnerable to temperature changes...I didn't fully appreciate the intensity of the Australian sun"(Harry Seidler quote from “Rose Seidler House – the House that Harry built” Review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, 14 April 1991). Thus, later in his career, he sought to use more thermally stable materials like reinforced concrete and to respond to Australian climate by the extensive use of sunshades and flamboyantly-shaped rain protecting canopies on his skyscrapers, (such as Grosvenor Place, Riverside Centre, and QV1), large covered balconies in his houses, as well as shaping his designs to maximize views and enjoyment of the outdoors from inside.
, Frank Stella
, Lin Utzon, Victor Vasarely
, Norman Carlberg
(a fellow but later student of Josef Albers
), and many others, by far the most important of the collaborators was his mentor Albers. Seidler included works by Albers - perhaps the single person most influential on his design philosophy - in a number of projects (notably the MLC Centre with 'Homage to the Square' and 'The Wrestle'). As Paul Bartizan indicates in his obituary tribute to Seidler, these works of art were not mere 'plop art
'; they were really planned to be integrated with and complementary to the buildings into which they were placed: "In many of his projects, Seidler worked with artists whose works became an intrinsic component of his designs."
who is considered to be one of the leading exponents of Modernism
's methodology in Australia and the first architect to fully express the principles of the Bauhaus
in Australia.
Harry Seidler designed more than 180 buildings and he received much recognition for his contribution to Architecture of Australia
. Seidler consistently won architectural awards every decade throughout his Australian career of almost 58 years across the varied categories - his residential work from 1950, his commercial work from 1967, and his public commissions from the 1970s.
, the son of a prosperous Jewish merchant of Romanian
origin. He fled as a teenager to England soon after Nazi
Germany occupied Austria in 1938.
by the British authorities as an enemy alien, before being shipped to Quebec, Canada and continued to be interned until October 1941, when he was released on parole from internment to study architecture at the University of Manitoba
.
Although he was ten years old when the Bauhaus was closed, Seidler's analysts invariably associate him with the Bauhaus because he later studied under emigrent Bauhaus teachers in the USA. He attended Harvard Graduate School of Design
under Walter Gropius
and Marcel Breuer on a scholarship in 1945-46, during which time he did vacation work with Alvar Aalto in Boston drawing up plans for the Baker dormitory at MIT. He then attended Black Mountain College
under the painter Josef Albers
, and then worked for Marcel Breuer
in New York. Seidler also worked in Rio de Janeiro
with the architect Oscar Niemeyer
, who heavily influenced some of his early residential works, such as the Rose Siedler House and the Meller House.
Seidler's parents migrated to Sydney
and later commissioned him to design their home which became known as the Rose Seidler House
(1948–1950), in Wahroonga, on Sydney's North Shore . This project was the first domestic residence to fully express the philosophy of the Bauhaus in Australia.
In the 1960s Seidler again broke new ground with his radical design for the Australia Square
project (1961–67). At the time Australia Square was the world's tallest light weight concrete building. The design introduced the two principles of incorporating large public open spaces and circular forms to office towers in Australia.
He was a founding member of the Australian Architecture Association
. In 1984 he became the first Australian to be elected a member of the Académie d'architecture
, Paris and in 1987 was made a Companion of the Order of Australia
, an honour which he accepted in his trademark suit and bowtie. Over the years Mr Seidler was also awarded five Sulman Medals by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects
, as well as the Royal Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal
in 1976, and the Royal Gold Medal
by the Royal Institute of British Architects
in 1996.
on 15 December 1958, they had two children, a son Timothy and daughter, Polly.
Seidler enjoyed photographing architecture around the world and some of these are documented in his photography book The Grand Tour. He also enjoyed skiing.
Penelope Seidler, herself an architect, gained her Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Sydney
and joined Seidler and Associates in 1964 as architect and financial manager.
On 24 April 2005, Harry Seidler suffered a stroke from which he never fully recovered, and died in Sydney on 9 March 2006 at age 82.
Many of Seidler's designs were a highly demonstrative enactment of his Modernist design methodology, which he saw as an amalgam of three elements: social use, technology and aesthetics. He always insisted that he had no fixed 'style', since these three elements were in constant flux, and so his work constantly evolved throughout his 57 years of designing in Australia.
The form of Seidler's work changed as building technology changed: from his timber houses in the 1950s, to reinforced concrete houses and buildings in the 1960-1780s, and the development of curves with advances in concrete techhnology in the 1980s and later, as well as developments in steel technology that allowed for curved rooves in the 1990s onwards (e.g. Berman House). Upon celebrating 50 years of architectural practice in Australia, Seidler noted that developments in building technology allowed for more richness of form in his then soon-to-be completed Horizon apartment tower: "I could not have built Horizon twenty years ago...in earlier building technology (the way one could) span distancesit was very limited. (But Horizon) is made (possible) by devices such as prestressed concrete which is ...economic and quick. And that also gives you greater freedom of the shapes that you can use. Nowadays we can span huge distances and to do so (by) not just putting steel mesh or something into the concrete but to put steel, high tensile steel wire into it and pull it tight and that makes it easy to span distances and give this kind of change of shape of a building which would have been very difficult to achieve any other way." (Express, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 7.10.1998).
His visual approach to two-dimensional and three-dimensional spacial arrangement was consistent throughout his whole career. He articulated his approach in his first work, the Rose Seidler House. "This house explodes the surfaces that enclose a normal house or space, and turns it into a continuum of free standing planes, through which the eye can never see an end, you are always intrigued what’s beyond, you can always see something floating into the distance, there is never an obstruction to your vision, it is a continuum (of space), that I believe 20th century man’s eye and senses responds positively to that, we crave this”.Harry Seidler quote from “Rose Seidler House – the House that Harry built” (Review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, 14 April 1991).
In 1991, Seidler acknowledged that that his first house (Rose Seidler House) which was built of timber, despite the north facing sunshades "is generally too vulnerable to temperature changes...I didn't fully appreciate the intensity of the Australian sun"(Harry Seidler quote from “Rose Seidler House – the House that Harry built” Review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, 14 April 1991). Thus, later in his career, he sought to use more thermally stable materials like reinforced concrete and to respond to Australian climate by the extensive use of sunshades and flamboyantly-shaped rain protecting canopies on his skyscrapers, (such as Grosvenor Place, Riverside Centre, and QV1), large covered balconies in his houses, as well as shaping his designs to maximize views and enjoyment of the outdoors from inside.
, Frank Stella
, Lin Utzon, Victor Vasarely
, Norman Carlberg
(a fellow but later student of Josef Albers
), and many others, by far the most important of the collaborators was his mentor Albers. Seidler included works by Albers - perhaps the single person most influential on his design philosophy - in a number of projects (notably the MLC Centre with 'Homage to the Square' and 'The Wrestle'). As Paul Bartizan indicates in his obituary tribute to Seidler, these works of art were not mere 'plop art
'; they were really planned to be integrated with and complementary to the buildings into which they were placed: "In many of his projects, Seidler worked with artists whose works became an intrinsic component of his designs."
who is considered to be one of the leading exponents of Modernism
's methodology in Australia and the first architect to fully express the principles of the Bauhaus
in Australia.
Harry Seidler designed more than 180 buildings and he received much recognition for his contribution to Architecture of Australia
. Seidler consistently won architectural awards every decade throughout his Australian career of almost 58 years across the varied categories - his residential work from 1950, his commercial work from 1967, and his public commissions from the 1970s.
, the son of a prosperous Jewish merchant of Romanian
origin. He fled as a teenager to England soon after Nazi
Germany occupied Austria in 1938.
by the British authorities as an enemy alien, before being shipped to Quebec, Canada and continued to be interned until October 1941, when he was released on parole from internment to study architecture at the University of Manitoba
.
Although he was ten years old when the Bauhaus was closed, Seidler's analysts invariably associate him with the Bauhaus because he later studied under emigrent Bauhaus teachers in the USA. He attended Harvard Graduate School of Design
under Walter Gropius
and Marcel Breuer on a scholarship in 1945-46, during which time he did vacation work with Alvar Aalto in Boston drawing up plans for the Baker dormitory at MIT. He then attended Black Mountain College
under the painter Josef Albers
, and then worked for Marcel Breuer
in New York. Seidler also worked in Rio de Janeiro
with the architect Oscar Niemeyer
, who heavily influenced some of his early residential works, such as the Rose Siedler House and the Meller House.
Seidler's parents migrated to Sydney
and later commissioned him to design their home which became known as the Rose Seidler House
(1948–1950), in Wahroonga, on Sydney's North Shore . This project was the first domestic residence to fully express the philosophy of the Bauhaus in Australia.
In the 1960s Seidler again broke new ground with his radical design for the Australia Square
project (1961–67). At the time Australia Square was the world's tallest light weight concrete building. The design introduced the two principles of incorporating large public open spaces and circular forms to office towers in Australia.
He was a founding member of the Australian Architecture Association
. In 1984 he became the first Australian to be elected a member of the Académie d'architecture
, Paris and in 1987 was made a Companion of the Order of Australia
, an honour which he accepted in his trademark suit and bowtie. Over the years Mr Seidler was also awarded five Sulman Medals by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects
, as well as the Royal Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal
in 1976, and the Royal Gold Medal
by the Royal Institute of British Architects
in 1996.
on 15 December 1958, they had two children, a son Timothy and daughter, Polly.
Seidler enjoyed photographing architecture around the world and some of these are documented in his photography book The Grand Tour. He also enjoyed skiing.
Penelope Seidler, herself an architect, gained her Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Sydney
and joined Seidler and Associates in 1964 as architect and financial manager.
On 24 April 2005, Harry Seidler suffered a stroke from which he never fully recovered, and died in Sydney on 9 March 2006 at age 82.
Many of Seidler's designs were a highly demonstrative enactment of his Modernist design methodology, which he saw as an amalgam of three elements: social use, technology and aesthetics. He always insisted that he had no fixed 'style', since these three elements were in constant flux, and so his work constantly evolved throughout his 57 years of designing in Australia.
The form of Seidler's work changed as building technology changed: from his timber houses in the 1950s, to reinforced concrete houses and buildings in the 1960-1780s, and the development of curves with advances in concrete techhnology in the 1980s and later, as well as developments in steel technology that allowed for curved rooves in the 1990s onwards (e.g. Berman House). Upon celebrating 50 years of architectural practice in Australia, Seidler noted that developments in building technology allowed for more richness of form in his then soon-to-be completed Horizon apartment tower: "I could not have built Horizon twenty years ago...in earlier building technology (the way one could) span distancesit was very limited. (But Horizon) is made (possible) by devices such as prestressed concrete which is ...economic and quick. And that also gives you greater freedom of the shapes that you can use. Nowadays we can span huge distances and to do so (by) not just putting steel mesh or something into the concrete but to put steel, high tensile steel wire into it and pull it tight and that makes it easy to span distances and give this kind of change of shape of a building which would have been very difficult to achieve any other way." (Express, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 7.10.1998).
His visual approach to two-dimensional and three-dimensional spacial arrangement was consistent throughout his whole career. He articulated his approach in his first work, the Rose Seidler House. "This house explodes the surfaces that enclose a normal house or space, and turns it into a continuum of free standing planes, through which the eye can never see an end, you are always intrigued what’s beyond, you can always see something floating into the distance, there is never an obstruction to your vision, it is a continuum (of space), that I believe 20th century man’s eye and senses responds positively to that, we crave this”.Harry Seidler quote from “Rose Seidler House – the House that Harry built” (Review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, 14 April 1991).
In 1991, Seidler acknowledged that that his first house (Rose Seidler House) which was built of timber, despite the north facing sunshades "is generally too vulnerable to temperature changes...I didn't fully appreciate the intensity of the Australian sun"(Harry Seidler quote from “Rose Seidler House – the House that Harry built” Review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, 14 April 1991). Thus, later in his career, he sought to use more thermally stable materials like reinforced concrete and to respond to Australian climate by the extensive use of sunshades and flamboyantly-shaped rain protecting canopies on his skyscrapers, (such as Grosvenor Place, Riverside Centre, and QV1), large covered balconies in his houses, as well as shaping his designs to maximize views and enjoyment of the outdoors from inside.
, Frank Stella
, Lin Utzon, Victor Vasarely
, Norman Carlberg
(a fellow but later student of Josef Albers
), and many others, by far the most important of the collaborators was his mentor Albers. Seidler included works by Albers - perhaps the single person most influential on his design philosophy - in a number of projects (notably the MLC Centre with 'Homage to the Square' and 'The Wrestle'). As Paul Bartizan indicates in his obituary tribute to Seidler, these works of art were not mere 'plop art
'; they were really planned to be integrated with and complementary to the buildings into which they were placed: "In many of his projects, Seidler worked with artists whose works became an intrinsic component of his designs."
who is considered to be one of the leading exponents of Modernism
's methodology in Australia and the first architect to fully express the principles of the Bauhaus
in Australia.
Harry Seidler designed more than 180 buildings and he received much recognition for his contribution to Architecture of Australia
. Seidler consistently won architectural awards every decade throughout his Australian career of almost 58 years across the varied categories - his residential work from 1950, his commercial work from 1967, and his public commissions from the 1970s.
, the son of a prosperous Jewish merchant of Romanian
origin. He fled as a teenager to England soon after Nazi
Germany occupied Austria in 1938.
by the British authorities as an enemy alien, before being shipped to Quebec, Canada and continued to be interned until October 1941, when he was released on parole from internment to study architecture at the University of Manitoba
.
Although he was ten years old when the Bauhaus was closed, Seidler's analysts invariably associate him with the Bauhaus because he later studied under emigrent Bauhaus teachers in the USA. He attended Harvard Graduate School of Design
under Walter Gropius
and Marcel Breuer on a scholarship in 1945-46, during which time he did vacation work with Alvar Aalto in Boston drawing up plans for the Baker dormitory at MIT. He then attended Black Mountain College
under the painter Josef Albers
, and then worked for Marcel Breuer
in New York. Seidler also worked in Rio de Janeiro
with the architect Oscar Niemeyer
, who heavily influenced some of his early residential works, such as the Rose Siedler House and the Meller House.
Seidler's parents migrated to Sydney
and later commissioned him to design their home which became known as the Rose Seidler House
(1948–1950), in Wahroonga, on Sydney's North Shore . This project was the first domestic residence to fully express the philosophy of the Bauhaus in Australia.
In the 1960s Seidler again broke new ground with his radical design for the Australia Square
project (1961–67). At the time Australia Square was the world's tallest light weight concrete building. The design introduced the two principles of incorporating large public open spaces and circular forms to office towers in Australia.
He was a founding member of the Australian Architecture Association
. In 1984 he became the first Australian to be elected a member of the Académie d'architecture
, Paris and in 1987 was made a Companion of the Order of Australia
, an honour which he accepted in his trademark suit and bowtie. Over the years Mr Seidler was also awarded five Sulman Medals by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects
, as well as the Royal Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal
in 1976, and the Royal Gold Medal
by the Royal Institute of British Architects
in 1996.
on 15 December 1958, they had two children, a son Timothy and daughter, Polly.
Seidler enjoyed photographing architecture around the world and some of these are documented in his photography book The Grand Tour. He also enjoyed skiing.
Penelope Seidler, herself an architect, gained her Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Sydney
and joined Seidler and Associates in 1964 as architect and financial manager.
On 24 April 2005, Harry Seidler suffered a stroke from which he never fully recovered, and died in Sydney on 9 March 2006 at age 82.
Many of Seidler's designs were a highly demonstrative enactment of his Modernist design methodology, which he saw as an amalgam of three elements: social use, technology and aesthetics. He always insisted that he had no fixed 'style', since these three elements were in constant flux, and so his work constantly evolved throughout his 57 years of designing in Australia.
The form of Seidler's work changed as building technology changed: from his timber houses in the 1950s, to reinforced concrete houses and buildings in the 1960-1780s, and the development of curves with advances in concrete techhnology in the 1980s and later, as well as developments in steel technology that allowed for curved rooves in the 1990s onwards (e.g. Berman House). Upon celebrating 50 years of architectural practice in Australia, Seidler noted that developments in building technology allowed for more richness of form in his then soon-to-be completed Horizon apartment tower: "I could not have built Horizon twenty years ago...in earlier building technology (the way one could) span distancesit was very limited. (But Horizon) is made (possible) by devices such as prestressed concrete which is ...economic and quick. And that also gives you greater freedom of the shapes that you can use. Nowadays we can span huge distances and to do so (by) not just putting steel mesh or something into the concrete but to put steel, high tensile steel wire into it and pull it tight and that makes it easy to span distances and give this kind of change of shape of a building which would have been very difficult to achieve any other way." (Express, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 7.10.1998).
His visual approach to two-dimensional and three-dimensional spacial arrangement was consistent throughout his whole career. He articulated his approach in his first work, the Rose Seidler House. "This house explodes the surfaces that enclose a normal house or space, and turns it into a continuum of free standing planes, through which the eye can never see an end, you are always intrigued what’s beyond, you can always see something floating into the distance, there is never an obstruction to your vision, it is a continuum (of space), that I believe 20th century man’s eye and senses responds positively to that, we crave this”.Harry Seidler quote from “Rose Seidler House – the House that Harry built” (Review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, 14 April 1991).
In 1991, Seidler acknowledged that that his first house (Rose Seidler House) which was built of timber, despite the north facing sunshades "is generally too vulnerable to temperature changes...I didn't fully appreciate the intensity of the Australian sun"(Harry Seidler quote from “Rose Seidler House – the House that Harry built” Review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, 14 April 1991). Thus, later in his career, he sought to use more thermally stable materials like reinforced concrete and to respond to Australian climate by the extensive use of sunshades and flamboyantly-shaped rain protecting canopies on his skyscrapers, (such as Grosvenor Place, Riverside Centre, and QV1), large covered balconies in his houses, as well as shaping his designs to maximize views and enjoyment of the outdoors from inside.
, Frank Stella
, Lin Utzon, Victor Vasarely
, Norman Carlberg
(a fellow but later student of Josef Albers
), and many others, by far the most important of the collaborators was his mentor Albers. Seidler included works by Albers - perhaps the single person most influential on his design philosophy - in a number of projects (notably the MLC Centre with 'Homage to the Square' and 'The Wrestle'). As Paul Bartizan indicates in his obituary tribute to Seidler, these works of art were not mere 'plop art
'; they were really planned to be integrated with and complementary to the buildings into which they were placed: "In many of his projects, Seidler worked with artists whose works became an intrinsic component of his designs."
who is considered to be one of the leading exponents of Modernism
's methodology in Australia and the first architect to fully express the principles of the Bauhaus
in Australia.
Harry Seidler designed more than 180 buildings and he received much recognition for his contribution to Architecture of Australia
. Seidler consistently won architectural awards every decade throughout his Australian career of almost 58 years across the varied categories - his residential work from 1950, his commercial work from 1967, and his public commissions from the 1970s.
, the son of a prosperous Jewish merchant of Romanian
origin. He fled as a teenager to England soon after Nazi
Germany occupied Austria in 1938.
by the British authorities as an enemy alien, before being shipped to Quebec, Canada and continued to be interned until October 1941, when he was released on parole from internment to study architecture at the University of Manitoba
.
Although he was ten years old when the Bauhaus was closed, Seidler's analysts invariably associate him with the Bauhaus because he later studied under emigrent Bauhaus teachers in the USA. He attended Harvard Graduate School of Design
under Walter Gropius
and Marcel Breuer on a scholarship in 1945-46, during which time he did vacation work with Alvar Aalto in Boston drawing up plans for the Baker dormitory at MIT. He then attended Black Mountain College
under the painter Josef Albers
, and then worked for Marcel Breuer
in New York. Seidler also worked in Rio de Janeiro
with the architect Oscar Niemeyer
, who heavily influenced some of his early residential works, such as the Rose Siedler House and the Meller House.
Seidler's parents migrated to Sydney
and later commissioned him to design their home which became known as the Rose Seidler House
(1948–1950), in Wahroonga, on Sydney's North Shore . This project was the first domestic residence to fully express the philosophy of the Bauhaus in Australia.
In the 1960s Seidler again broke new ground with his radical design for the Australia Square
project (1961–67). At the time Australia Square was the world's tallest light weight concrete building. The design introduced the two principles of incorporating large public open spaces and circular forms to office towers in Australia.
He was a founding member of the Australian Architecture Association
. In 1984 he became the first Australian to be elected a member of the Académie d'architecture
, Paris and in 1987 was made a Companion of the Order of Australia
, an honour which he accepted in his trademark suit and bowtie. Over the years Mr Seidler was also awarded five Sulman Medals by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects
, as well as the Royal Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal
in 1976, and the Royal Gold Medal
by the Royal Institute of British Architects
in 1996.
on 15 December 1958, they had two children, a son Timothy and daughter, Polly.
Seidler enjoyed photographing architecture around the world and some of these are documented in his photography book The Grand Tour. He also enjoyed skiing.
Penelope Seidler, herself an architect, gained her Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Sydney
and joined Seidler and Associates in 1964 as architect and financial manager.
On 24 April 2005, Harry Seidler suffered a stroke from which he never fully recovered, and died in Sydney on 9 March 2006 at age 82.
Many of Seidler's designs were a highly demonstrative enactment of his Modernist design methodology, which he saw as an amalgam of three elements: social use, technology and aesthetics. He always insisted that he had no fixed 'style', since these three elements were in constant flux, and so his work constantly evolved throughout his 57 years of designing in Australia.
The form of Seidler's work changed as building technology changed: from his timber houses in the 1950s, to reinforced concrete houses and buildings in the 1960-1780s, and the development of curves with advances in concrete techhnology in the 1980s and later, as well as developments in steel technology that allowed for curved rooves in the 1990s onwards (e.g. Berman House). Upon celebrating 50 years of architectural practice in Australia, Seidler noted that developments in building technology allowed for more richness of form in his then soon-to-be completed Horizon apartment tower: "I could not have built Horizon twenty years ago...in earlier building technology (the way one could) span distancesit was very limited. (But Horizon) is made (possible) by devices such as prestressed concrete which is ...economic and quick. And that also gives you greater freedom of the shapes that you can use. Nowadays we can span huge distances and to do so (by) not just putting steel mesh or something into the concrete but to put steel, high tensile steel wire into it and pull it tight and that makes it easy to span distances and give this kind of change of shape of a building which would have been very difficult to achieve any other way." (Express, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 7.10.1998).
His visual approach to two-dimensional and three-dimensional spacial arrangement was consistent throughout his whole career. He articulated his approach in his first work, the Rose Seidler House. "This house explodes the surfaces that enclose a normal house or space, and turns it into a continuum of free standing planes, through which the eye can never see an end, you are always intrigued what’s beyond, you can always see something floating into the distance, there is never an obstruction to your vision, it is a continuum (of space), that I believe 20th century man’s eye and senses responds positively to that, we crave this”.Harry Seidler quote from “Rose Seidler House – the House that Harry built” (Review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, 14 April 1991).
In 1991, Seidler acknowledged that that his first house (Rose Seidler House) which was built of timber, despite the north facing sunshades "is generally too vulnerable to temperature changes...I didn't fully appreciate the intensity of the Australian sun"(Harry Seidler quote from “Rose Seidler House – the House that Harry built” Review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, 14 April 1991). Thus, later in his career, he sought to use more thermally stable materials like reinforced concrete and to respond to Australian climate by the extensive use of sunshades and flamboyantly-shaped rain protecting canopies on his skyscrapers, (such as Grosvenor Place, Riverside Centre, and QV1), large covered balconies in his houses, as well as shaping his designs to maximize views and enjoyment of the outdoors from inside.
, Frank Stella
, Lin Utzon, Victor Vasarely
, Norman Carlberg
(a fellow but later student of Josef Albers
), and many others, by far the most important of the collaborators was his mentor Albers. Seidler included works by Albers - perhaps the single person most influential on his design philosophy - in a number of projects (notably the MLC Centre with 'Homage to the Square' and 'The Wrestle'). As Paul Bartizan indicates in his obituary tribute to Seidler, these works of art were not mere 'plop art
'; they were really planned to be integrated with and complementary to the buildings into which they were placed: "In many of his projects, Seidler worked with artists whose works became an intrinsic component of his designs."
who is considered to be one of the leading exponents of Modernism
's methodology in Australia and the first architect to fully express the principles of the Bauhaus
in Australia.
Harry Seidler designed more than 180 buildings and he received much recognition for his contribution to Architecture of Australia
. Seidler consistently won architectural awards every decade throughout his Australian career of almost 58 years across the varied categories - his residential work from 1950, his commercial work from 1967, and his public commissions from the 1970s.
, the son of a prosperous Jewish merchant of Romanian
origin. He fled as a teenager to England soon after Nazi
Germany occupied Austria in 1938.
by the British authorities as an enemy alien, before being shipped to Quebec, Canada and continued to be interned until October 1941, when he was released on parole from internment to study architecture at the University of Manitoba
.
Although he was ten years old when the Bauhaus was closed, Seidler's analysts invariably associate him with the Bauhaus because he later studied under emigrent Bauhaus teachers in the USA. He attended Harvard Graduate School of Design
under Walter Gropius
and Marcel Breuer on a scholarship in 1945-46, during which time he did vacation work with Alvar Aalto in Boston drawing up plans for the Baker dormitory at MIT. He then attended Black Mountain College
under the painter Josef Albers
, and then worked for Marcel Breuer
in New York. Seidler also worked in Rio de Janeiro
with the architect Oscar Niemeyer
, who heavily influenced some of his early residential works, such as the Rose Siedler House and the Meller House.
Seidler's parents migrated to Sydney
and later commissioned him to design their home which became known as the Rose Seidler House
(1948–1950), in Wahroonga, on Sydney's North Shore . This project was the first domestic residence to fully express the philosophy of the Bauhaus in Australia.
In the 1960s Seidler again broke new ground with his radical design for the Australia Square
project (1961–67). At the time Australia Square was the world's tallest light weight concrete building. The design introduced the two principles of incorporating large public open spaces and circular forms to office towers in Australia.
He was a founding member of the Australian Architecture Association
. In 1984 he became the first Australian to be elected a member of the Académie d'architecture
, Paris and in 1987 was made a Companion of the Order of Australia
, an honour which he accepted in his trademark suit and bowtie. Over the years Mr Seidler was also awarded five Sulman Medals by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects
, as well as the Royal Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal
in 1976, and the Royal Gold Medal
by the Royal Institute of British Architects
in 1996.
on 15 December 1958, they had two children, a son Timothy and daughter, Polly.
Seidler enjoyed photographing architecture around the world and some of these are documented in his photography book The Grand Tour. He also enjoyed skiing.
Penelope Seidler, herself an architect, gained her Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Sydney
and joined Seidler and Associates in 1964 as architect and financial manager.
On 24 April 2005, Harry Seidler suffered a stroke from which he never fully recovered, and died in Sydney on 9 March 2006 at age 82.
Many of Seidler's designs were a highly demonstrative enactment of his Modernist design methodology, which he saw as an amalgam of three elements: social use, technology and aesthetics. He always insisted that he had no fixed 'style', since these three elements were in constant flux, and so his work constantly evolved throughout his 57 years of designing in Australia.
The form of Seidler's work changed as building technology changed: from his timber houses in the 1950s, to reinforced concrete houses and buildings in the 1960-1780s, and the development of curves with advances in concrete techhnology in the 1980s and later, as well as developments in steel technology that allowed for curved rooves in the 1990s onwards (e.g. Berman House). Upon celebrating 50 years of architectural practice in Australia, Seidler noted that developments in building technology allowed for more richness of form in his then soon-to-be completed Horizon apartment tower: "I could not have built Horizon twenty years ago...in earlier building technology (the way one could) span distancesit was very limited. (But Horizon) is made (possible) by devices such as prestressed concrete which is ...economic and quick. And that also gives you greater freedom of the shapes that you can use. Nowadays we can span huge distances and to do so (by) not just putting steel mesh or something into the concrete but to put steel, high tensile steel wire into it and pull it tight and that makes it easy to span distances and give this kind of change of shape of a building which would have been very difficult to achieve any other way." (Express, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 7.10.1998).
His visual approach to two-dimensional and three-dimensional spacial arrangement was consistent throughout his whole career. He articulated his approach in his first work, the Rose Seidler House. "This house explodes the surfaces that enclose a normal house or space, and turns it into a continuum of free standing planes, through which the eye can never see an end, you are always intrigued what’s beyond, you can always see something floating into the distance, there is never an obstruction to your vision, it is a continuum (of space), that I believe 20th century man’s eye and senses responds positively to that, we crave this”.Harry Seidler quote from “Rose Seidler House – the House that Harry built” (Review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, 14 April 1991).
In 1991, Seidler acknowledged that that his first house (Rose Seidler House) which was built of timber, despite the north facing sunshades "is generally too vulnerable to temperature changes...I didn't fully appreciate the intensity of the Australian sun"(Harry Seidler quote from “Rose Seidler House – the House that Harry built” Review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, 14 April 1991). Thus, later in his career, he sought to use more thermally stable materials like reinforced concrete and to respond to Australian climate by the extensive use of sunshades and flamboyantly-shaped rain protecting canopies on his skyscrapers, (such as Grosvenor Place, Riverside Centre, and QV1), large covered balconies in his houses, as well as shaping his designs to maximize views and enjoyment of the outdoors from inside.
, Frank Stella
, Lin Utzon, Victor Vasarely
, Norman Carlberg
(a fellow but later student of Josef Albers
), and many others, by far the most important of the collaborators was his mentor Albers. Seidler included works by Albers - perhaps the single person most influential on his design philosophy - in a number of projects (notably the MLC Centre with 'Homage to the Square' and 'The Wrestle'). As Paul Bartizan indicates in his obituary tribute to Seidler, these works of art were not mere 'plop art
'; they were really planned to be integrated with and complementary to the buildings into which they were placed: "In many of his projects, Seidler worked with artists whose works became an intrinsic component of his designs."
who is considered to be one of the leading exponents of Modernism
's methodology in Australia and the first architect to fully express the principles of the Bauhaus
in Australia.
Harry Seidler designed more than 180 buildings and he received much recognition for his contribution to Architecture of Australia
. Seidler consistently won architectural awards every decade throughout his Australian career of almost 58 years across the varied categories - his residential work from 1950, his commercial work from 1967, and his public commissions from the 1970s.
, the son of a prosperous Jewish merchant of Romanian
origin. He fled as a teenager to England soon after Nazi
Germany occupied Austria in 1938.
by the British authorities as an enemy alien, before being shipped to Quebec, Canada and continued to be interned until October 1941, when he was released on parole from internment to study architecture at the University of Manitoba
.
Although he was ten years old when the Bauhaus was closed, Seidler's analysts invariably associate him with the Bauhaus because he later studied under emigrent Bauhaus teachers in the USA. He attended Harvard Graduate School of Design
under Walter Gropius
and Marcel Breuer on a scholarship in 1945-46, during which time he did vacation work with Alvar Aalto in Boston drawing up plans for the Baker dormitory at MIT. He then attended Black Mountain College
under the painter Josef Albers
, and then worked for Marcel Breuer
in New York. Seidler also worked in Rio de Janeiro
with the architect Oscar Niemeyer
, who heavily influenced some of his early residential works, such as the Rose Siedler House and the Meller House.
Seidler's parents migrated to Sydney
and later commissioned him to design their home which became known as the Rose Seidler House
(1948–1950), in Wahroonga, on Sydney's North Shore . This project was the first domestic residence to fully express the philosophy of the Bauhaus in Australia.
In the 1960s Seidler again broke new ground with his radical design for the Australia Square
project (1961–67). At the time Australia Square was the world's tallest light weight concrete building. The design introduced the two principles of incorporating large public open spaces and circular forms to office towers in Australia.
He was a founding member of the Australian Architecture Association
. In 1984 he became the first Australian to be elected a member of the Académie d'architecture
, Paris and in 1987 was made a Companion of the Order of Australia
, an honour which he accepted in his trademark suit and bowtie. Over the years Mr Seidler was also awarded five Sulman Medals by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects
, as well as the Royal Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal
in 1976, and the Royal Gold Medal
by the Royal Institute of British Architects
in 1996.
on 15 December 1958, they had two children, a son Timothy and daughter, Polly.
Seidler enjoyed photographing architecture around the world and some of these are documented in his photography book The Grand Tour. He also enjoyed skiing.
Penelope Seidler, herself an architect, gained her Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Sydney
and joined Seidler and Associates in 1964 as architect and financial manager.
On 24 April 2005, Harry Seidler suffered a stroke from which he never fully recovered, and died in Sydney on 9 March 2006 at age 82.
Many of Seidler's designs were a highly demonstrative enactment of his Modernist design methodology, which he saw as an amalgam of three elements: social use, technology and aesthetics. He always insisted that he had no fixed 'style', since these three elements were in constant flux, and so his work constantly evolved throughout his 57 years of designing in Australia.
The form of Seidler's work changed as building technology changed: from his timber houses in the 1950s, to reinforced concrete houses and buildings in the 1960-1780s, and the development of curves with advances in concrete techhnology in the 1980s and later, as well as developments in steel technology that allowed for curved rooves in the 1990s onwards (e.g. Berman House). Upon celebrating 50 years of architectural practice in Australia, Seidler noted that developments in building technology allowed for more richness of form in his then soon-to-be completed Horizon apartment tower: "I could not have built Horizon twenty years ago...in earlier building technology (the way one could) span distancesit was very limited. (But Horizon) is made (possible) by devices such as prestressed concrete which is ...economic and quick. And that also gives you greater freedom of the shapes that you can use. Nowadays we can span huge distances and to do so (by) not just putting steel mesh or something into the concrete but to put steel, high tensile steel wire into it and pull it tight and that makes it easy to span distances and give this kind of change of shape of a building which would have been very difficult to achieve any other way." (Express, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 7.10.1998).
His visual approach to two-dimensional and three-dimensional spacial arrangement was consistent throughout his whole career. He articulated his approach in his first work, the Rose Seidler House. "This house explodes the surfaces that enclose a normal house or space, and turns it into a continuum of free standing planes, through which the eye can never see an end, you are always intrigued what’s beyond, you can always see something floating into the distance, there is never an obstruction to your vision, it is a continuum (of space), that I believe 20th century man’s eye and senses responds positively to that, we crave this”.Harry Seidler quote from “Rose Seidler House – the House that Harry built” (Review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, 14 April 1991).
In 1991, Seidler acknowledged that that his first house (Rose Seidler House) which was built of timber, despite the north facing sunshades "is generally too vulnerable to temperature changes...I didn't fully appreciate the intensity of the Australian sun"(Harry Seidler quote from “Rose Seidler House – the House that Harry built” Review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, 14 April 1991). Thus, later in his career, he sought to use more thermally stable materials like reinforced concrete and to respond to Australian climate by the extensive use of sunshades and flamboyantly-shaped rain protecting canopies on his skyscrapers, (such as Grosvenor Place, Riverside Centre, and QV1), large covered balconies in his houses, as well as shaping his designs to maximize views and enjoyment of the outdoors from inside.
, Frank Stella
, Lin Utzon, Victor Vasarely
, Norman Carlberg
(a fellow but later student of Josef Albers
), and many others, by far the most important of the collaborators was his mentor Albers. Seidler included works by Albers - perhaps the single person most influential on his design philosophy - in a number of projects (notably the MLC Centre with 'Homage to the Square' and 'The Wrestle'). As Paul Bartizan indicates in his obituary tribute to Seidler, these works of art were not mere 'plop art
'; they were really planned to be integrated with and complementary to the buildings into which they were placed: "In many of his projects, Seidler worked with artists whose works became an intrinsic component of his designs."
File:Australia sq sydney.jpg|Australia Square
, Sydney (1961-67)
Image:Hong Kong Club Building.jpg|Hong Kong Club Building
, Hongkong, 1980
Image:2006-04-12-Riverside.jpg|Riverside Centre
, Brisbane (1983-86)
Image:Capita Centre.JPG|Castlereagh (formerly Capita) Centre, Sydney (1984-89)
Image:QV1 tower.jpg|QV.1
, Perth (1988-1991)
File:2006-04-12-Riparian.jpg|Riparian Plaza
, Brisbane (1999-2005)
File:Hochhaus Neue Donau Wien.jpg|Hochhaus Neue Donau, Vienna, Austria (1999-2002)
Image:WienHochhausNeueDonau.jpg|Harry Seidler: Hochhaus Neue Donau Vienna (2002)
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
who is considered to be one of the leading exponents of Modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
's methodology in Australia and the first architect to fully express the principles of the Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
in Australia.
Harry Seidler designed more than 180 buildings and he received much recognition for his contribution to Architecture of Australia
Architecture of Australia
Architecture in Australia incorporates the architecture produced in the area of the Commonwealth of Australia...
. Seidler consistently won architectural awards every decade throughout his Australian career of almost 58 years across the varied categories - his residential work from 1950, his commercial work from 1967, and his public commissions from the 1970s.
Early life
Seidler was born in ViennaVienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, the son of a prosperous Jewish merchant of Romanian
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
origin. He fled as a teenager to England soon after Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
Germany occupied Austria in 1938.
Education
In England, he studied building and construction at Cambridgeshire Technical School. In May 1940, he was internedInternment
Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people, commonly in large groups, without trial. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the meaning as: "The action of 'interning'; confinement within the limits of a country or place." Most modern usage is about individuals, and there is a distinction...
by the British authorities as an enemy alien, before being shipped to Quebec, Canada and continued to be interned until October 1941, when he was released on parole from internment to study architecture at the University of Manitoba
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba , in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is the largest university in the province of Manitoba. It is Manitoba's most comprehensive and only research-intensive post-secondary educational institution. It was founded in 1877, making it Western Canada’s first university. It placed...
.
Although he was ten years old when the Bauhaus was closed, Seidler's analysts invariably associate him with the Bauhaus because he later studied under emigrent Bauhaus teachers in the USA. He attended Harvard Graduate School of Design
Harvard Graduate School of Design
The Harvard Graduate School of Design is a graduate school at Harvard University offering degrees in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning and Design.-History:...
under Walter Gropius
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius was a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School who, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture....
and Marcel Breuer on a scholarship in 1945-46, during which time he did vacation work with Alvar Aalto in Boston drawing up plans for the Baker dormitory at MIT. He then attended Black Mountain College
Black Mountain College
Black Mountain College, a school founded in 1933 in Black Mountain, North Carolina, was a new kind of college in the United States in which the study of art was seen to be central to a liberal arts education, and in which John Dewey's principles of education played a major role...
under the painter Josef Albers
Josef Albers
Josef Albers was a German-born American artist and educator whose work, both in Europe and in the United States, formed the basis of some of the most influential and far-reaching art education programs of the 20th century....
, and then worked for Marcel Breuer
Marcel Breuer
Marcel Lajos Breuer , was a Hungarian-born modernist, architect and furniture designer of Jewish descent. One of the masters of Modernism, Breuer displayed interest in modular construction and simple forms.- Life and work :Known to his friends and associates as Lajkó, Breuer studied and taught at...
in New York. Seidler also worked in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
with the architect Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho is a Brazilian architect specializing in international modern architecture...
, who heavily influenced some of his early residential works, such as the Rose Siedler House and the Meller House.
Life in Australia
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
and later commissioned him to design their home which became known as the Rose Seidler House
Rose Seidler House
Rose Seidler House is a Bauhaus-styled home designed by Harry Seidler located at 71 Clissold Road, Wahroonga, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is managed by the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales as a museum that has been open to the public since 1991. Built in 1949-1950, it...
(1948–1950), in Wahroonga, on Sydney's North Shore . This project was the first domestic residence to fully express the philosophy of the Bauhaus in Australia.
In the 1960s Seidler again broke new ground with his radical design for the Australia Square
Australia Square
Australia Square is an office and retail complex in the central business district of Sydney, Australia. Its main address is 264 George Street, and the Square is bounded on the northern side by Bond Street, eastern side by Pitt Street and southern side by Curtin Place.The building was designed by...
project (1961–67). At the time Australia Square was the world's tallest light weight concrete building. The design introduced the two principles of incorporating large public open spaces and circular forms to office towers in Australia.
He was a founding member of the Australian Architecture Association
Australian Architecture Association
The Australian Architecture Association was set up in 2004 as a not for profit organisation to promote the understanding of both local and world architecture in Australia. The Chicago Architecture Foundation is used as the model for the development of the organisation.In late 2004, it began to...
. In 1984 he became the first Australian to be elected a member of the Académie d'architecture
Académie d'architecture
The Académie royale d'architecture was a French learned society founded on December 30, 1671 by Louis XIV, king of France under the impulsion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert...
, Paris and in 1987 was made a Companion of the Order of Australia
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
, an honour which he accepted in his trademark suit and bowtie. Over the years Mr Seidler was also awarded five Sulman Medals by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects
Royal Australian Institute of Architects
The Australian Institute of Architects is a professional body for architects in Australia. Until August 2008, the Institute traded as the "Royal Australian Institute of Architects", which remains its official name....
, as well as the Royal Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal
Royal Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal
The Gold Medal is the highest award of the Australian Institute of Architects awarded annually since 1960. The award was created to recognise distinguished service by Australian architects who have:* designed or executed buildings of high merit;...
in 1976, and the Royal Gold Medal
Royal Gold Medal
The Royal Gold Medal for architecture is awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects on behalf of the British monarch, in recognition of an individual's or group's substantial contribution to international architecture....
by the Royal Institute of British Architects
Royal Institute of British Architects
The Royal Institute of British Architects is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally.-History:...
in 1996.
Personal life
Harry Seidler married Penelope Evatt, daughter of Clive EvattClive Evatt
Clive Evatt QC was an Australian politician, barrister and raconteur. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1939 until 1959. At various times he sat as a member of the Industrial Labor Party, ALP and as an independent.-Early life:Evatt was born in Maitland and was the...
on 15 December 1958, they had two children, a son Timothy and daughter, Polly.
Seidler enjoyed photographing architecture around the world and some of these are documented in his photography book The Grand Tour. He also enjoyed skiing.
Penelope Seidler, herself an architect, gained her Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
and joined Seidler and Associates in 1964 as architect and financial manager.
On 24 April 2005, Harry Seidler suffered a stroke from which he never fully recovered, and died in Sydney on 9 March 2006 at age 82.
Modernism and principles of design
The form of Seidler's work changed as building technology changed: from his timber houses in the 1950s, to reinforced concrete houses and buildings in the 1960-1780s, and the development of curves with advances in concrete techhnology in the 1980s and later, as well as developments in steel technology that allowed for curved rooves in the 1990s onwards (e.g. Berman House). Upon celebrating 50 years of architectural practice in Australia, Seidler noted that developments in building technology allowed for more richness of form in his then soon-to-be completed Horizon apartment tower: "I could not have built Horizon twenty years ago...in earlier building technology (the way one could) span distancesit was very limited. (But Horizon) is made (possible) by devices such as prestressed concrete which is ...economic and quick. And that also gives you greater freedom of the shapes that you can use. Nowadays we can span huge distances and to do so (by) not just putting steel mesh or something into the concrete but to put steel, high tensile steel wire into it and pull it tight and that makes it easy to span distances and give this kind of change of shape of a building which would have been very difficult to achieve any other way." (Express, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 7.10.1998).
His visual approach to two-dimensional and three-dimensional spacial arrangement was consistent throughout his whole career. He articulated his approach in his first work, the Rose Seidler House. "This house explodes the surfaces that enclose a normal house or space, and turns it into a continuum of free standing planes, through which the eye can never see an end, you are always intrigued what’s beyond, you can always see something floating into the distance, there is never an obstruction to your vision, it is a continuum (of space), that I believe 20th century man’s eye and senses responds positively to that, we crave this”.Harry Seidler quote from “Rose Seidler House – the House that Harry built” (Review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, 14 April 1991).
In 1991, Seidler acknowledged that that his first house (Rose Seidler House) which was built of timber, despite the north facing sunshades "is generally too vulnerable to temperature changes...I didn't fully appreciate the intensity of the Australian sun"(Harry Seidler quote from “Rose Seidler House – the House that Harry built” Review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, 14 April 1991). Thus, later in his career, he sought to use more thermally stable materials like reinforced concrete and to respond to Australian climate by the extensive use of sunshades and flamboyantly-shaped rain protecting canopies on his skyscrapers, (such as Grosvenor Place, Riverside Centre, and QV1), large covered balconies in his houses, as well as shaping his designs to maximize views and enjoyment of the outdoors from inside.
Collaboration with visual artists
Seidler was a frequent and enthusiastic collaborator with visual artists in the creation of his buildings. While his collaborators include famous or notable figures such as Alexander CalderAlexander Calder
Alexander Calder was an American sculptor and artist most famous for inventing mobile sculptures. In addition to mobile and stable sculpture, Alexander Calder also created paintings, lithographs, toys, tapestry, jewelry and household objects.-Childhood:Alexander "Sandy" Calder was born in Lawnton,...
, Frank Stella
Frank Stella
Frank Stella is an American painter and printmaker, significant within the art movements of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction.-Biography:...
, Lin Utzon, Victor Vasarely
Victor Vasarely
Victor Vasarely was a Hungarian French artist whose work is generally seen aligned with Op-art.His work entitled Zebra, created by Vasarely in the 1930s, is considered by some to be one of the earliest examples of Op-art...
, Norman Carlberg
Norman Carlberg
Norman Carlberg is an American sculptor and printmaker. He is noted as an exemplar of the modular constructivist style....
(a fellow but later student of Josef Albers
Josef Albers
Josef Albers was a German-born American artist and educator whose work, both in Europe and in the United States, formed the basis of some of the most influential and far-reaching art education programs of the 20th century....
), and many others, by far the most important of the collaborators was his mentor Albers. Seidler included works by Albers - perhaps the single person most influential on his design philosophy - in a number of projects (notably the MLC Centre with 'Homage to the Square' and 'The Wrestle'). As Paul Bartizan indicates in his obituary tribute to Seidler, these works of art were not mere 'plop art
Plop art
Plop art is a pejorative slang term for public art made for government or corporate plazas, spaces in front of office buildings, skyscraper atriums, parks, and other public venues...
'; they were really planned to be integrated with and complementary to the buildings into which they were placed: "In many of his projects, Seidler worked with artists whose works became an intrinsic component of his designs."
List of buildings
- 1948-50: Rose Seidler HouseRose Seidler HouseRose Seidler House is a Bauhaus-styled home designed by Harry Seidler located at 71 Clissold Road, Wahroonga, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is managed by the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales as a museum that has been open to the public since 1991. Built in 1949-1950, it...
, Wahroonga (Sydney), Australia - 1949-51: Marcus Seidler House, Turramurra (Sydney), Australia
- 1950: Meller House, Castlecrag (Sydney), Australia
- 1952: Hutter House, Turramurra (Sydney), Australia - since greatly modified such that hardly anything of Seidler's design remains.
- 1952-53: Williamson House, (also known as Igloo House), Mosman (Sydney), Australia http://www.heritage.nsw.gov.au/07_subnav_02_2.cfm?itemid=5045139
- 1959: Canberra South Bowling Club, Griffith (Canberra), Australia http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/pictoria/a/2/3/doc/a23177.shtml
- 1960: Ithaca Gardens, Elizabeth Bay (Sydney), Australia
- 1961: Grimson & Rose Exhibition House, Pennant Hills (Sydney), Australia
- 1961: Blues Point TowerBlues Point TowerBlues Point Tower is an apartment block in Sydney, Australia. Located in McMahons Point, close toNorth Sydney, the tower is 83m tall with 144 apartments over 25 levels...
, McMahons Point (Sydney), Australia - 1961: Wood House, Penrith (Sydney), Australia
- 1961-67: Australia Square TowerAustralia SquareAustralia Square is an office and retail complex in the central business district of Sydney, Australia. Its main address is 264 George Street, and the Square is bounded on the northern side by Bond Street, eastern side by Pitt Street and southern side by Curtin Place.The building was designed by...
, Sydney, Australia - 1962: Ski Lodge, Thredbo, Australia
- 1963: Muller House, Port Hacking (Sydney), Australia
- 1963-65: Rushcutters Bay Apartments, Rushcutters Bay (Sydney), Australia
- 1964-67: NSW Housing Commission Apartments, Roseberry (Sydney), Australia
- 1964-68: Garran Group Housing, Canberra, Australia
- 1965-66: Arlington Apartments, Edgecliff (Sydney), Australia
- 1966-67: Harry and Penelope Seidler HouseHarry and Penelope Seidler HouseHarry and Penelope Seidler House was the home of architect Harry Seidler. It is located on 13 Kalang Ave in the suburb of Killara on Sydney's North Shore, and was designed by Harry and Penelope Seidler.-Features:...
, Killara (Sydney), Australia - 1969-70: Condominium Apartments, Acapulco, Mexico
- 1970-74: Edmund Barton BuildingEdmund Barton BuildingThe Edmund Barton Building is a large Canberra office building positioned prominently on the Parliamentary Triangle in the suburb of Barton, Australian Capital Territory. It was designed by the major Australian architect Harry Seidler...
(formerly Trade Group Offices), Canberra, Australia - 1971-72: Gissing House, Wahroonga (Sydney), Australia
- 1972-75: MLC CentreMLC CentreThe MLC Centre is a skyscraper in Sydney, Australia. This office building is 228 metres high and has 60 storeys. Occupants include the Sydney Consulate of the United States of America. The podium of the building includes a shopping centre with several exclusive fashion labels and a 1,186 seat...
, Sydney, Australia - 1973-77: Embassy of Australia in ParisEmbassy of Australia in ParisThe Australian Embassy in Paris is located 400 metres southwest of the Eiffel Tower, on Rue Jean Rey in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, near the Bir-Hakeim bridge on the Seine. The embassy is situated on a triangular shaped block, and comprises a pair of nine-storey buildings...
, France - 1973-94: Harry Seidler Offices and Apartments, Milsons Point (Sydney), Australia
- 1978-80: Karalyka Centre (formerly Ringwood Cultural Centre) (many non-Seidler alterations), Ringwood (Melbourne), Australia
- 1979-82: Hillside Housing, Kooralbyn (Gold Coast), Australia
- 1980-84: Hong Kong Club Building, Hong Kong Central
- 1981-83: Merson House, Palm Beach (Sydney), Australia
- 1982-84: Monash City Council (formerly Waverley Civic Centre), Glen Waverley (Melbourne), Australia
- 1982-88: Grosvenor PlaceGrosvenor Place (Sydney)Grosvenor Place is a skyscraper in George Street, Sydney, Australia, which was designed by renowned architect Harry Seidler.-Description:The modern style building occupies an entire block in Sydney's financial district between The Rocks and the Sydney central business district...
, Sydney, Australia - 1983-84: Hannes House, Cammeray (Sydney), Australia
- 1983-86: Riverside CentreRiverside Centre, BrisbaneThe Riverside Centre is a skyscraper designed by Harry Seidler and located at 123 Eagle Street, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Completed in 1986, it contains 40 storeys and rises 146 m above ground...
, Brisbane, Australia - 1984-89: 9 Castlereagh St (formerly Capita CentreCapita CentreCapita Centre, also known as the Castlereagh Centre, is a skyscraper in Sydney, Australia. Located at 9-11 Castlereagh Street, it is 183 m tall from spire and 158 m tall from roof. The building was designed by Harry Seidler & Associates....
), Sydney, Australia - 1985: Garden Island Dockyard Workshop, Garden Island (Sydney), Australia
- 1985-89: 1 Spring Street (formerly Shell House), Melbourne, Australia
- 1987-91: QV1, Perth, Australia
- 1989-91: Hamilton House, Vaucluse (Sydney), Australia
- 1990: Monash Gallery of Art (with non-Seidler additions), Wheelers Hill (Melbourne), Australia
- 1990-98: Horizon ApartmentsHorizon ApartmentsThe Horizon Apartments, also short The Horizon, is a residential high rise building in Darlinghurst, a suburb in the inner-city of Sydney, NSW, Australia. It is located on at 184 Forbes Street between Liverpool and William Streets. The controversial highrise was completed in 1998...
, Darlinghurst (Sydney), Australia - 1993-98: Wohnpark Neue Donau, Vienna, Austria
- 1994-95: Meares House, Birchgrove (Sydney), Australia
- 1995-96: Gilhotra House, Hunters Hill (Sydney), Australia
- 1995-00: Grollo Tower project, Melbourne, Australia (never built)
- 1996-98: Elizabeth Street Offices, Surry Hills (Sydney), Australia
- 1996-99: Berman House, Joadja, New South WalesJoadja, New South WalesJoadja is a ghost town in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, in Wingecarribee Shire.It was a thriving mining town between 1870–1911. It was home for approximately 1100 people, many of Scots ancestry, and was connected to the nearby town of Mittagong by a narrow gauge railway that...
, Australia - 1996-02: Hochhaus Neue Donau, Vienna, Austria
- 1999: Cove Apartments, Sydney, Australia
- 1999-05: Riparian Plaza, BrisbaneRiparian Plaza, BrisbaneRiparian Plaza is a 53-storey skyscraper located in the central business district of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The building stands at in height to its communications spire and to its roof. It is the city's tallest building, or second tallest if measured to roof after the Aurora Tower, not...
, Australia - 1999-00: ARCA Showroom, Perth, Australia
- 2001-06: Meriton Tower, Sydney, Australia
- 2003: North ApartmentsNorth ApartmentsThe North Apartments, located at 91 Goulburn Street, Sydney, Australia, were designed by the late architect Harry Seidler.The building is oriented with a single façade to the North, facing Goulburn Street....
, Sydney, Australia - 2001-07: Ian Thorpe Aquatic Centre, (formerly "Ultimo Aquatic Centre") Sydney, Australia
- 2004-09: Alliance Française Building, Sydney, Australia (his last commercial design)
Honours
- 1951, 1967, 1981, 1983, 1991 Sir John SulmanJohn SulmanSir John Sulman was an Australian architect. Born in Greenwich, England, he emigrated to Sydney, Australia in 1885. From 1921 to 1924 he was chairman of the Federal Capital Advisory Committee and influenced the development of Canberra.-Early life:Sulman was born in was born at Greenwich, England...
Medal - 1965, 1966, 1967 Wilkinson AwardWilkinson AwardThe Wilkinson Award is an Australian architectural prize presented by the Australian Institute of Architects and was first awarded in 1961....
- 1966 Honorary Fellowship from the American Institute of ArchitectsAmerican Institute of ArchitectsThe American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...
(AIA) - 1967 Civic Design Award
- 1968 Pan Pacific Citation of the American Institute of Architects (AIA)
- 1976 RAIA Gold MedalRoyal Australian Institute of Architects Gold MedalThe Gold Medal is the highest award of the Australian Institute of Architects awarded annually since 1960. The award was created to recognise distinguished service by Australian architects who have:* designed or executed buildings of high merit;...
from the Royal Australian Institute of Architects - 1984 Member of the Académie d'architectureAcadémie d'architectureThe Académie royale d'architecture was a French learned society founded on December 30, 1671 by Louis XIV, king of France under the impulsion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert...
, Paris - 1984 Honorary Member of the Society of Graphic Artists of Austria (KünstlerhausVienna KünstlerhausThe Vienna Künstlerhaus is an art exhibition building in Vienna. It is located on Karlsplatz near the Ringstraße, next to the Musikverein....
) - 1985, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1992, 2001 various honours of the Royal Australian Institute of ArchitectsRoyal Australian Institute of ArchitectsThe Australian Institute of Architects is a professional body for architects in Australia. Until August 2008, the Institute traded as the "Royal Australian Institute of Architects", which remains its official name....
(RAIA) - 1985 Honorarary Citizenship of Austria
- 1987 Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) (Australia's highest honour)
- 1990 Gold Medal City of Vienna
- 1992 Officer of the Order of the British EmpireOrder of the British EmpireThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
- 1996 Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British ArchitectsRoyal Institute of British ArchitectsThe Royal Institute of British Architects is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally.-History:...
(RIBA) - 1996 Austrian Badge of Honour for Science and Art
- 2002 Golden Badge of Honour for Merits for Vienna
- 2004 Honour for International Highrises of the city of FrankfurtFrankfurtFrankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
for "Cove Apartments" in Sydney
Gallery
Harry Seidler, AC OBE (25 June 19239 March 2006) was an Austrian-born Australian architectArchitect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
who is considered to be one of the leading exponents of Modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
's methodology in Australia and the first architect to fully express the principles of the Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
in Australia.
Harry Seidler designed more than 180 buildings and he received much recognition for his contribution to Architecture of Australia
Architecture of Australia
Architecture in Australia incorporates the architecture produced in the area of the Commonwealth of Australia...
. Seidler consistently won architectural awards every decade throughout his Australian career of almost 58 years across the varied categories - his residential work from 1950, his commercial work from 1967, and his public commissions from the 1970s.
Early life
Seidler was born in ViennaVienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, the son of a prosperous Jewish merchant of Romanian
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
origin. He fled as a teenager to England soon after Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
Germany occupied Austria in 1938.
Education
In England, he studied building and construction at Cambridgeshire Technical School. In May 1940, he was internedInternment
Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people, commonly in large groups, without trial. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the meaning as: "The action of 'interning'; confinement within the limits of a country or place." Most modern usage is about individuals, and there is a distinction...
by the British authorities as an enemy alien, before being shipped to Quebec, Canada and continued to be interned until October 1941, when he was released on parole from internment to study architecture at the University of Manitoba
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba , in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is the largest university in the province of Manitoba. It is Manitoba's most comprehensive and only research-intensive post-secondary educational institution. It was founded in 1877, making it Western Canada’s first university. It placed...
.
Although he was ten years old when the Bauhaus was closed, Seidler's analysts invariably associate him with the Bauhaus because he later studied under emigrent Bauhaus teachers in the USA. He attended Harvard Graduate School of Design
Harvard Graduate School of Design
The Harvard Graduate School of Design is a graduate school at Harvard University offering degrees in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning and Design.-History:...
under Walter Gropius
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius was a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School who, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture....
and Marcel Breuer on a scholarship in 1945-46, during which time he did vacation work with Alvar Aalto in Boston drawing up plans for the Baker dormitory at MIT. He then attended Black Mountain College
Black Mountain College
Black Mountain College, a school founded in 1933 in Black Mountain, North Carolina, was a new kind of college in the United States in which the study of art was seen to be central to a liberal arts education, and in which John Dewey's principles of education played a major role...
under the painter Josef Albers
Josef Albers
Josef Albers was a German-born American artist and educator whose work, both in Europe and in the United States, formed the basis of some of the most influential and far-reaching art education programs of the 20th century....
, and then worked for Marcel Breuer
Marcel Breuer
Marcel Lajos Breuer , was a Hungarian-born modernist, architect and furniture designer of Jewish descent. One of the masters of Modernism, Breuer displayed interest in modular construction and simple forms.- Life and work :Known to his friends and associates as Lajkó, Breuer studied and taught at...
in New York. Seidler also worked in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
with the architect Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho is a Brazilian architect specializing in international modern architecture...
, who heavily influenced some of his early residential works, such as the Rose Siedler House and the Meller House.
Life in Australia
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
and later commissioned him to design their home which became known as the Rose Seidler House
Rose Seidler House
Rose Seidler House is a Bauhaus-styled home designed by Harry Seidler located at 71 Clissold Road, Wahroonga, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is managed by the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales as a museum that has been open to the public since 1991. Built in 1949-1950, it...
(1948–1950), in Wahroonga, on Sydney's North Shore . This project was the first domestic residence to fully express the philosophy of the Bauhaus in Australia.
In the 1960s Seidler again broke new ground with his radical design for the Australia Square
Australia Square
Australia Square is an office and retail complex in the central business district of Sydney, Australia. Its main address is 264 George Street, and the Square is bounded on the northern side by Bond Street, eastern side by Pitt Street and southern side by Curtin Place.The building was designed by...
project (1961–67). At the time Australia Square was the world's tallest light weight concrete building. The design introduced the two principles of incorporating large public open spaces and circular forms to office towers in Australia.
He was a founding member of the Australian Architecture Association
Australian Architecture Association
The Australian Architecture Association was set up in 2004 as a not for profit organisation to promote the understanding of both local and world architecture in Australia. The Chicago Architecture Foundation is used as the model for the development of the organisation.In late 2004, it began to...
. In 1984 he became the first Australian to be elected a member of the Académie d'architecture
Académie d'architecture
The Académie royale d'architecture was a French learned society founded on December 30, 1671 by Louis XIV, king of France under the impulsion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert...
, Paris and in 1987 was made a Companion of the Order of Australia
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
, an honour which he accepted in his trademark suit and bowtie. Over the years Mr Seidler was also awarded five Sulman Medals by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects
Royal Australian Institute of Architects
The Australian Institute of Architects is a professional body for architects in Australia. Until August 2008, the Institute traded as the "Royal Australian Institute of Architects", which remains its official name....
, as well as the Royal Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal
Royal Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal
The Gold Medal is the highest award of the Australian Institute of Architects awarded annually since 1960. The award was created to recognise distinguished service by Australian architects who have:* designed or executed buildings of high merit;...
in 1976, and the Royal Gold Medal
Royal Gold Medal
The Royal Gold Medal for architecture is awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects on behalf of the British monarch, in recognition of an individual's or group's substantial contribution to international architecture....
by the Royal Institute of British Architects
Royal Institute of British Architects
The Royal Institute of British Architects is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally.-History:...
in 1996.
Personal life
Harry Seidler married Penelope Evatt, daughter of Clive EvattClive Evatt
Clive Evatt QC was an Australian politician, barrister and raconteur. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1939 until 1959. At various times he sat as a member of the Industrial Labor Party, ALP and as an independent.-Early life:Evatt was born in Maitland and was the...
on 15 December 1958, they had two children, a son Timothy and daughter, Polly.
Seidler enjoyed photographing architecture around the world and some of these are documented in his photography book The Grand Tour. He also enjoyed skiing.
Penelope Seidler, herself an architect, gained her Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
and joined Seidler and Associates in 1964 as architect and financial manager.
On 24 April 2005, Harry Seidler suffered a stroke from which he never fully recovered, and died in Sydney on 9 March 2006 at age 82.
Modernism and principles of design
The form of Seidler's work changed as building technology changed: from his timber houses in the 1950s, to reinforced concrete houses and buildings in the 1960-1780s, and the development of curves with advances in concrete techhnology in the 1980s and later, as well as developments in steel technology that allowed for curved rooves in the 1990s onwards (e.g. Berman House). Upon celebrating 50 years of architectural practice in Australia, Seidler noted that developments in building technology allowed for more richness of form in his then soon-to-be completed Horizon apartment tower: "I could not have built Horizon twenty years ago...in earlier building technology (the way one could) span distancesit was very limited. (But Horizon) is made (possible) by devices such as prestressed concrete which is ...economic and quick. And that also gives you greater freedom of the shapes that you can use. Nowadays we can span huge distances and to do so (by) not just putting steel mesh or something into the concrete but to put steel, high tensile steel wire into it and pull it tight and that makes it easy to span distances and give this kind of change of shape of a building which would have been very difficult to achieve any other way." (Express, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 7.10.1998).
His visual approach to two-dimensional and three-dimensional spacial arrangement was consistent throughout his whole career. He articulated his approach in his first work, the Rose Seidler House. "This house explodes the surfaces that enclose a normal house or space, and turns it into a continuum of free standing planes, through which the eye can never see an end, you are always intrigued what’s beyond, you can always see something floating into the distance, there is never an obstruction to your vision, it is a continuum (of space), that I believe 20th century man’s eye and senses responds positively to that, we crave this”.Harry Seidler quote from “Rose Seidler House – the House that Harry built” (Review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, 14 April 1991).
In 1991, Seidler acknowledged that that his first house (Rose Seidler House) which was built of timber, despite the north facing sunshades "is generally too vulnerable to temperature changes...I didn't fully appreciate the intensity of the Australian sun"(Harry Seidler quote from “Rose Seidler House – the House that Harry built” Review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, 14 April 1991). Thus, later in his career, he sought to use more thermally stable materials like reinforced concrete and to respond to Australian climate by the extensive use of sunshades and flamboyantly-shaped rain protecting canopies on his skyscrapers, (such as Grosvenor Place, Riverside Centre, and QV1), large covered balconies in his houses, as well as shaping his designs to maximize views and enjoyment of the outdoors from inside.
Collaboration with visual artists
Seidler was a frequent and enthusiastic collaborator with visual artists in the creation of his buildings. While his collaborators include famous or notable figures such as Alexander CalderAlexander Calder
Alexander Calder was an American sculptor and artist most famous for inventing mobile sculptures. In addition to mobile and stable sculpture, Alexander Calder also created paintings, lithographs, toys, tapestry, jewelry and household objects.-Childhood:Alexander "Sandy" Calder was born in Lawnton,...
, Frank Stella
Frank Stella
Frank Stella is an American painter and printmaker, significant within the art movements of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction.-Biography:...
, Lin Utzon, Victor Vasarely
Victor Vasarely
Victor Vasarely was a Hungarian French artist whose work is generally seen aligned with Op-art.His work entitled Zebra, created by Vasarely in the 1930s, is considered by some to be one of the earliest examples of Op-art...
, Norman Carlberg
Norman Carlberg
Norman Carlberg is an American sculptor and printmaker. He is noted as an exemplar of the modular constructivist style....
(a fellow but later student of Josef Albers
Josef Albers
Josef Albers was a German-born American artist and educator whose work, both in Europe and in the United States, formed the basis of some of the most influential and far-reaching art education programs of the 20th century....
), and many others, by far the most important of the collaborators was his mentor Albers. Seidler included works by Albers - perhaps the single person most influential on his design philosophy - in a number of projects (notably the MLC Centre with 'Homage to the Square' and 'The Wrestle'). As Paul Bartizan indicates in his obituary tribute to Seidler, these works of art were not mere 'plop art
Plop art
Plop art is a pejorative slang term for public art made for government or corporate plazas, spaces in front of office buildings, skyscraper atriums, parks, and other public venues...
'; they were really planned to be integrated with and complementary to the buildings into which they were placed: "In many of his projects, Seidler worked with artists whose works became an intrinsic component of his designs."
List of buildings
- 1948-50: Rose Seidler HouseRose Seidler HouseRose Seidler House is a Bauhaus-styled home designed by Harry Seidler located at 71 Clissold Road, Wahroonga, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is managed by the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales as a museum that has been open to the public since 1991. Built in 1949-1950, it...
, Wahroonga (Sydney), Australia - 1949-51: Marcus Seidler House, Turramurra (Sydney), Australia
- 1950: Meller House, Castlecrag (Sydney), Australia
- 1952: Hutter House, Turramurra (Sydney), Australia - since greatly modified such that hardly anything of Seidler's design remains.
- 1952-53: Williamson House, (also known as Igloo House), Mosman (Sydney), Australia http://www.heritage.nsw.gov.au/07_subnav_02_2.cfm?itemid=5045139
- 1959: Canberra South Bowling Club, Griffith (Canberra), Australia http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/pictoria/a/2/3/doc/a23177.shtml
- 1960: Ithaca Gardens, Elizabeth Bay (Sydney), Australia
- 1961: Grimson & Rose Exhibition House, Pennant Hills (Sydney), Australia
- 1961: Blues Point TowerBlues Point TowerBlues Point Tower is an apartment block in Sydney, Australia. Located in McMahons Point, close toNorth Sydney, the tower is 83m tall with 144 apartments over 25 levels...
, McMahons Point (Sydney), Australia - 1961: Wood House, Penrith (Sydney), Australia
- 1961-67: Australia Square TowerAustralia SquareAustralia Square is an office and retail complex in the central business district of Sydney, Australia. Its main address is 264 George Street, and the Square is bounded on the northern side by Bond Street, eastern side by Pitt Street and southern side by Curtin Place.The building was designed by...
, Sydney, Australia - 1962: Ski Lodge, Thredbo, Australia
- 1963: Muller House, Port Hacking (Sydney), Australia
- 1963-65: Rushcutters Bay Apartments, Rushcutters Bay (Sydney), Australia
- 1964-67: NSW Housing Commission Apartments, Roseberry (Sydney), Australia
- 1964-68: Garran Group Housing, Canberra, Australia
- 1965-66: Arlington Apartments, Edgecliff (Sydney), Australia
- 1966-67: Harry and Penelope Seidler HouseHarry and Penelope Seidler HouseHarry and Penelope Seidler House was the home of architect Harry Seidler. It is located on 13 Kalang Ave in the suburb of Killara on Sydney's North Shore, and was designed by Harry and Penelope Seidler.-Features:...
, Killara (Sydney), Australia - 1969-70: Condominium Apartments, Acapulco, Mexico
- 1970-74: Edmund Barton BuildingEdmund Barton BuildingThe Edmund Barton Building is a large Canberra office building positioned prominently on the Parliamentary Triangle in the suburb of Barton, Australian Capital Territory. It was designed by the major Australian architect Harry Seidler...
(formerly Trade Group Offices), Canberra, Australia - 1971-72: Gissing House, Wahroonga (Sydney), Australia
- 1972-75: MLC CentreMLC CentreThe MLC Centre is a skyscraper in Sydney, Australia. This office building is 228 metres high and has 60 storeys. Occupants include the Sydney Consulate of the United States of America. The podium of the building includes a shopping centre with several exclusive fashion labels and a 1,186 seat...
, Sydney, Australia - 1973-77: Embassy of Australia in ParisEmbassy of Australia in ParisThe Australian Embassy in Paris is located 400 metres southwest of the Eiffel Tower, on Rue Jean Rey in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, near the Bir-Hakeim bridge on the Seine. The embassy is situated on a triangular shaped block, and comprises a pair of nine-storey buildings...
, France - 1973-94: Harry Seidler Offices and Apartments, Milsons Point (Sydney), Australia
- 1978-80: Karalyka Centre (formerly Ringwood Cultural Centre) (many non-Seidler alterations), Ringwood (Melbourne), Australia
- 1979-82: Hillside Housing, Kooralbyn (Gold Coast), Australia
- 1980-84: Hong Kong Club Building, Hong Kong Central
- 1981-83: Merson House, Palm Beach (Sydney), Australia
- 1982-84: Monash City Council (formerly Waverley Civic Centre), Glen Waverley (Melbourne), Australia
- 1982-88: Grosvenor PlaceGrosvenor Place (Sydney)Grosvenor Place is a skyscraper in George Street, Sydney, Australia, which was designed by renowned architect Harry Seidler.-Description:The modern style building occupies an entire block in Sydney's financial district between The Rocks and the Sydney central business district...
, Sydney, Australia - 1983-84: Hannes House, Cammeray (Sydney), Australia
- 1983-86: Riverside CentreRiverside Centre, BrisbaneThe Riverside Centre is a skyscraper designed by Harry Seidler and located at 123 Eagle Street, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Completed in 1986, it contains 40 storeys and rises 146 m above ground...
, Brisbane, Australia - 1984-89: 9 Castlereagh St (formerly Capita CentreCapita CentreCapita Centre, also known as the Castlereagh Centre, is a skyscraper in Sydney, Australia. Located at 9-11 Castlereagh Street, it is 183 m tall from spire and 158 m tall from roof. The building was designed by Harry Seidler & Associates....
), Sydney, Australia - 1985: Garden Island Dockyard Workshop, Garden Island (Sydney), Australia
- 1985-89: 1 Spring Street (formerly Shell House), Melbourne, Australia
- 1987-91: QV1, Perth, Australia
- 1989-91: Hamilton House, Vaucluse (Sydney), Australia
- 1990: Monash Gallery of Art (with non-Seidler additions), Wheelers Hill (Melbourne), Australia
- 1990-98: Horizon ApartmentsHorizon ApartmentsThe Horizon Apartments, also short The Horizon, is a residential high rise building in Darlinghurst, a suburb in the inner-city of Sydney, NSW, Australia. It is located on at 184 Forbes Street between Liverpool and William Streets. The controversial highrise was completed in 1998...
, Darlinghurst (Sydney), Australia - 1993-98: Wohnpark Neue Donau, Vienna, Austria
- 1994-95: Meares House, Birchgrove (Sydney), Australia
- 1995-96: Gilhotra House, Hunters Hill (Sydney), Australia
- 1995-00: Grollo Tower project, Melbourne, Australia (never built)
- 1996-98: Elizabeth Street Offices, Surry Hills (Sydney), Australia
- 1996-99: Berman House, Joadja, New South WalesJoadja, New South WalesJoadja is a ghost town in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, in Wingecarribee Shire.It was a thriving mining town between 1870–1911. It was home for approximately 1100 people, many of Scots ancestry, and was connected to the nearby town of Mittagong by a narrow gauge railway that...
, Australia - 1996-02: Hochhaus Neue Donau, Vienna, Austria
- 1999: Cove Apartments, Sydney, Australia
- 1999-05: Riparian Plaza, BrisbaneRiparian Plaza, BrisbaneRiparian Plaza is a 53-storey skyscraper located in the central business district of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The building stands at in height to its communications spire and to its roof. It is the city's tallest building, or second tallest if measured to roof after the Aurora Tower, not...
, Australia - 1999-00: ARCA Showroom, Perth, Australia
- 2001-06: Meriton Tower, Sydney, Australia
- 2003: North ApartmentsNorth ApartmentsThe North Apartments, located at 91 Goulburn Street, Sydney, Australia, were designed by the late architect Harry Seidler.The building is oriented with a single façade to the North, facing Goulburn Street....
, Sydney, Australia - 2001-07: Ian Thorpe Aquatic Centre, (formerly "Ultimo Aquatic Centre") Sydney, Australia
- 2004-09: Alliance Française Building, Sydney, Australia (his last commercial design)
Honours
- 1951, 1967, 1981, 1983, 1991 Sir John SulmanJohn SulmanSir John Sulman was an Australian architect. Born in Greenwich, England, he emigrated to Sydney, Australia in 1885. From 1921 to 1924 he was chairman of the Federal Capital Advisory Committee and influenced the development of Canberra.-Early life:Sulman was born in was born at Greenwich, England...
Medal - 1965, 1966, 1967 Wilkinson AwardWilkinson AwardThe Wilkinson Award is an Australian architectural prize presented by the Australian Institute of Architects and was first awarded in 1961....
- 1966 Honorary Fellowship from the American Institute of ArchitectsAmerican Institute of ArchitectsThe American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...
(AIA) - 1967 Civic Design Award
- 1968 Pan Pacific Citation of the American Institute of Architects (AIA)
- 1976 RAIA Gold MedalRoyal Australian Institute of Architects Gold MedalThe Gold Medal is the highest award of the Australian Institute of Architects awarded annually since 1960. The award was created to recognise distinguished service by Australian architects who have:* designed or executed buildings of high merit;...
from the Royal Australian Institute of Architects - 1984 Member of the Académie d'architectureAcadémie d'architectureThe Académie royale d'architecture was a French learned society founded on December 30, 1671 by Louis XIV, king of France under the impulsion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert...
, Paris - 1984 Honorary Member of the Society of Graphic Artists of Austria (KünstlerhausVienna KünstlerhausThe Vienna Künstlerhaus is an art exhibition building in Vienna. It is located on Karlsplatz near the Ringstraße, next to the Musikverein....
) - 1985, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1992, 2001 various honours of the Royal Australian Institute of ArchitectsRoyal Australian Institute of ArchitectsThe Australian Institute of Architects is a professional body for architects in Australia. Until August 2008, the Institute traded as the "Royal Australian Institute of Architects", which remains its official name....
(RAIA) - 1985 Honorarary Citizenship of Austria
- 1987 Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) (Australia's highest honour)
- 1990 Gold Medal City of Vienna
- 1992 Officer of the Order of the British EmpireOrder of the British EmpireThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
- 1996 Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British ArchitectsRoyal Institute of British ArchitectsThe Royal Institute of British Architects is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally.-History:...
(RIBA) - 1996 Austrian Badge of Honour for Science and Art
- 2002 Golden Badge of Honour for Merits for Vienna
- 2004 Honour for International Highrises of the city of FrankfurtFrankfurtFrankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
for "Cove Apartments" in Sydney
Gallery
Harry Seidler, AC OBE (25 June 19239 March 2006) was an Austrian-born Australian architectArchitect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
who is considered to be one of the leading exponents of Modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
's methodology in Australia and the first architect to fully express the principles of the Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
in Australia.
Harry Seidler designed more than 180 buildings and he received much recognition for his contribution to Architecture of Australia
Architecture of Australia
Architecture in Australia incorporates the architecture produced in the area of the Commonwealth of Australia...
. Seidler consistently won architectural awards every decade throughout his Australian career of almost 58 years across the varied categories - his residential work from 1950, his commercial work from 1967, and his public commissions from the 1970s.
Early life
Seidler was born in ViennaVienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, the son of a prosperous Jewish merchant of Romanian
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
origin. He fled as a teenager to England soon after Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
Germany occupied Austria in 1938.
Education
In England, he studied building and construction at Cambridgeshire Technical School. In May 1940, he was internedInternment
Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people, commonly in large groups, without trial. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the meaning as: "The action of 'interning'; confinement within the limits of a country or place." Most modern usage is about individuals, and there is a distinction...
by the British authorities as an enemy alien, before being shipped to Quebec, Canada and continued to be interned until October 1941, when he was released on parole from internment to study architecture at the University of Manitoba
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba , in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is the largest university in the province of Manitoba. It is Manitoba's most comprehensive and only research-intensive post-secondary educational institution. It was founded in 1877, making it Western Canada’s first university. It placed...
.
Although he was ten years old when the Bauhaus was closed, Seidler's analysts invariably associate him with the Bauhaus because he later studied under emigrent Bauhaus teachers in the USA. He attended Harvard Graduate School of Design
Harvard Graduate School of Design
The Harvard Graduate School of Design is a graduate school at Harvard University offering degrees in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning and Design.-History:...
under Walter Gropius
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius was a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School who, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture....
and Marcel Breuer on a scholarship in 1945-46, during which time he did vacation work with Alvar Aalto in Boston drawing up plans for the Baker dormitory at MIT. He then attended Black Mountain College
Black Mountain College
Black Mountain College, a school founded in 1933 in Black Mountain, North Carolina, was a new kind of college in the United States in which the study of art was seen to be central to a liberal arts education, and in which John Dewey's principles of education played a major role...
under the painter Josef Albers
Josef Albers
Josef Albers was a German-born American artist and educator whose work, both in Europe and in the United States, formed the basis of some of the most influential and far-reaching art education programs of the 20th century....
, and then worked for Marcel Breuer
Marcel Breuer
Marcel Lajos Breuer , was a Hungarian-born modernist, architect and furniture designer of Jewish descent. One of the masters of Modernism, Breuer displayed interest in modular construction and simple forms.- Life and work :Known to his friends and associates as Lajkó, Breuer studied and taught at...
in New York. Seidler also worked in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
with the architect Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho is a Brazilian architect specializing in international modern architecture...
, who heavily influenced some of his early residential works, such as the Rose Siedler House and the Meller House.
Life in Australia
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
and later commissioned him to design their home which became known as the Rose Seidler House
Rose Seidler House
Rose Seidler House is a Bauhaus-styled home designed by Harry Seidler located at 71 Clissold Road, Wahroonga, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is managed by the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales as a museum that has been open to the public since 1991. Built in 1949-1950, it...
(1948–1950), in Wahroonga, on Sydney's North Shore . This project was the first domestic residence to fully express the philosophy of the Bauhaus in Australia.
In the 1960s Seidler again broke new ground with his radical design for the Australia Square
Australia Square
Australia Square is an office and retail complex in the central business district of Sydney, Australia. Its main address is 264 George Street, and the Square is bounded on the northern side by Bond Street, eastern side by Pitt Street and southern side by Curtin Place.The building was designed by...
project (1961–67). At the time Australia Square was the world's tallest light weight concrete building. The design introduced the two principles of incorporating large public open spaces and circular forms to office towers in Australia.
He was a founding member of the Australian Architecture Association
Australian Architecture Association
The Australian Architecture Association was set up in 2004 as a not for profit organisation to promote the understanding of both local and world architecture in Australia. The Chicago Architecture Foundation is used as the model for the development of the organisation.In late 2004, it began to...
. In 1984 he became the first Australian to be elected a member of the Académie d'architecture
Académie d'architecture
The Académie royale d'architecture was a French learned society founded on December 30, 1671 by Louis XIV, king of France under the impulsion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert...
, Paris and in 1987 was made a Companion of the Order of Australia
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
, an honour which he accepted in his trademark suit and bowtie. Over the years Mr Seidler was also awarded five Sulman Medals by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects
Royal Australian Institute of Architects
The Australian Institute of Architects is a professional body for architects in Australia. Until August 2008, the Institute traded as the "Royal Australian Institute of Architects", which remains its official name....
, as well as the Royal Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal
Royal Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal
The Gold Medal is the highest award of the Australian Institute of Architects awarded annually since 1960. The award was created to recognise distinguished service by Australian architects who have:* designed or executed buildings of high merit;...
in 1976, and the Royal Gold Medal
Royal Gold Medal
The Royal Gold Medal for architecture is awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects on behalf of the British monarch, in recognition of an individual's or group's substantial contribution to international architecture....
by the Royal Institute of British Architects
Royal Institute of British Architects
The Royal Institute of British Architects is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally.-History:...
in 1996.
Personal life
Harry Seidler married Penelope Evatt, daughter of Clive EvattClive Evatt
Clive Evatt QC was an Australian politician, barrister and raconteur. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1939 until 1959. At various times he sat as a member of the Industrial Labor Party, ALP and as an independent.-Early life:Evatt was born in Maitland and was the...
on 15 December 1958, they had two children, a son Timothy and daughter, Polly.
Seidler enjoyed photographing architecture around the world and some of these are documented in his photography book The Grand Tour. He also enjoyed skiing.
Penelope Seidler, herself an architect, gained her Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
and joined Seidler and Associates in 1964 as architect and financial manager.
On 24 April 2005, Harry Seidler suffered a stroke from which he never fully recovered, and died in Sydney on 9 March 2006 at age 82.
Modernism and principles of design
The form of Seidler's work changed as building technology changed: from his timber houses in the 1950s, to reinforced concrete houses and buildings in the 1960-1780s, and the development of curves with advances in concrete techhnology in the 1980s and later, as well as developments in steel technology that allowed for curved rooves in the 1990s onwards (e.g. Berman House). Upon celebrating 50 years of architectural practice in Australia, Seidler noted that developments in building technology allowed for more richness of form in his then soon-to-be completed Horizon apartment tower: "I could not have built Horizon twenty years ago...in earlier building technology (the way one could) span distancesit was very limited. (But Horizon) is made (possible) by devices such as prestressed concrete which is ...economic and quick. And that also gives you greater freedom of the shapes that you can use. Nowadays we can span huge distances and to do so (by) not just putting steel mesh or something into the concrete but to put steel, high tensile steel wire into it and pull it tight and that makes it easy to span distances and give this kind of change of shape of a building which would have been very difficult to achieve any other way." (Express, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 7.10.1998).
His visual approach to two-dimensional and three-dimensional spacial arrangement was consistent throughout his whole career. He articulated his approach in his first work, the Rose Seidler House. "This house explodes the surfaces that enclose a normal house or space, and turns it into a continuum of free standing planes, through which the eye can never see an end, you are always intrigued what’s beyond, you can always see something floating into the distance, there is never an obstruction to your vision, it is a continuum (of space), that I believe 20th century man’s eye and senses responds positively to that, we crave this”.Harry Seidler quote from “Rose Seidler House – the House that Harry built” (Review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, 14 April 1991).
In 1991, Seidler acknowledged that that his first house (Rose Seidler House) which was built of timber, despite the north facing sunshades "is generally too vulnerable to temperature changes...I didn't fully appreciate the intensity of the Australian sun"(Harry Seidler quote from “Rose Seidler House – the House that Harry built” Review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, 14 April 1991). Thus, later in his career, he sought to use more thermally stable materials like reinforced concrete and to respond to Australian climate by the extensive use of sunshades and flamboyantly-shaped rain protecting canopies on his skyscrapers, (such as Grosvenor Place, Riverside Centre, and QV1), large covered balconies in his houses, as well as shaping his designs to maximize views and enjoyment of the outdoors from inside.
Collaboration with visual artists
Seidler was a frequent and enthusiastic collaborator with visual artists in the creation of his buildings. While his collaborators include famous or notable figures such as Alexander CalderAlexander Calder
Alexander Calder was an American sculptor and artist most famous for inventing mobile sculptures. In addition to mobile and stable sculpture, Alexander Calder also created paintings, lithographs, toys, tapestry, jewelry and household objects.-Childhood:Alexander "Sandy" Calder was born in Lawnton,...
, Frank Stella
Frank Stella
Frank Stella is an American painter and printmaker, significant within the art movements of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction.-Biography:...
, Lin Utzon, Victor Vasarely
Victor Vasarely
Victor Vasarely was a Hungarian French artist whose work is generally seen aligned with Op-art.His work entitled Zebra, created by Vasarely in the 1930s, is considered by some to be one of the earliest examples of Op-art...
, Norman Carlberg
Norman Carlberg
Norman Carlberg is an American sculptor and printmaker. He is noted as an exemplar of the modular constructivist style....
(a fellow but later student of Josef Albers
Josef Albers
Josef Albers was a German-born American artist and educator whose work, both in Europe and in the United States, formed the basis of some of the most influential and far-reaching art education programs of the 20th century....
), and many others, by far the most important of the collaborators was his mentor Albers. Seidler included works by Albers - perhaps the single person most influential on his design philosophy - in a number of projects (notably the MLC Centre with 'Homage to the Square' and 'The Wrestle'). As Paul Bartizan indicates in his obituary tribute to Seidler, these works of art were not mere 'plop art
Plop art
Plop art is a pejorative slang term for public art made for government or corporate plazas, spaces in front of office buildings, skyscraper atriums, parks, and other public venues...
'; they were really planned to be integrated with and complementary to the buildings into which they were placed: "In many of his projects, Seidler worked with artists whose works became an intrinsic component of his designs."
List of buildings
- 1948-50: Rose Seidler HouseRose Seidler HouseRose Seidler House is a Bauhaus-styled home designed by Harry Seidler located at 71 Clissold Road, Wahroonga, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is managed by the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales as a museum that has been open to the public since 1991. Built in 1949-1950, it...
, Wahroonga (Sydney), Australia - 1949-51: Marcus Seidler House, Turramurra (Sydney), Australia
- 1950: Meller House, Castlecrag (Sydney), Australia
- 1952: Hutter House, Turramurra (Sydney), Australia - since greatly modified such that hardly anything of Seidler's design remains.
- 1952-53: Williamson House, (also known as Igloo House), Mosman (Sydney), Australia http://www.heritage.nsw.gov.au/07_subnav_02_2.cfm?itemid=5045139
- 1959: Canberra South Bowling Club, Griffith (Canberra), Australia http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/pictoria/a/2/3/doc/a23177.shtml
- 1960: Ithaca Gardens, Elizabeth Bay (Sydney), Australia
- 1961: Grimson & Rose Exhibition House, Pennant Hills (Sydney), Australia
- 1961: Blues Point TowerBlues Point TowerBlues Point Tower is an apartment block in Sydney, Australia. Located in McMahons Point, close toNorth Sydney, the tower is 83m tall with 144 apartments over 25 levels...
, McMahons Point (Sydney), Australia - 1961: Wood House, Penrith (Sydney), Australia
- 1961-67: Australia Square TowerAustralia SquareAustralia Square is an office and retail complex in the central business district of Sydney, Australia. Its main address is 264 George Street, and the Square is bounded on the northern side by Bond Street, eastern side by Pitt Street and southern side by Curtin Place.The building was designed by...
, Sydney, Australia - 1962: Ski Lodge, Thredbo, Australia
- 1963: Muller House, Port Hacking (Sydney), Australia
- 1963-65: Rushcutters Bay Apartments, Rushcutters Bay (Sydney), Australia
- 1964-67: NSW Housing Commission Apartments, Roseberry (Sydney), Australia
- 1964-68: Garran Group Housing, Canberra, Australia
- 1965-66: Arlington Apartments, Edgecliff (Sydney), Australia
- 1966-67: Harry and Penelope Seidler HouseHarry and Penelope Seidler HouseHarry and Penelope Seidler House was the home of architect Harry Seidler. It is located on 13 Kalang Ave in the suburb of Killara on Sydney's North Shore, and was designed by Harry and Penelope Seidler.-Features:...
, Killara (Sydney), Australia - 1969-70: Condominium Apartments, Acapulco, Mexico
- 1970-74: Edmund Barton BuildingEdmund Barton BuildingThe Edmund Barton Building is a large Canberra office building positioned prominently on the Parliamentary Triangle in the suburb of Barton, Australian Capital Territory. It was designed by the major Australian architect Harry Seidler...
(formerly Trade Group Offices), Canberra, Australia - 1971-72: Gissing House, Wahroonga (Sydney), Australia
- 1972-75: MLC CentreMLC CentreThe MLC Centre is a skyscraper in Sydney, Australia. This office building is 228 metres high and has 60 storeys. Occupants include the Sydney Consulate of the United States of America. The podium of the building includes a shopping centre with several exclusive fashion labels and a 1,186 seat...
, Sydney, Australia - 1973-77: Embassy of Australia in ParisEmbassy of Australia in ParisThe Australian Embassy in Paris is located 400 metres southwest of the Eiffel Tower, on Rue Jean Rey in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, near the Bir-Hakeim bridge on the Seine. The embassy is situated on a triangular shaped block, and comprises a pair of nine-storey buildings...
, France - 1973-94: Harry Seidler Offices and Apartments, Milsons Point (Sydney), Australia
- 1978-80: Karalyka Centre (formerly Ringwood Cultural Centre) (many non-Seidler alterations), Ringwood (Melbourne), Australia
- 1979-82: Hillside Housing, Kooralbyn (Gold Coast), Australia
- 1980-84: Hong Kong Club Building, Hong Kong Central
- 1981-83: Merson House, Palm Beach (Sydney), Australia
- 1982-84: Monash City Council (formerly Waverley Civic Centre), Glen Waverley (Melbourne), Australia
- 1982-88: Grosvenor PlaceGrosvenor Place (Sydney)Grosvenor Place is a skyscraper in George Street, Sydney, Australia, which was designed by renowned architect Harry Seidler.-Description:The modern style building occupies an entire block in Sydney's financial district between The Rocks and the Sydney central business district...
, Sydney, Australia - 1983-84: Hannes House, Cammeray (Sydney), Australia
- 1983-86: Riverside CentreRiverside Centre, BrisbaneThe Riverside Centre is a skyscraper designed by Harry Seidler and located at 123 Eagle Street, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Completed in 1986, it contains 40 storeys and rises 146 m above ground...
, Brisbane, Australia - 1984-89: 9 Castlereagh St (formerly Capita CentreCapita CentreCapita Centre, also known as the Castlereagh Centre, is a skyscraper in Sydney, Australia. Located at 9-11 Castlereagh Street, it is 183 m tall from spire and 158 m tall from roof. The building was designed by Harry Seidler & Associates....
), Sydney, Australia - 1985: Garden Island Dockyard Workshop, Garden Island (Sydney), Australia
- 1985-89: 1 Spring Street (formerly Shell House), Melbourne, Australia
- 1987-91: QV1, Perth, Australia
- 1989-91: Hamilton House, Vaucluse (Sydney), Australia
- 1990: Monash Gallery of Art (with non-Seidler additions), Wheelers Hill (Melbourne), Australia
- 1990-98: Horizon ApartmentsHorizon ApartmentsThe Horizon Apartments, also short The Horizon, is a residential high rise building in Darlinghurst, a suburb in the inner-city of Sydney, NSW, Australia. It is located on at 184 Forbes Street between Liverpool and William Streets. The controversial highrise was completed in 1998...
, Darlinghurst (Sydney), Australia - 1993-98: Wohnpark Neue Donau, Vienna, Austria
- 1994-95: Meares House, Birchgrove (Sydney), Australia
- 1995-96: Gilhotra House, Hunters Hill (Sydney), Australia
- 1995-00: Grollo Tower project, Melbourne, Australia (never built)
- 1996-98: Elizabeth Street Offices, Surry Hills (Sydney), Australia
- 1996-99: Berman House, Joadja, New South WalesJoadja, New South WalesJoadja is a ghost town in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, in Wingecarribee Shire.It was a thriving mining town between 1870–1911. It was home for approximately 1100 people, many of Scots ancestry, and was connected to the nearby town of Mittagong by a narrow gauge railway that...
, Australia - 1996-02: Hochhaus Neue Donau, Vienna, Austria
- 1999: Cove Apartments, Sydney, Australia
- 1999-05: Riparian Plaza, BrisbaneRiparian Plaza, BrisbaneRiparian Plaza is a 53-storey skyscraper located in the central business district of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The building stands at in height to its communications spire and to its roof. It is the city's tallest building, or second tallest if measured to roof after the Aurora Tower, not...
, Australia - 1999-00: ARCA Showroom, Perth, Australia
- 2001-06: Meriton Tower, Sydney, Australia
- 2003: North ApartmentsNorth ApartmentsThe North Apartments, located at 91 Goulburn Street, Sydney, Australia, were designed by the late architect Harry Seidler.The building is oriented with a single façade to the North, facing Goulburn Street....
, Sydney, Australia - 2001-07: Ian Thorpe Aquatic Centre, (formerly "Ultimo Aquatic Centre") Sydney, Australia
- 2004-09: Alliance Française Building, Sydney, Australia (his last commercial design)
Honours
- 1951, 1967, 1981, 1983, 1991 Sir John SulmanJohn SulmanSir John Sulman was an Australian architect. Born in Greenwich, England, he emigrated to Sydney, Australia in 1885. From 1921 to 1924 he was chairman of the Federal Capital Advisory Committee and influenced the development of Canberra.-Early life:Sulman was born in was born at Greenwich, England...
Medal - 1965, 1966, 1967 Wilkinson AwardWilkinson AwardThe Wilkinson Award is an Australian architectural prize presented by the Australian Institute of Architects and was first awarded in 1961....
- 1966 Honorary Fellowship from the American Institute of ArchitectsAmerican Institute of ArchitectsThe American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...
(AIA) - 1967 Civic Design Award
- 1968 Pan Pacific Citation of the American Institute of Architects (AIA)
- 1976 RAIA Gold MedalRoyal Australian Institute of Architects Gold MedalThe Gold Medal is the highest award of the Australian Institute of Architects awarded annually since 1960. The award was created to recognise distinguished service by Australian architects who have:* designed or executed buildings of high merit;...
from the Royal Australian Institute of Architects - 1984 Member of the Académie d'architectureAcadémie d'architectureThe Académie royale d'architecture was a French learned society founded on December 30, 1671 by Louis XIV, king of France under the impulsion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert...
, Paris - 1984 Honorary Member of the Society of Graphic Artists of Austria (KünstlerhausVienna KünstlerhausThe Vienna Künstlerhaus is an art exhibition building in Vienna. It is located on Karlsplatz near the Ringstraße, next to the Musikverein....
) - 1985, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1992, 2001 various honours of the Royal Australian Institute of ArchitectsRoyal Australian Institute of ArchitectsThe Australian Institute of Architects is a professional body for architects in Australia. Until August 2008, the Institute traded as the "Royal Australian Institute of Architects", which remains its official name....
(RAIA) - 1985 Honorarary Citizenship of Austria
- 1987 Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) (Australia's highest honour)
- 1990 Gold Medal City of Vienna
- 1992 Officer of the Order of the British EmpireOrder of the British EmpireThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
- 1996 Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British ArchitectsRoyal Institute of British ArchitectsThe Royal Institute of British Architects is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally.-History:...
(RIBA) - 1996 Austrian Badge of Honour for Science and Art
- 2002 Golden Badge of Honour for Merits for Vienna
- 2004 Honour for International Highrises of the city of FrankfurtFrankfurtFrankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
for "Cove Apartments" in Sydney
Gallery
Harry Seidler, AC OBE (25 June 19239 March 2006) was an Austrian-born Australian architectArchitect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
who is considered to be one of the leading exponents of Modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
's methodology in Australia and the first architect to fully express the principles of the Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
in Australia.
Harry Seidler designed more than 180 buildings and he received much recognition for his contribution to Architecture of Australia
Architecture of Australia
Architecture in Australia incorporates the architecture produced in the area of the Commonwealth of Australia...
. Seidler consistently won architectural awards every decade throughout his Australian career of almost 58 years across the varied categories - his residential work from 1950, his commercial work from 1967, and his public commissions from the 1970s.
Early life
Seidler was born in ViennaVienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, the son of a prosperous Jewish merchant of Romanian
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
origin. He fled as a teenager to England soon after Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
Germany occupied Austria in 1938.
Education
In England, he studied building and construction at Cambridgeshire Technical School. In May 1940, he was internedInternment
Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people, commonly in large groups, without trial. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the meaning as: "The action of 'interning'; confinement within the limits of a country or place." Most modern usage is about individuals, and there is a distinction...
by the British authorities as an enemy alien, before being shipped to Quebec, Canada and continued to be interned until October 1941, when he was released on parole from internment to study architecture at the University of Manitoba
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba , in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is the largest university in the province of Manitoba. It is Manitoba's most comprehensive and only research-intensive post-secondary educational institution. It was founded in 1877, making it Western Canada’s first university. It placed...
.
Although he was ten years old when the Bauhaus was closed, Seidler's analysts invariably associate him with the Bauhaus because he later studied under emigrent Bauhaus teachers in the USA. He attended Harvard Graduate School of Design
Harvard Graduate School of Design
The Harvard Graduate School of Design is a graduate school at Harvard University offering degrees in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning and Design.-History:...
under Walter Gropius
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius was a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School who, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture....
and Marcel Breuer on a scholarship in 1945-46, during which time he did vacation work with Alvar Aalto in Boston drawing up plans for the Baker dormitory at MIT. He then attended Black Mountain College
Black Mountain College
Black Mountain College, a school founded in 1933 in Black Mountain, North Carolina, was a new kind of college in the United States in which the study of art was seen to be central to a liberal arts education, and in which John Dewey's principles of education played a major role...
under the painter Josef Albers
Josef Albers
Josef Albers was a German-born American artist and educator whose work, both in Europe and in the United States, formed the basis of some of the most influential and far-reaching art education programs of the 20th century....
, and then worked for Marcel Breuer
Marcel Breuer
Marcel Lajos Breuer , was a Hungarian-born modernist, architect and furniture designer of Jewish descent. One of the masters of Modernism, Breuer displayed interest in modular construction and simple forms.- Life and work :Known to his friends and associates as Lajkó, Breuer studied and taught at...
in New York. Seidler also worked in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
with the architect Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho is a Brazilian architect specializing in international modern architecture...
, who heavily influenced some of his early residential works, such as the Rose Siedler House and the Meller House.
Life in Australia
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
and later commissioned him to design their home which became known as the Rose Seidler House
Rose Seidler House
Rose Seidler House is a Bauhaus-styled home designed by Harry Seidler located at 71 Clissold Road, Wahroonga, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is managed by the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales as a museum that has been open to the public since 1991. Built in 1949-1950, it...
(1948–1950), in Wahroonga, on Sydney's North Shore . This project was the first domestic residence to fully express the philosophy of the Bauhaus in Australia.
In the 1960s Seidler again broke new ground with his radical design for the Australia Square
Australia Square
Australia Square is an office and retail complex in the central business district of Sydney, Australia. Its main address is 264 George Street, and the Square is bounded on the northern side by Bond Street, eastern side by Pitt Street and southern side by Curtin Place.The building was designed by...
project (1961–67). At the time Australia Square was the world's tallest light weight concrete building. The design introduced the two principles of incorporating large public open spaces and circular forms to office towers in Australia.
He was a founding member of the Australian Architecture Association
Australian Architecture Association
The Australian Architecture Association was set up in 2004 as a not for profit organisation to promote the understanding of both local and world architecture in Australia. The Chicago Architecture Foundation is used as the model for the development of the organisation.In late 2004, it began to...
. In 1984 he became the first Australian to be elected a member of the Académie d'architecture
Académie d'architecture
The Académie royale d'architecture was a French learned society founded on December 30, 1671 by Louis XIV, king of France under the impulsion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert...
, Paris and in 1987 was made a Companion of the Order of Australia
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
, an honour which he accepted in his trademark suit and bowtie. Over the years Mr Seidler was also awarded five Sulman Medals by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects
Royal Australian Institute of Architects
The Australian Institute of Architects is a professional body for architects in Australia. Until August 2008, the Institute traded as the "Royal Australian Institute of Architects", which remains its official name....
, as well as the Royal Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal
Royal Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal
The Gold Medal is the highest award of the Australian Institute of Architects awarded annually since 1960. The award was created to recognise distinguished service by Australian architects who have:* designed or executed buildings of high merit;...
in 1976, and the Royal Gold Medal
Royal Gold Medal
The Royal Gold Medal for architecture is awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects on behalf of the British monarch, in recognition of an individual's or group's substantial contribution to international architecture....
by the Royal Institute of British Architects
Royal Institute of British Architects
The Royal Institute of British Architects is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally.-History:...
in 1996.
Personal life
Harry Seidler married Penelope Evatt, daughter of Clive EvattClive Evatt
Clive Evatt QC was an Australian politician, barrister and raconteur. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1939 until 1959. At various times he sat as a member of the Industrial Labor Party, ALP and as an independent.-Early life:Evatt was born in Maitland and was the...
on 15 December 1958, they had two children, a son Timothy and daughter, Polly.
Seidler enjoyed photographing architecture around the world and some of these are documented in his photography book The Grand Tour. He also enjoyed skiing.
Penelope Seidler, herself an architect, gained her Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
and joined Seidler and Associates in 1964 as architect and financial manager.
On 24 April 2005, Harry Seidler suffered a stroke from which he never fully recovered, and died in Sydney on 9 March 2006 at age 82.
Modernism and principles of design
The form of Seidler's work changed as building technology changed: from his timber houses in the 1950s, to reinforced concrete houses and buildings in the 1960-1780s, and the development of curves with advances in concrete techhnology in the 1980s and later, as well as developments in steel technology that allowed for curved rooves in the 1990s onwards (e.g. Berman House). Upon celebrating 50 years of architectural practice in Australia, Seidler noted that developments in building technology allowed for more richness of form in his then soon-to-be completed Horizon apartment tower: "I could not have built Horizon twenty years ago...in earlier building technology (the way one could) span distancesit was very limited. (But Horizon) is made (possible) by devices such as prestressed concrete which is ...economic and quick. And that also gives you greater freedom of the shapes that you can use. Nowadays we can span huge distances and to do so (by) not just putting steel mesh or something into the concrete but to put steel, high tensile steel wire into it and pull it tight and that makes it easy to span distances and give this kind of change of shape of a building which would have been very difficult to achieve any other way." (Express, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 7.10.1998).
His visual approach to two-dimensional and three-dimensional spacial arrangement was consistent throughout his whole career. He articulated his approach in his first work, the Rose Seidler House. "This house explodes the surfaces that enclose a normal house or space, and turns it into a continuum of free standing planes, through which the eye can never see an end, you are always intrigued what’s beyond, you can always see something floating into the distance, there is never an obstruction to your vision, it is a continuum (of space), that I believe 20th century man’s eye and senses responds positively to that, we crave this”.Harry Seidler quote from “Rose Seidler House – the House that Harry built” (Review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, 14 April 1991).
In 1991, Seidler acknowledged that that his first house (Rose Seidler House) which was built of timber, despite the north facing sunshades "is generally too vulnerable to temperature changes...I didn't fully appreciate the intensity of the Australian sun"(Harry Seidler quote from “Rose Seidler House – the House that Harry built” Review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, 14 April 1991). Thus, later in his career, he sought to use more thermally stable materials like reinforced concrete and to respond to Australian climate by the extensive use of sunshades and flamboyantly-shaped rain protecting canopies on his skyscrapers, (such as Grosvenor Place, Riverside Centre, and QV1), large covered balconies in his houses, as well as shaping his designs to maximize views and enjoyment of the outdoors from inside.
Collaboration with visual artists
Seidler was a frequent and enthusiastic collaborator with visual artists in the creation of his buildings. While his collaborators include famous or notable figures such as Alexander CalderAlexander Calder
Alexander Calder was an American sculptor and artist most famous for inventing mobile sculptures. In addition to mobile and stable sculpture, Alexander Calder also created paintings, lithographs, toys, tapestry, jewelry and household objects.-Childhood:Alexander "Sandy" Calder was born in Lawnton,...
, Frank Stella
Frank Stella
Frank Stella is an American painter and printmaker, significant within the art movements of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction.-Biography:...
, Lin Utzon, Victor Vasarely
Victor Vasarely
Victor Vasarely was a Hungarian French artist whose work is generally seen aligned with Op-art.His work entitled Zebra, created by Vasarely in the 1930s, is considered by some to be one of the earliest examples of Op-art...
, Norman Carlberg
Norman Carlberg
Norman Carlberg is an American sculptor and printmaker. He is noted as an exemplar of the modular constructivist style....
(a fellow but later student of Josef Albers
Josef Albers
Josef Albers was a German-born American artist and educator whose work, both in Europe and in the United States, formed the basis of some of the most influential and far-reaching art education programs of the 20th century....
), and many others, by far the most important of the collaborators was his mentor Albers. Seidler included works by Albers - perhaps the single person most influential on his design philosophy - in a number of projects (notably the MLC Centre with 'Homage to the Square' and 'The Wrestle'). As Paul Bartizan indicates in his obituary tribute to Seidler, these works of art were not mere 'plop art
Plop art
Plop art is a pejorative slang term for public art made for government or corporate plazas, spaces in front of office buildings, skyscraper atriums, parks, and other public venues...
'; they were really planned to be integrated with and complementary to the buildings into which they were placed: "In many of his projects, Seidler worked with artists whose works became an intrinsic component of his designs."
List of buildings
- 1948-50: Rose Seidler HouseRose Seidler HouseRose Seidler House is a Bauhaus-styled home designed by Harry Seidler located at 71 Clissold Road, Wahroonga, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is managed by the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales as a museum that has been open to the public since 1991. Built in 1949-1950, it...
, Wahroonga (Sydney), Australia - 1949-51: Marcus Seidler House, Turramurra (Sydney), Australia
- 1950: Meller House, Castlecrag (Sydney), Australia
- 1952: Hutter House, Turramurra (Sydney), Australia - since greatly modified such that hardly anything of Seidler's design remains.
- 1952-53: Williamson House, (also known as Igloo House), Mosman (Sydney), Australia http://www.heritage.nsw.gov.au/07_subnav_02_2.cfm?itemid=5045139
- 1959: Canberra South Bowling Club, Griffith (Canberra), Australia http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/pictoria/a/2/3/doc/a23177.shtml
- 1960: Ithaca Gardens, Elizabeth Bay (Sydney), Australia
- 1961: Grimson & Rose Exhibition House, Pennant Hills (Sydney), Australia
- 1961: Blues Point TowerBlues Point TowerBlues Point Tower is an apartment block in Sydney, Australia. Located in McMahons Point, close toNorth Sydney, the tower is 83m tall with 144 apartments over 25 levels...
, McMahons Point (Sydney), Australia - 1961: Wood House, Penrith (Sydney), Australia
- 1961-67: Australia Square TowerAustralia SquareAustralia Square is an office and retail complex in the central business district of Sydney, Australia. Its main address is 264 George Street, and the Square is bounded on the northern side by Bond Street, eastern side by Pitt Street and southern side by Curtin Place.The building was designed by...
, Sydney, Australia - 1962: Ski Lodge, Thredbo, Australia
- 1963: Muller House, Port Hacking (Sydney), Australia
- 1963-65: Rushcutters Bay Apartments, Rushcutters Bay (Sydney), Australia
- 1964-67: NSW Housing Commission Apartments, Roseberry (Sydney), Australia
- 1964-68: Garran Group Housing, Canberra, Australia
- 1965-66: Arlington Apartments, Edgecliff (Sydney), Australia
- 1966-67: Harry and Penelope Seidler HouseHarry and Penelope Seidler HouseHarry and Penelope Seidler House was the home of architect Harry Seidler. It is located on 13 Kalang Ave in the suburb of Killara on Sydney's North Shore, and was designed by Harry and Penelope Seidler.-Features:...
, Killara (Sydney), Australia - 1969-70: Condominium Apartments, Acapulco, Mexico
- 1970-74: Edmund Barton BuildingEdmund Barton BuildingThe Edmund Barton Building is a large Canberra office building positioned prominently on the Parliamentary Triangle in the suburb of Barton, Australian Capital Territory. It was designed by the major Australian architect Harry Seidler...
(formerly Trade Group Offices), Canberra, Australia - 1971-72: Gissing House, Wahroonga (Sydney), Australia
- 1972-75: MLC CentreMLC CentreThe MLC Centre is a skyscraper in Sydney, Australia. This office building is 228 metres high and has 60 storeys. Occupants include the Sydney Consulate of the United States of America. The podium of the building includes a shopping centre with several exclusive fashion labels and a 1,186 seat...
, Sydney, Australia - 1973-77: Embassy of Australia in ParisEmbassy of Australia in ParisThe Australian Embassy in Paris is located 400 metres southwest of the Eiffel Tower, on Rue Jean Rey in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, near the Bir-Hakeim bridge on the Seine. The embassy is situated on a triangular shaped block, and comprises a pair of nine-storey buildings...
, France - 1973-94: Harry Seidler Offices and Apartments, Milsons Point (Sydney), Australia
- 1978-80: Karalyka Centre (formerly Ringwood Cultural Centre) (many non-Seidler alterations), Ringwood (Melbourne), Australia
- 1979-82: Hillside Housing, Kooralbyn (Gold Coast), Australia
- 1980-84: Hong Kong Club Building, Hong Kong Central
- 1981-83: Merson House, Palm Beach (Sydney), Australia
- 1982-84: Monash City Council (formerly Waverley Civic Centre), Glen Waverley (Melbourne), Australia
- 1982-88: Grosvenor PlaceGrosvenor Place (Sydney)Grosvenor Place is a skyscraper in George Street, Sydney, Australia, which was designed by renowned architect Harry Seidler.-Description:The modern style building occupies an entire block in Sydney's financial district between The Rocks and the Sydney central business district...
, Sydney, Australia - 1983-84: Hannes House, Cammeray (Sydney), Australia
- 1983-86: Riverside CentreRiverside Centre, BrisbaneThe Riverside Centre is a skyscraper designed by Harry Seidler and located at 123 Eagle Street, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Completed in 1986, it contains 40 storeys and rises 146 m above ground...
, Brisbane, Australia - 1984-89: 9 Castlereagh St (formerly Capita CentreCapita CentreCapita Centre, also known as the Castlereagh Centre, is a skyscraper in Sydney, Australia. Located at 9-11 Castlereagh Street, it is 183 m tall from spire and 158 m tall from roof. The building was designed by Harry Seidler & Associates....
), Sydney, Australia - 1985: Garden Island Dockyard Workshop, Garden Island (Sydney), Australia
- 1985-89: 1 Spring Street (formerly Shell House), Melbourne, Australia
- 1987-91: QV1, Perth, Australia
- 1989-91: Hamilton House, Vaucluse (Sydney), Australia
- 1990: Monash Gallery of Art (with non-Seidler additions), Wheelers Hill (Melbourne), Australia
- 1990-98: Horizon ApartmentsHorizon ApartmentsThe Horizon Apartments, also short The Horizon, is a residential high rise building in Darlinghurst, a suburb in the inner-city of Sydney, NSW, Australia. It is located on at 184 Forbes Street between Liverpool and William Streets. The controversial highrise was completed in 1998...
, Darlinghurst (Sydney), Australia - 1993-98: Wohnpark Neue Donau, Vienna, Austria
- 1994-95: Meares House, Birchgrove (Sydney), Australia
- 1995-96: Gilhotra House, Hunters Hill (Sydney), Australia
- 1995-00: Grollo Tower project, Melbourne, Australia (never built)
- 1996-98: Elizabeth Street Offices, Surry Hills (Sydney), Australia
- 1996-99: Berman House, Joadja, New South WalesJoadja, New South WalesJoadja is a ghost town in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, in Wingecarribee Shire.It was a thriving mining town between 1870–1911. It was home for approximately 1100 people, many of Scots ancestry, and was connected to the nearby town of Mittagong by a narrow gauge railway that...
, Australia - 1996-02: Hochhaus Neue Donau, Vienna, Austria
- 1999: Cove Apartments, Sydney, Australia
- 1999-05: Riparian Plaza, BrisbaneRiparian Plaza, BrisbaneRiparian Plaza is a 53-storey skyscraper located in the central business district of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The building stands at in height to its communications spire and to its roof. It is the city's tallest building, or second tallest if measured to roof after the Aurora Tower, not...
, Australia - 1999-00: ARCA Showroom, Perth, Australia
- 2001-06: Meriton Tower, Sydney, Australia
- 2003: North ApartmentsNorth ApartmentsThe North Apartments, located at 91 Goulburn Street, Sydney, Australia, were designed by the late architect Harry Seidler.The building is oriented with a single façade to the North, facing Goulburn Street....
, Sydney, Australia - 2001-07: Ian Thorpe Aquatic Centre, (formerly "Ultimo Aquatic Centre") Sydney, Australia
- 2004-09: Alliance Française Building, Sydney, Australia (his last commercial design)
Honours
- 1951, 1967, 1981, 1983, 1991 Sir John SulmanJohn SulmanSir John Sulman was an Australian architect. Born in Greenwich, England, he emigrated to Sydney, Australia in 1885. From 1921 to 1924 he was chairman of the Federal Capital Advisory Committee and influenced the development of Canberra.-Early life:Sulman was born in was born at Greenwich, England...
Medal - 1965, 1966, 1967 Wilkinson AwardWilkinson AwardThe Wilkinson Award is an Australian architectural prize presented by the Australian Institute of Architects and was first awarded in 1961....
- 1966 Honorary Fellowship from the American Institute of ArchitectsAmerican Institute of ArchitectsThe American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...
(AIA) - 1967 Civic Design Award
- 1968 Pan Pacific Citation of the American Institute of Architects (AIA)
- 1976 RAIA Gold MedalRoyal Australian Institute of Architects Gold MedalThe Gold Medal is the highest award of the Australian Institute of Architects awarded annually since 1960. The award was created to recognise distinguished service by Australian architects who have:* designed or executed buildings of high merit;...
from the Royal Australian Institute of Architects - 1984 Member of the Académie d'architectureAcadémie d'architectureThe Académie royale d'architecture was a French learned society founded on December 30, 1671 by Louis XIV, king of France under the impulsion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert...
, Paris - 1984 Honorary Member of the Society of Graphic Artists of Austria (KünstlerhausVienna KünstlerhausThe Vienna Künstlerhaus is an art exhibition building in Vienna. It is located on Karlsplatz near the Ringstraße, next to the Musikverein....
) - 1985, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1992, 2001 various honours of the Royal Australian Institute of ArchitectsRoyal Australian Institute of ArchitectsThe Australian Institute of Architects is a professional body for architects in Australia. Until August 2008, the Institute traded as the "Royal Australian Institute of Architects", which remains its official name....
(RAIA) - 1985 Honorarary Citizenship of Austria
- 1987 Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) (Australia's highest honour)
- 1990 Gold Medal City of Vienna
- 1992 Officer of the Order of the British EmpireOrder of the British EmpireThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
- 1996 Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British ArchitectsRoyal Institute of British ArchitectsThe Royal Institute of British Architects is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally.-History:...
(RIBA) - 1996 Austrian Badge of Honour for Science and Art
- 2002 Golden Badge of Honour for Merits for Vienna
- 2004 Honour for International Highrises of the city of FrankfurtFrankfurtFrankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
for "Cove Apartments" in Sydney
Gallery
Harry Seidler, AC OBE (25 June 19239 March 2006) was an Austrian-born Australian architectArchitect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
who is considered to be one of the leading exponents of Modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
's methodology in Australia and the first architect to fully express the principles of the Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
in Australia.
Harry Seidler designed more than 180 buildings and he received much recognition for his contribution to Architecture of Australia
Architecture of Australia
Architecture in Australia incorporates the architecture produced in the area of the Commonwealth of Australia...
. Seidler consistently won architectural awards every decade throughout his Australian career of almost 58 years across the varied categories - his residential work from 1950, his commercial work from 1967, and his public commissions from the 1970s.
Early life
Seidler was born in ViennaVienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, the son of a prosperous Jewish merchant of Romanian
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
origin. He fled as a teenager to England soon after Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
Germany occupied Austria in 1938.
Education
In England, he studied building and construction at Cambridgeshire Technical School. In May 1940, he was internedInternment
Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people, commonly in large groups, without trial. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the meaning as: "The action of 'interning'; confinement within the limits of a country or place." Most modern usage is about individuals, and there is a distinction...
by the British authorities as an enemy alien, before being shipped to Quebec, Canada and continued to be interned until October 1941, when he was released on parole from internment to study architecture at the University of Manitoba
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba , in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is the largest university in the province of Manitoba. It is Manitoba's most comprehensive and only research-intensive post-secondary educational institution. It was founded in 1877, making it Western Canada’s first university. It placed...
.
Although he was ten years old when the Bauhaus was closed, Seidler's analysts invariably associate him with the Bauhaus because he later studied under emigrent Bauhaus teachers in the USA. He attended Harvard Graduate School of Design
Harvard Graduate School of Design
The Harvard Graduate School of Design is a graduate school at Harvard University offering degrees in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning and Design.-History:...
under Walter Gropius
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius was a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School who, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture....
and Marcel Breuer on a scholarship in 1945-46, during which time he did vacation work with Alvar Aalto in Boston drawing up plans for the Baker dormitory at MIT. He then attended Black Mountain College
Black Mountain College
Black Mountain College, a school founded in 1933 in Black Mountain, North Carolina, was a new kind of college in the United States in which the study of art was seen to be central to a liberal arts education, and in which John Dewey's principles of education played a major role...
under the painter Josef Albers
Josef Albers
Josef Albers was a German-born American artist and educator whose work, both in Europe and in the United States, formed the basis of some of the most influential and far-reaching art education programs of the 20th century....
, and then worked for Marcel Breuer
Marcel Breuer
Marcel Lajos Breuer , was a Hungarian-born modernist, architect and furniture designer of Jewish descent. One of the masters of Modernism, Breuer displayed interest in modular construction and simple forms.- Life and work :Known to his friends and associates as Lajkó, Breuer studied and taught at...
in New York. Seidler also worked in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
with the architect Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho is a Brazilian architect specializing in international modern architecture...
, who heavily influenced some of his early residential works, such as the Rose Siedler House and the Meller House.
Life in Australia
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
and later commissioned him to design their home which became known as the Rose Seidler House
Rose Seidler House
Rose Seidler House is a Bauhaus-styled home designed by Harry Seidler located at 71 Clissold Road, Wahroonga, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is managed by the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales as a museum that has been open to the public since 1991. Built in 1949-1950, it...
(1948–1950), in Wahroonga, on Sydney's North Shore . This project was the first domestic residence to fully express the philosophy of the Bauhaus in Australia.
In the 1960s Seidler again broke new ground with his radical design for the Australia Square
Australia Square
Australia Square is an office and retail complex in the central business district of Sydney, Australia. Its main address is 264 George Street, and the Square is bounded on the northern side by Bond Street, eastern side by Pitt Street and southern side by Curtin Place.The building was designed by...
project (1961–67). At the time Australia Square was the world's tallest light weight concrete building. The design introduced the two principles of incorporating large public open spaces and circular forms to office towers in Australia.
He was a founding member of the Australian Architecture Association
Australian Architecture Association
The Australian Architecture Association was set up in 2004 as a not for profit organisation to promote the understanding of both local and world architecture in Australia. The Chicago Architecture Foundation is used as the model for the development of the organisation.In late 2004, it began to...
. In 1984 he became the first Australian to be elected a member of the Académie d'architecture
Académie d'architecture
The Académie royale d'architecture was a French learned society founded on December 30, 1671 by Louis XIV, king of France under the impulsion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert...
, Paris and in 1987 was made a Companion of the Order of Australia
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
, an honour which he accepted in his trademark suit and bowtie. Over the years Mr Seidler was also awarded five Sulman Medals by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects
Royal Australian Institute of Architects
The Australian Institute of Architects is a professional body for architects in Australia. Until August 2008, the Institute traded as the "Royal Australian Institute of Architects", which remains its official name....
, as well as the Royal Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal
Royal Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal
The Gold Medal is the highest award of the Australian Institute of Architects awarded annually since 1960. The award was created to recognise distinguished service by Australian architects who have:* designed or executed buildings of high merit;...
in 1976, and the Royal Gold Medal
Royal Gold Medal
The Royal Gold Medal for architecture is awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects on behalf of the British monarch, in recognition of an individual's or group's substantial contribution to international architecture....
by the Royal Institute of British Architects
Royal Institute of British Architects
The Royal Institute of British Architects is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally.-History:...
in 1996.
Personal life
Harry Seidler married Penelope Evatt, daughter of Clive EvattClive Evatt
Clive Evatt QC was an Australian politician, barrister and raconteur. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1939 until 1959. At various times he sat as a member of the Industrial Labor Party, ALP and as an independent.-Early life:Evatt was born in Maitland and was the...
on 15 December 1958, they had two children, a son Timothy and daughter, Polly.
Seidler enjoyed photographing architecture around the world and some of these are documented in his photography book The Grand Tour. He also enjoyed skiing.
Penelope Seidler, herself an architect, gained her Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
and joined Seidler and Associates in 1964 as architect and financial manager.
On 24 April 2005, Harry Seidler suffered a stroke from which he never fully recovered, and died in Sydney on 9 March 2006 at age 82.
Modernism and principles of design
The form of Seidler's work changed as building technology changed: from his timber houses in the 1950s, to reinforced concrete houses and buildings in the 1960-1780s, and the development of curves with advances in concrete techhnology in the 1980s and later, as well as developments in steel technology that allowed for curved rooves in the 1990s onwards (e.g. Berman House). Upon celebrating 50 years of architectural practice in Australia, Seidler noted that developments in building technology allowed for more richness of form in his then soon-to-be completed Horizon apartment tower: "I could not have built Horizon twenty years ago...in earlier building technology (the way one could) span distancesit was very limited. (But Horizon) is made (possible) by devices such as prestressed concrete which is ...economic and quick. And that also gives you greater freedom of the shapes that you can use. Nowadays we can span huge distances and to do so (by) not just putting steel mesh or something into the concrete but to put steel, high tensile steel wire into it and pull it tight and that makes it easy to span distances and give this kind of change of shape of a building which would have been very difficult to achieve any other way." (Express, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 7.10.1998).
His visual approach to two-dimensional and three-dimensional spacial arrangement was consistent throughout his whole career. He articulated his approach in his first work, the Rose Seidler House. "This house explodes the surfaces that enclose a normal house or space, and turns it into a continuum of free standing planes, through which the eye can never see an end, you are always intrigued what’s beyond, you can always see something floating into the distance, there is never an obstruction to your vision, it is a continuum (of space), that I believe 20th century man’s eye and senses responds positively to that, we crave this”.Harry Seidler quote from “Rose Seidler House – the House that Harry built” (Review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, 14 April 1991).
In 1991, Seidler acknowledged that that his first house (Rose Seidler House) which was built of timber, despite the north facing sunshades "is generally too vulnerable to temperature changes...I didn't fully appreciate the intensity of the Australian sun"(Harry Seidler quote from “Rose Seidler House – the House that Harry built” Review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, 14 April 1991). Thus, later in his career, he sought to use more thermally stable materials like reinforced concrete and to respond to Australian climate by the extensive use of sunshades and flamboyantly-shaped rain protecting canopies on his skyscrapers, (such as Grosvenor Place, Riverside Centre, and QV1), large covered balconies in his houses, as well as shaping his designs to maximize views and enjoyment of the outdoors from inside.
Collaboration with visual artists
Seidler was a frequent and enthusiastic collaborator with visual artists in the creation of his buildings. While his collaborators include famous or notable figures such as Alexander CalderAlexander Calder
Alexander Calder was an American sculptor and artist most famous for inventing mobile sculptures. In addition to mobile and stable sculpture, Alexander Calder also created paintings, lithographs, toys, tapestry, jewelry and household objects.-Childhood:Alexander "Sandy" Calder was born in Lawnton,...
, Frank Stella
Frank Stella
Frank Stella is an American painter and printmaker, significant within the art movements of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction.-Biography:...
, Lin Utzon, Victor Vasarely
Victor Vasarely
Victor Vasarely was a Hungarian French artist whose work is generally seen aligned with Op-art.His work entitled Zebra, created by Vasarely in the 1930s, is considered by some to be one of the earliest examples of Op-art...
, Norman Carlberg
Norman Carlberg
Norman Carlberg is an American sculptor and printmaker. He is noted as an exemplar of the modular constructivist style....
(a fellow but later student of Josef Albers
Josef Albers
Josef Albers was a German-born American artist and educator whose work, both in Europe and in the United States, formed the basis of some of the most influential and far-reaching art education programs of the 20th century....
), and many others, by far the most important of the collaborators was his mentor Albers. Seidler included works by Albers - perhaps the single person most influential on his design philosophy - in a number of projects (notably the MLC Centre with 'Homage to the Square' and 'The Wrestle'). As Paul Bartizan indicates in his obituary tribute to Seidler, these works of art were not mere 'plop art
Plop art
Plop art is a pejorative slang term for public art made for government or corporate plazas, spaces in front of office buildings, skyscraper atriums, parks, and other public venues...
'; they were really planned to be integrated with and complementary to the buildings into which they were placed: "In many of his projects, Seidler worked with artists whose works became an intrinsic component of his designs."
List of buildings
- 1948-50: Rose Seidler HouseRose Seidler HouseRose Seidler House is a Bauhaus-styled home designed by Harry Seidler located at 71 Clissold Road, Wahroonga, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is managed by the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales as a museum that has been open to the public since 1991. Built in 1949-1950, it...
, Wahroonga (Sydney), Australia - 1949-51: Marcus Seidler House, Turramurra (Sydney), Australia
- 1950: Meller House, Castlecrag (Sydney), Australia
- 1952: Hutter House, Turramurra (Sydney), Australia - since greatly modified such that hardly anything of Seidler's design remains.
- 1952-53: Williamson House, (also known as Igloo House), Mosman (Sydney), Australia http://www.heritage.nsw.gov.au/07_subnav_02_2.cfm?itemid=5045139
- 1959: Canberra South Bowling Club, Griffith (Canberra), Australia http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/pictoria/a/2/3/doc/a23177.shtml
- 1960: Ithaca Gardens, Elizabeth Bay (Sydney), Australia
- 1961: Grimson & Rose Exhibition House, Pennant Hills (Sydney), Australia
- 1961: Blues Point TowerBlues Point TowerBlues Point Tower is an apartment block in Sydney, Australia. Located in McMahons Point, close toNorth Sydney, the tower is 83m tall with 144 apartments over 25 levels...
, McMahons Point (Sydney), Australia - 1961: Wood House, Penrith (Sydney), Australia
- 1961-67: Australia Square TowerAustralia SquareAustralia Square is an office and retail complex in the central business district of Sydney, Australia. Its main address is 264 George Street, and the Square is bounded on the northern side by Bond Street, eastern side by Pitt Street and southern side by Curtin Place.The building was designed by...
, Sydney, Australia - 1962: Ski Lodge, Thredbo, Australia
- 1963: Muller House, Port Hacking (Sydney), Australia
- 1963-65: Rushcutters Bay Apartments, Rushcutters Bay (Sydney), Australia
- 1964-67: NSW Housing Commission Apartments, Roseberry (Sydney), Australia
- 1964-68: Garran Group Housing, Canberra, Australia
- 1965-66: Arlington Apartments, Edgecliff (Sydney), Australia
- 1966-67: Harry and Penelope Seidler HouseHarry and Penelope Seidler HouseHarry and Penelope Seidler House was the home of architect Harry Seidler. It is located on 13 Kalang Ave in the suburb of Killara on Sydney's North Shore, and was designed by Harry and Penelope Seidler.-Features:...
, Killara (Sydney), Australia - 1969-70: Condominium Apartments, Acapulco, Mexico
- 1970-74: Edmund Barton BuildingEdmund Barton BuildingThe Edmund Barton Building is a large Canberra office building positioned prominently on the Parliamentary Triangle in the suburb of Barton, Australian Capital Territory. It was designed by the major Australian architect Harry Seidler...
(formerly Trade Group Offices), Canberra, Australia - 1971-72: Gissing House, Wahroonga (Sydney), Australia
- 1972-75: MLC CentreMLC CentreThe MLC Centre is a skyscraper in Sydney, Australia. This office building is 228 metres high and has 60 storeys. Occupants include the Sydney Consulate of the United States of America. The podium of the building includes a shopping centre with several exclusive fashion labels and a 1,186 seat...
, Sydney, Australia - 1973-77: Embassy of Australia in ParisEmbassy of Australia in ParisThe Australian Embassy in Paris is located 400 metres southwest of the Eiffel Tower, on Rue Jean Rey in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, near the Bir-Hakeim bridge on the Seine. The embassy is situated on a triangular shaped block, and comprises a pair of nine-storey buildings...
, France - 1973-94: Harry Seidler Offices and Apartments, Milsons Point (Sydney), Australia
- 1978-80: Karalyka Centre (formerly Ringwood Cultural Centre) (many non-Seidler alterations), Ringwood (Melbourne), Australia
- 1979-82: Hillside Housing, Kooralbyn (Gold Coast), Australia
- 1980-84: Hong Kong Club Building, Hong Kong Central
- 1981-83: Merson House, Palm Beach (Sydney), Australia
- 1982-84: Monash City Council (formerly Waverley Civic Centre), Glen Waverley (Melbourne), Australia
- 1982-88: Grosvenor PlaceGrosvenor Place (Sydney)Grosvenor Place is a skyscraper in George Street, Sydney, Australia, which was designed by renowned architect Harry Seidler.-Description:The modern style building occupies an entire block in Sydney's financial district between The Rocks and the Sydney central business district...
, Sydney, Australia - 1983-84: Hannes House, Cammeray (Sydney), Australia
- 1983-86: Riverside CentreRiverside Centre, BrisbaneThe Riverside Centre is a skyscraper designed by Harry Seidler and located at 123 Eagle Street, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Completed in 1986, it contains 40 storeys and rises 146 m above ground...
, Brisbane, Australia - 1984-89: 9 Castlereagh St (formerly Capita CentreCapita CentreCapita Centre, also known as the Castlereagh Centre, is a skyscraper in Sydney, Australia. Located at 9-11 Castlereagh Street, it is 183 m tall from spire and 158 m tall from roof. The building was designed by Harry Seidler & Associates....
), Sydney, Australia - 1985: Garden Island Dockyard Workshop, Garden Island (Sydney), Australia
- 1985-89: 1 Spring Street (formerly Shell House), Melbourne, Australia
- 1987-91: QV1, Perth, Australia
- 1989-91: Hamilton House, Vaucluse (Sydney), Australia
- 1990: Monash Gallery of Art (with non-Seidler additions), Wheelers Hill (Melbourne), Australia
- 1990-98: Horizon ApartmentsHorizon ApartmentsThe Horizon Apartments, also short The Horizon, is a residential high rise building in Darlinghurst, a suburb in the inner-city of Sydney, NSW, Australia. It is located on at 184 Forbes Street between Liverpool and William Streets. The controversial highrise was completed in 1998...
, Darlinghurst (Sydney), Australia - 1993-98: Wohnpark Neue Donau, Vienna, Austria
- 1994-95: Meares House, Birchgrove (Sydney), Australia
- 1995-96: Gilhotra House, Hunters Hill (Sydney), Australia
- 1995-00: Grollo Tower project, Melbourne, Australia (never built)
- 1996-98: Elizabeth Street Offices, Surry Hills (Sydney), Australia
- 1996-99: Berman House, Joadja, New South WalesJoadja, New South WalesJoadja is a ghost town in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, in Wingecarribee Shire.It was a thriving mining town between 1870–1911. It was home for approximately 1100 people, many of Scots ancestry, and was connected to the nearby town of Mittagong by a narrow gauge railway that...
, Australia - 1996-02: Hochhaus Neue Donau, Vienna, Austria
- 1999: Cove Apartments, Sydney, Australia
- 1999-05: Riparian Plaza, BrisbaneRiparian Plaza, BrisbaneRiparian Plaza is a 53-storey skyscraper located in the central business district of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The building stands at in height to its communications spire and to its roof. It is the city's tallest building, or second tallest if measured to roof after the Aurora Tower, not...
, Australia - 1999-00: ARCA Showroom, Perth, Australia
- 2001-06: Meriton Tower, Sydney, Australia
- 2003: North ApartmentsNorth ApartmentsThe North Apartments, located at 91 Goulburn Street, Sydney, Australia, were designed by the late architect Harry Seidler.The building is oriented with a single façade to the North, facing Goulburn Street....
, Sydney, Australia - 2001-07: Ian Thorpe Aquatic Centre, (formerly "Ultimo Aquatic Centre") Sydney, Australia
- 2004-09: Alliance Française Building, Sydney, Australia (his last commercial design)
Honours
- 1951, 1967, 1981, 1983, 1991 Sir John SulmanJohn SulmanSir John Sulman was an Australian architect. Born in Greenwich, England, he emigrated to Sydney, Australia in 1885. From 1921 to 1924 he was chairman of the Federal Capital Advisory Committee and influenced the development of Canberra.-Early life:Sulman was born in was born at Greenwich, England...
Medal - 1965, 1966, 1967 Wilkinson AwardWilkinson AwardThe Wilkinson Award is an Australian architectural prize presented by the Australian Institute of Architects and was first awarded in 1961....
- 1966 Honorary Fellowship from the American Institute of ArchitectsAmerican Institute of ArchitectsThe American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...
(AIA) - 1967 Civic Design Award
- 1968 Pan Pacific Citation of the American Institute of Architects (AIA)
- 1976 RAIA Gold MedalRoyal Australian Institute of Architects Gold MedalThe Gold Medal is the highest award of the Australian Institute of Architects awarded annually since 1960. The award was created to recognise distinguished service by Australian architects who have:* designed or executed buildings of high merit;...
from the Royal Australian Institute of Architects - 1984 Member of the Académie d'architectureAcadémie d'architectureThe Académie royale d'architecture was a French learned society founded on December 30, 1671 by Louis XIV, king of France under the impulsion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert...
, Paris - 1984 Honorary Member of the Society of Graphic Artists of Austria (KünstlerhausVienna KünstlerhausThe Vienna Künstlerhaus is an art exhibition building in Vienna. It is located on Karlsplatz near the Ringstraße, next to the Musikverein....
) - 1985, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1992, 2001 various honours of the Royal Australian Institute of ArchitectsRoyal Australian Institute of ArchitectsThe Australian Institute of Architects is a professional body for architects in Australia. Until August 2008, the Institute traded as the "Royal Australian Institute of Architects", which remains its official name....
(RAIA) - 1985 Honorarary Citizenship of Austria
- 1987 Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) (Australia's highest honour)
- 1990 Gold Medal City of Vienna
- 1992 Officer of the Order of the British EmpireOrder of the British EmpireThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
- 1996 Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British ArchitectsRoyal Institute of British ArchitectsThe Royal Institute of British Architects is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally.-History:...
(RIBA) - 1996 Austrian Badge of Honour for Science and Art
- 2002 Golden Badge of Honour for Merits for Vienna
- 2004 Honour for International Highrises of the city of FrankfurtFrankfurtFrankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
for "Cove Apartments" in Sydney
Gallery
Harry Seidler, AC OBE (25 June 19239 March 2006) was an Austrian-born Australian architectArchitect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
who is considered to be one of the leading exponents of Modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
's methodology in Australia and the first architect to fully express the principles of the Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
in Australia.
Harry Seidler designed more than 180 buildings and he received much recognition for his contribution to Architecture of Australia
Architecture of Australia
Architecture in Australia incorporates the architecture produced in the area of the Commonwealth of Australia...
. Seidler consistently won architectural awards every decade throughout his Australian career of almost 58 years across the varied categories - his residential work from 1950, his commercial work from 1967, and his public commissions from the 1970s.
Early life
Seidler was born in ViennaVienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, the son of a prosperous Jewish merchant of Romanian
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
origin. He fled as a teenager to England soon after Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
Germany occupied Austria in 1938.
Education
In England, he studied building and construction at Cambridgeshire Technical School. In May 1940, he was internedInternment
Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people, commonly in large groups, without trial. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the meaning as: "The action of 'interning'; confinement within the limits of a country or place." Most modern usage is about individuals, and there is a distinction...
by the British authorities as an enemy alien, before being shipped to Quebec, Canada and continued to be interned until October 1941, when he was released on parole from internment to study architecture at the University of Manitoba
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba , in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is the largest university in the province of Manitoba. It is Manitoba's most comprehensive and only research-intensive post-secondary educational institution. It was founded in 1877, making it Western Canada’s first university. It placed...
.
Although he was ten years old when the Bauhaus was closed, Seidler's analysts invariably associate him with the Bauhaus because he later studied under emigrent Bauhaus teachers in the USA. He attended Harvard Graduate School of Design
Harvard Graduate School of Design
The Harvard Graduate School of Design is a graduate school at Harvard University offering degrees in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning and Design.-History:...
under Walter Gropius
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius was a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School who, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture....
and Marcel Breuer on a scholarship in 1945-46, during which time he did vacation work with Alvar Aalto in Boston drawing up plans for the Baker dormitory at MIT. He then attended Black Mountain College
Black Mountain College
Black Mountain College, a school founded in 1933 in Black Mountain, North Carolina, was a new kind of college in the United States in which the study of art was seen to be central to a liberal arts education, and in which John Dewey's principles of education played a major role...
under the painter Josef Albers
Josef Albers
Josef Albers was a German-born American artist and educator whose work, both in Europe and in the United States, formed the basis of some of the most influential and far-reaching art education programs of the 20th century....
, and then worked for Marcel Breuer
Marcel Breuer
Marcel Lajos Breuer , was a Hungarian-born modernist, architect and furniture designer of Jewish descent. One of the masters of Modernism, Breuer displayed interest in modular construction and simple forms.- Life and work :Known to his friends and associates as Lajkó, Breuer studied and taught at...
in New York. Seidler also worked in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
with the architect Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho is a Brazilian architect specializing in international modern architecture...
, who heavily influenced some of his early residential works, such as the Rose Siedler House and the Meller House.
Life in Australia
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
and later commissioned him to design their home which became known as the Rose Seidler House
Rose Seidler House
Rose Seidler House is a Bauhaus-styled home designed by Harry Seidler located at 71 Clissold Road, Wahroonga, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is managed by the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales as a museum that has been open to the public since 1991. Built in 1949-1950, it...
(1948–1950), in Wahroonga, on Sydney's North Shore . This project was the first domestic residence to fully express the philosophy of the Bauhaus in Australia.
In the 1960s Seidler again broke new ground with his radical design for the Australia Square
Australia Square
Australia Square is an office and retail complex in the central business district of Sydney, Australia. Its main address is 264 George Street, and the Square is bounded on the northern side by Bond Street, eastern side by Pitt Street and southern side by Curtin Place.The building was designed by...
project (1961–67). At the time Australia Square was the world's tallest light weight concrete building. The design introduced the two principles of incorporating large public open spaces and circular forms to office towers in Australia.
He was a founding member of the Australian Architecture Association
Australian Architecture Association
The Australian Architecture Association was set up in 2004 as a not for profit organisation to promote the understanding of both local and world architecture in Australia. The Chicago Architecture Foundation is used as the model for the development of the organisation.In late 2004, it began to...
. In 1984 he became the first Australian to be elected a member of the Académie d'architecture
Académie d'architecture
The Académie royale d'architecture was a French learned society founded on December 30, 1671 by Louis XIV, king of France under the impulsion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert...
, Paris and in 1987 was made a Companion of the Order of Australia
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
, an honour which he accepted in his trademark suit and bowtie. Over the years Mr Seidler was also awarded five Sulman Medals by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects
Royal Australian Institute of Architects
The Australian Institute of Architects is a professional body for architects in Australia. Until August 2008, the Institute traded as the "Royal Australian Institute of Architects", which remains its official name....
, as well as the Royal Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal
Royal Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal
The Gold Medal is the highest award of the Australian Institute of Architects awarded annually since 1960. The award was created to recognise distinguished service by Australian architects who have:* designed or executed buildings of high merit;...
in 1976, and the Royal Gold Medal
Royal Gold Medal
The Royal Gold Medal for architecture is awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects on behalf of the British monarch, in recognition of an individual's or group's substantial contribution to international architecture....
by the Royal Institute of British Architects
Royal Institute of British Architects
The Royal Institute of British Architects is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally.-History:...
in 1996.
Personal life
Harry Seidler married Penelope Evatt, daughter of Clive EvattClive Evatt
Clive Evatt QC was an Australian politician, barrister and raconteur. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1939 until 1959. At various times he sat as a member of the Industrial Labor Party, ALP and as an independent.-Early life:Evatt was born in Maitland and was the...
on 15 December 1958, they had two children, a son Timothy and daughter, Polly.
Seidler enjoyed photographing architecture around the world and some of these are documented in his photography book The Grand Tour. He also enjoyed skiing.
Penelope Seidler, herself an architect, gained her Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
and joined Seidler and Associates in 1964 as architect and financial manager.
On 24 April 2005, Harry Seidler suffered a stroke from which he never fully recovered, and died in Sydney on 9 March 2006 at age 82.
Modernism and principles of design
The form of Seidler's work changed as building technology changed: from his timber houses in the 1950s, to reinforced concrete houses and buildings in the 1960-1780s, and the development of curves with advances in concrete techhnology in the 1980s and later, as well as developments in steel technology that allowed for curved rooves in the 1990s onwards (e.g. Berman House). Upon celebrating 50 years of architectural practice in Australia, Seidler noted that developments in building technology allowed for more richness of form in his then soon-to-be completed Horizon apartment tower: "I could not have built Horizon twenty years ago...in earlier building technology (the way one could) span distancesit was very limited. (But Horizon) is made (possible) by devices such as prestressed concrete which is ...economic and quick. And that also gives you greater freedom of the shapes that you can use. Nowadays we can span huge distances and to do so (by) not just putting steel mesh or something into the concrete but to put steel, high tensile steel wire into it and pull it tight and that makes it easy to span distances and give this kind of change of shape of a building which would have been very difficult to achieve any other way." (Express, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 7.10.1998).
His visual approach to two-dimensional and three-dimensional spacial arrangement was consistent throughout his whole career. He articulated his approach in his first work, the Rose Seidler House. "This house explodes the surfaces that enclose a normal house or space, and turns it into a continuum of free standing planes, through which the eye can never see an end, you are always intrigued what’s beyond, you can always see something floating into the distance, there is never an obstruction to your vision, it is a continuum (of space), that I believe 20th century man’s eye and senses responds positively to that, we crave this”.Harry Seidler quote from “Rose Seidler House – the House that Harry built” (Review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, 14 April 1991).
In 1991, Seidler acknowledged that that his first house (Rose Seidler House) which was built of timber, despite the north facing sunshades "is generally too vulnerable to temperature changes...I didn't fully appreciate the intensity of the Australian sun"(Harry Seidler quote from “Rose Seidler House – the House that Harry built” Review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, 14 April 1991). Thus, later in his career, he sought to use more thermally stable materials like reinforced concrete and to respond to Australian climate by the extensive use of sunshades and flamboyantly-shaped rain protecting canopies on his skyscrapers, (such as Grosvenor Place, Riverside Centre, and QV1), large covered balconies in his houses, as well as shaping his designs to maximize views and enjoyment of the outdoors from inside.
Collaboration with visual artists
Seidler was a frequent and enthusiastic collaborator with visual artists in the creation of his buildings. While his collaborators include famous or notable figures such as Alexander CalderAlexander Calder
Alexander Calder was an American sculptor and artist most famous for inventing mobile sculptures. In addition to mobile and stable sculpture, Alexander Calder also created paintings, lithographs, toys, tapestry, jewelry and household objects.-Childhood:Alexander "Sandy" Calder was born in Lawnton,...
, Frank Stella
Frank Stella
Frank Stella is an American painter and printmaker, significant within the art movements of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction.-Biography:...
, Lin Utzon, Victor Vasarely
Victor Vasarely
Victor Vasarely was a Hungarian French artist whose work is generally seen aligned with Op-art.His work entitled Zebra, created by Vasarely in the 1930s, is considered by some to be one of the earliest examples of Op-art...
, Norman Carlberg
Norman Carlberg
Norman Carlberg is an American sculptor and printmaker. He is noted as an exemplar of the modular constructivist style....
(a fellow but later student of Josef Albers
Josef Albers
Josef Albers was a German-born American artist and educator whose work, both in Europe and in the United States, formed the basis of some of the most influential and far-reaching art education programs of the 20th century....
), and many others, by far the most important of the collaborators was his mentor Albers. Seidler included works by Albers - perhaps the single person most influential on his design philosophy - in a number of projects (notably the MLC Centre with 'Homage to the Square' and 'The Wrestle'). As Paul Bartizan indicates in his obituary tribute to Seidler, these works of art were not mere 'plop art
Plop art
Plop art is a pejorative slang term for public art made for government or corporate plazas, spaces in front of office buildings, skyscraper atriums, parks, and other public venues...
'; they were really planned to be integrated with and complementary to the buildings into which they were placed: "In many of his projects, Seidler worked with artists whose works became an intrinsic component of his designs."
List of buildings
- 1948-50: Rose Seidler HouseRose Seidler HouseRose Seidler House is a Bauhaus-styled home designed by Harry Seidler located at 71 Clissold Road, Wahroonga, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is managed by the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales as a museum that has been open to the public since 1991. Built in 1949-1950, it...
, Wahroonga (Sydney), Australia - 1949-51: Marcus Seidler House, Turramurra (Sydney), Australia
- 1950: Meller House, Castlecrag (Sydney), Australia
- 1952: Hutter House, Turramurra (Sydney), Australia - since greatly modified such that hardly anything of Seidler's design remains.
- 1952-53: Williamson House, (also known as Igloo House), Mosman (Sydney), Australia http://www.heritage.nsw.gov.au/07_subnav_02_2.cfm?itemid=5045139
- 1959: Canberra South Bowling Club, Griffith (Canberra), Australia http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/pictoria/a/2/3/doc/a23177.shtml
- 1960: Ithaca Gardens, Elizabeth Bay (Sydney), Australia
- 1961: Grimson & Rose Exhibition House, Pennant Hills (Sydney), Australia
- 1961: Blues Point TowerBlues Point TowerBlues Point Tower is an apartment block in Sydney, Australia. Located in McMahons Point, close toNorth Sydney, the tower is 83m tall with 144 apartments over 25 levels...
, McMahons Point (Sydney), Australia - 1961: Wood House, Penrith (Sydney), Australia
- 1961-67: Australia Square TowerAustralia SquareAustralia Square is an office and retail complex in the central business district of Sydney, Australia. Its main address is 264 George Street, and the Square is bounded on the northern side by Bond Street, eastern side by Pitt Street and southern side by Curtin Place.The building was designed by...
, Sydney, Australia - 1962: Ski Lodge, Thredbo, Australia
- 1963: Muller House, Port Hacking (Sydney), Australia
- 1963-65: Rushcutters Bay Apartments, Rushcutters Bay (Sydney), Australia
- 1964-67: NSW Housing Commission Apartments, Roseberry (Sydney), Australia
- 1964-68: Garran Group Housing, Canberra, Australia
- 1965-66: Arlington Apartments, Edgecliff (Sydney), Australia
- 1966-67: Harry and Penelope Seidler HouseHarry and Penelope Seidler HouseHarry and Penelope Seidler House was the home of architect Harry Seidler. It is located on 13 Kalang Ave in the suburb of Killara on Sydney's North Shore, and was designed by Harry and Penelope Seidler.-Features:...
, Killara (Sydney), Australia - 1969-70: Condominium Apartments, Acapulco, Mexico
- 1970-74: Edmund Barton BuildingEdmund Barton BuildingThe Edmund Barton Building is a large Canberra office building positioned prominently on the Parliamentary Triangle in the suburb of Barton, Australian Capital Territory. It was designed by the major Australian architect Harry Seidler...
(formerly Trade Group Offices), Canberra, Australia - 1971-72: Gissing House, Wahroonga (Sydney), Australia
- 1972-75: MLC CentreMLC CentreThe MLC Centre is a skyscraper in Sydney, Australia. This office building is 228 metres high and has 60 storeys. Occupants include the Sydney Consulate of the United States of America. The podium of the building includes a shopping centre with several exclusive fashion labels and a 1,186 seat...
, Sydney, Australia - 1973-77: Embassy of Australia in ParisEmbassy of Australia in ParisThe Australian Embassy in Paris is located 400 metres southwest of the Eiffel Tower, on Rue Jean Rey in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, near the Bir-Hakeim bridge on the Seine. The embassy is situated on a triangular shaped block, and comprises a pair of nine-storey buildings...
, France - 1973-94: Harry Seidler Offices and Apartments, Milsons Point (Sydney), Australia
- 1978-80: Karalyka Centre (formerly Ringwood Cultural Centre) (many non-Seidler alterations), Ringwood (Melbourne), Australia
- 1979-82: Hillside Housing, Kooralbyn (Gold Coast), Australia
- 1980-84: Hong Kong Club Building, Hong Kong Central
- 1981-83: Merson House, Palm Beach (Sydney), Australia
- 1982-84: Monash City Council (formerly Waverley Civic Centre), Glen Waverley (Melbourne), Australia
- 1982-88: Grosvenor PlaceGrosvenor Place (Sydney)Grosvenor Place is a skyscraper in George Street, Sydney, Australia, which was designed by renowned architect Harry Seidler.-Description:The modern style building occupies an entire block in Sydney's financial district between The Rocks and the Sydney central business district...
, Sydney, Australia - 1983-84: Hannes House, Cammeray (Sydney), Australia
- 1983-86: Riverside CentreRiverside Centre, BrisbaneThe Riverside Centre is a skyscraper designed by Harry Seidler and located at 123 Eagle Street, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Completed in 1986, it contains 40 storeys and rises 146 m above ground...
, Brisbane, Australia - 1984-89: 9 Castlereagh St (formerly Capita CentreCapita CentreCapita Centre, also known as the Castlereagh Centre, is a skyscraper in Sydney, Australia. Located at 9-11 Castlereagh Street, it is 183 m tall from spire and 158 m tall from roof. The building was designed by Harry Seidler & Associates....
), Sydney, Australia - 1985: Garden Island Dockyard Workshop, Garden Island (Sydney), Australia
- 1985-89: 1 Spring Street (formerly Shell House), Melbourne, Australia
- 1987-91: QV1, Perth, Australia
- 1989-91: Hamilton House, Vaucluse (Sydney), Australia
- 1990: Monash Gallery of Art (with non-Seidler additions), Wheelers Hill (Melbourne), Australia
- 1990-98: Horizon ApartmentsHorizon ApartmentsThe Horizon Apartments, also short The Horizon, is a residential high rise building in Darlinghurst, a suburb in the inner-city of Sydney, NSW, Australia. It is located on at 184 Forbes Street between Liverpool and William Streets. The controversial highrise was completed in 1998...
, Darlinghurst (Sydney), Australia - 1993-98: Wohnpark Neue Donau, Vienna, Austria
- 1994-95: Meares House, Birchgrove (Sydney), Australia
- 1995-96: Gilhotra House, Hunters Hill (Sydney), Australia
- 1995-00: Grollo Tower project, Melbourne, Australia (never built)
- 1996-98: Elizabeth Street Offices, Surry Hills (Sydney), Australia
- 1996-99: Berman House, Joadja, New South WalesJoadja, New South WalesJoadja is a ghost town in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, in Wingecarribee Shire.It was a thriving mining town between 1870–1911. It was home for approximately 1100 people, many of Scots ancestry, and was connected to the nearby town of Mittagong by a narrow gauge railway that...
, Australia - 1996-02: Hochhaus Neue Donau, Vienna, Austria
- 1999: Cove Apartments, Sydney, Australia
- 1999-05: Riparian Plaza, BrisbaneRiparian Plaza, BrisbaneRiparian Plaza is a 53-storey skyscraper located in the central business district of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The building stands at in height to its communications spire and to its roof. It is the city's tallest building, or second tallest if measured to roof after the Aurora Tower, not...
, Australia - 1999-00: ARCA Showroom, Perth, Australia
- 2001-06: Meriton Tower, Sydney, Australia
- 2003: North ApartmentsNorth ApartmentsThe North Apartments, located at 91 Goulburn Street, Sydney, Australia, were designed by the late architect Harry Seidler.The building is oriented with a single façade to the North, facing Goulburn Street....
, Sydney, Australia - 2001-07: Ian Thorpe Aquatic Centre, (formerly "Ultimo Aquatic Centre") Sydney, Australia
- 2004-09: Alliance Française Building, Sydney, Australia (his last commercial design)
Honours
- 1951, 1967, 1981, 1983, 1991 Sir John SulmanJohn SulmanSir John Sulman was an Australian architect. Born in Greenwich, England, he emigrated to Sydney, Australia in 1885. From 1921 to 1924 he was chairman of the Federal Capital Advisory Committee and influenced the development of Canberra.-Early life:Sulman was born in was born at Greenwich, England...
Medal - 1965, 1966, 1967 Wilkinson AwardWilkinson AwardThe Wilkinson Award is an Australian architectural prize presented by the Australian Institute of Architects and was first awarded in 1961....
- 1966 Honorary Fellowship from the American Institute of ArchitectsAmerican Institute of ArchitectsThe American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...
(AIA) - 1967 Civic Design Award
- 1968 Pan Pacific Citation of the American Institute of Architects (AIA)
- 1976 RAIA Gold MedalRoyal Australian Institute of Architects Gold MedalThe Gold Medal is the highest award of the Australian Institute of Architects awarded annually since 1960. The award was created to recognise distinguished service by Australian architects who have:* designed or executed buildings of high merit;...
from the Royal Australian Institute of Architects - 1984 Member of the Académie d'architectureAcadémie d'architectureThe Académie royale d'architecture was a French learned society founded on December 30, 1671 by Louis XIV, king of France under the impulsion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert...
, Paris - 1984 Honorary Member of the Society of Graphic Artists of Austria (KünstlerhausVienna KünstlerhausThe Vienna Künstlerhaus is an art exhibition building in Vienna. It is located on Karlsplatz near the Ringstraße, next to the Musikverein....
) - 1985, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1992, 2001 various honours of the Royal Australian Institute of ArchitectsRoyal Australian Institute of ArchitectsThe Australian Institute of Architects is a professional body for architects in Australia. Until August 2008, the Institute traded as the "Royal Australian Institute of Architects", which remains its official name....
(RAIA) - 1985 Honorarary Citizenship of Austria
- 1987 Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) (Australia's highest honour)
- 1990 Gold Medal City of Vienna
- 1992 Officer of the Order of the British EmpireOrder of the British EmpireThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
- 1996 Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British ArchitectsRoyal Institute of British ArchitectsThe Royal Institute of British Architects is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally.-History:...
(RIBA) - 1996 Austrian Badge of Honour for Science and Art
- 2002 Golden Badge of Honour for Merits for Vienna
- 2004 Honour for International Highrises of the city of FrankfurtFrankfurtFrankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
for "Cove Apartments" in Sydney
Gallery
Harry Seidler, AC OBE (25 June 19239 March 2006) was an Austrian-born Australian architectArchitect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
who is considered to be one of the leading exponents of Modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
's methodology in Australia and the first architect to fully express the principles of the Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
in Australia.
Harry Seidler designed more than 180 buildings and he received much recognition for his contribution to Architecture of Australia
Architecture of Australia
Architecture in Australia incorporates the architecture produced in the area of the Commonwealth of Australia...
. Seidler consistently won architectural awards every decade throughout his Australian career of almost 58 years across the varied categories - his residential work from 1950, his commercial work from 1967, and his public commissions from the 1970s.
Early life
Seidler was born in ViennaVienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, the son of a prosperous Jewish merchant of Romanian
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
origin. He fled as a teenager to England soon after Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
Germany occupied Austria in 1938.
Education
In England, he studied building and construction at Cambridgeshire Technical School. In May 1940, he was internedInternment
Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people, commonly in large groups, without trial. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the meaning as: "The action of 'interning'; confinement within the limits of a country or place." Most modern usage is about individuals, and there is a distinction...
by the British authorities as an enemy alien, before being shipped to Quebec, Canada and continued to be interned until October 1941, when he was released on parole from internment to study architecture at the University of Manitoba
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba , in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is the largest university in the province of Manitoba. It is Manitoba's most comprehensive and only research-intensive post-secondary educational institution. It was founded in 1877, making it Western Canada’s first university. It placed...
.
Although he was ten years old when the Bauhaus was closed, Seidler's analysts invariably associate him with the Bauhaus because he later studied under emigrent Bauhaus teachers in the USA. He attended Harvard Graduate School of Design
Harvard Graduate School of Design
The Harvard Graduate School of Design is a graduate school at Harvard University offering degrees in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning and Design.-History:...
under Walter Gropius
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius was a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School who, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture....
and Marcel Breuer on a scholarship in 1945-46, during which time he did vacation work with Alvar Aalto in Boston drawing up plans for the Baker dormitory at MIT. He then attended Black Mountain College
Black Mountain College
Black Mountain College, a school founded in 1933 in Black Mountain, North Carolina, was a new kind of college in the United States in which the study of art was seen to be central to a liberal arts education, and in which John Dewey's principles of education played a major role...
under the painter Josef Albers
Josef Albers
Josef Albers was a German-born American artist and educator whose work, both in Europe and in the United States, formed the basis of some of the most influential and far-reaching art education programs of the 20th century....
, and then worked for Marcel Breuer
Marcel Breuer
Marcel Lajos Breuer , was a Hungarian-born modernist, architect and furniture designer of Jewish descent. One of the masters of Modernism, Breuer displayed interest in modular construction and simple forms.- Life and work :Known to his friends and associates as Lajkó, Breuer studied and taught at...
in New York. Seidler also worked in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
with the architect Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho is a Brazilian architect specializing in international modern architecture...
, who heavily influenced some of his early residential works, such as the Rose Siedler House and the Meller House.
Life in Australia
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
and later commissioned him to design their home which became known as the Rose Seidler House
Rose Seidler House
Rose Seidler House is a Bauhaus-styled home designed by Harry Seidler located at 71 Clissold Road, Wahroonga, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is managed by the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales as a museum that has been open to the public since 1991. Built in 1949-1950, it...
(1948–1950), in Wahroonga, on Sydney's North Shore . This project was the first domestic residence to fully express the philosophy of the Bauhaus in Australia.
In the 1960s Seidler again broke new ground with his radical design for the Australia Square
Australia Square
Australia Square is an office and retail complex in the central business district of Sydney, Australia. Its main address is 264 George Street, and the Square is bounded on the northern side by Bond Street, eastern side by Pitt Street and southern side by Curtin Place.The building was designed by...
project (1961–67). At the time Australia Square was the world's tallest light weight concrete building. The design introduced the two principles of incorporating large public open spaces and circular forms to office towers in Australia.
He was a founding member of the Australian Architecture Association
Australian Architecture Association
The Australian Architecture Association was set up in 2004 as a not for profit organisation to promote the understanding of both local and world architecture in Australia. The Chicago Architecture Foundation is used as the model for the development of the organisation.In late 2004, it began to...
. In 1984 he became the first Australian to be elected a member of the Académie d'architecture
Académie d'architecture
The Académie royale d'architecture was a French learned society founded on December 30, 1671 by Louis XIV, king of France under the impulsion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert...
, Paris and in 1987 was made a Companion of the Order of Australia
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
, an honour which he accepted in his trademark suit and bowtie. Over the years Mr Seidler was also awarded five Sulman Medals by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects
Royal Australian Institute of Architects
The Australian Institute of Architects is a professional body for architects in Australia. Until August 2008, the Institute traded as the "Royal Australian Institute of Architects", which remains its official name....
, as well as the Royal Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal
Royal Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal
The Gold Medal is the highest award of the Australian Institute of Architects awarded annually since 1960. The award was created to recognise distinguished service by Australian architects who have:* designed or executed buildings of high merit;...
in 1976, and the Royal Gold Medal
Royal Gold Medal
The Royal Gold Medal for architecture is awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects on behalf of the British monarch, in recognition of an individual's or group's substantial contribution to international architecture....
by the Royal Institute of British Architects
Royal Institute of British Architects
The Royal Institute of British Architects is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally.-History:...
in 1996.
Personal life
Harry Seidler married Penelope Evatt, daughter of Clive EvattClive Evatt
Clive Evatt QC was an Australian politician, barrister and raconteur. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1939 until 1959. At various times he sat as a member of the Industrial Labor Party, ALP and as an independent.-Early life:Evatt was born in Maitland and was the...
on 15 December 1958, they had two children, a son Timothy and daughter, Polly.
Seidler enjoyed photographing architecture around the world and some of these are documented in his photography book The Grand Tour. He also enjoyed skiing.
Penelope Seidler, herself an architect, gained her Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
and joined Seidler and Associates in 1964 as architect and financial manager.
On 24 April 2005, Harry Seidler suffered a stroke from which he never fully recovered, and died in Sydney on 9 March 2006 at age 82.
Modernism and principles of design
The form of Seidler's work changed as building technology changed: from his timber houses in the 1950s, to reinforced concrete houses and buildings in the 1960-1780s, and the development of curves with advances in concrete techhnology in the 1980s and later, as well as developments in steel technology that allowed for curved rooves in the 1990s onwards (e.g. Berman House). Upon celebrating 50 years of architectural practice in Australia, Seidler noted that developments in building technology allowed for more richness of form in his then soon-to-be completed Horizon apartment tower: "I could not have built Horizon twenty years ago...in earlier building technology (the way one could) span distancesit was very limited. (But Horizon) is made (possible) by devices such as prestressed concrete which is ...economic and quick. And that also gives you greater freedom of the shapes that you can use. Nowadays we can span huge distances and to do so (by) not just putting steel mesh or something into the concrete but to put steel, high tensile steel wire into it and pull it tight and that makes it easy to span distances and give this kind of change of shape of a building which would have been very difficult to achieve any other way." (Express, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 7.10.1998).
His visual approach to two-dimensional and three-dimensional spacial arrangement was consistent throughout his whole career. He articulated his approach in his first work, the Rose Seidler House. "This house explodes the surfaces that enclose a normal house or space, and turns it into a continuum of free standing planes, through which the eye can never see an end, you are always intrigued what’s beyond, you can always see something floating into the distance, there is never an obstruction to your vision, it is a continuum (of space), that I believe 20th century man’s eye and senses responds positively to that, we crave this”.Harry Seidler quote from “Rose Seidler House – the House that Harry built” (Review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, 14 April 1991).
In 1991, Seidler acknowledged that that his first house (Rose Seidler House) which was built of timber, despite the north facing sunshades "is generally too vulnerable to temperature changes...I didn't fully appreciate the intensity of the Australian sun"(Harry Seidler quote from “Rose Seidler House – the House that Harry built” Review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, 14 April 1991). Thus, later in his career, he sought to use more thermally stable materials like reinforced concrete and to respond to Australian climate by the extensive use of sunshades and flamboyantly-shaped rain protecting canopies on his skyscrapers, (such as Grosvenor Place, Riverside Centre, and QV1), large covered balconies in his houses, as well as shaping his designs to maximize views and enjoyment of the outdoors from inside.
Collaboration with visual artists
Seidler was a frequent and enthusiastic collaborator with visual artists in the creation of his buildings. While his collaborators include famous or notable figures such as Alexander CalderAlexander Calder
Alexander Calder was an American sculptor and artist most famous for inventing mobile sculptures. In addition to mobile and stable sculpture, Alexander Calder also created paintings, lithographs, toys, tapestry, jewelry and household objects.-Childhood:Alexander "Sandy" Calder was born in Lawnton,...
, Frank Stella
Frank Stella
Frank Stella is an American painter and printmaker, significant within the art movements of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction.-Biography:...
, Lin Utzon, Victor Vasarely
Victor Vasarely
Victor Vasarely was a Hungarian French artist whose work is generally seen aligned with Op-art.His work entitled Zebra, created by Vasarely in the 1930s, is considered by some to be one of the earliest examples of Op-art...
, Norman Carlberg
Norman Carlberg
Norman Carlberg is an American sculptor and printmaker. He is noted as an exemplar of the modular constructivist style....
(a fellow but later student of Josef Albers
Josef Albers
Josef Albers was a German-born American artist and educator whose work, both in Europe and in the United States, formed the basis of some of the most influential and far-reaching art education programs of the 20th century....
), and many others, by far the most important of the collaborators was his mentor Albers. Seidler included works by Albers - perhaps the single person most influential on his design philosophy - in a number of projects (notably the MLC Centre with 'Homage to the Square' and 'The Wrestle'). As Paul Bartizan indicates in his obituary tribute to Seidler, these works of art were not mere 'plop art
Plop art
Plop art is a pejorative slang term for public art made for government or corporate plazas, spaces in front of office buildings, skyscraper atriums, parks, and other public venues...
'; they were really planned to be integrated with and complementary to the buildings into which they were placed: "In many of his projects, Seidler worked with artists whose works became an intrinsic component of his designs."
List of buildings
- 1948-50: Rose Seidler HouseRose Seidler HouseRose Seidler House is a Bauhaus-styled home designed by Harry Seidler located at 71 Clissold Road, Wahroonga, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is managed by the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales as a museum that has been open to the public since 1991. Built in 1949-1950, it...
, Wahroonga (Sydney), Australia - 1949-51: Marcus Seidler House, Turramurra (Sydney), Australia
- 1950: Meller House, Castlecrag (Sydney), Australia
- 1952: Hutter House, Turramurra (Sydney), Australia - since greatly modified such that hardly anything of Seidler's design remains.
- 1952-53: Williamson House, (also known as Igloo House), Mosman (Sydney), Australia http://www.heritage.nsw.gov.au/07_subnav_02_2.cfm?itemid=5045139
- 1959: Canberra South Bowling Club, Griffith (Canberra), Australia http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/pictoria/a/2/3/doc/a23177.shtml
- 1960: Ithaca Gardens, Elizabeth Bay (Sydney), Australia
- 1961: Grimson & Rose Exhibition House, Pennant Hills (Sydney), Australia
- 1961: Blues Point TowerBlues Point TowerBlues Point Tower is an apartment block in Sydney, Australia. Located in McMahons Point, close toNorth Sydney, the tower is 83m tall with 144 apartments over 25 levels...
, McMahons Point (Sydney), Australia - 1961: Wood House, Penrith (Sydney), Australia
- 1961-67: Australia Square TowerAustralia SquareAustralia Square is an office and retail complex in the central business district of Sydney, Australia. Its main address is 264 George Street, and the Square is bounded on the northern side by Bond Street, eastern side by Pitt Street and southern side by Curtin Place.The building was designed by...
, Sydney, Australia - 1962: Ski Lodge, Thredbo, Australia
- 1963: Muller House, Port Hacking (Sydney), Australia
- 1963-65: Rushcutters Bay Apartments, Rushcutters Bay (Sydney), Australia
- 1964-67: NSW Housing Commission Apartments, Roseberry (Sydney), Australia
- 1964-68: Garran Group Housing, Canberra, Australia
- 1965-66: Arlington Apartments, Edgecliff (Sydney), Australia
- 1966-67: Harry and Penelope Seidler HouseHarry and Penelope Seidler HouseHarry and Penelope Seidler House was the home of architect Harry Seidler. It is located on 13 Kalang Ave in the suburb of Killara on Sydney's North Shore, and was designed by Harry and Penelope Seidler.-Features:...
, Killara (Sydney), Australia - 1969-70: Condominium Apartments, Acapulco, Mexico
- 1970-74: Edmund Barton BuildingEdmund Barton BuildingThe Edmund Barton Building is a large Canberra office building positioned prominently on the Parliamentary Triangle in the suburb of Barton, Australian Capital Territory. It was designed by the major Australian architect Harry Seidler...
(formerly Trade Group Offices), Canberra, Australia - 1971-72: Gissing House, Wahroonga (Sydney), Australia
- 1972-75: MLC CentreMLC CentreThe MLC Centre is a skyscraper in Sydney, Australia. This office building is 228 metres high and has 60 storeys. Occupants include the Sydney Consulate of the United States of America. The podium of the building includes a shopping centre with several exclusive fashion labels and a 1,186 seat...
, Sydney, Australia - 1973-77: Embassy of Australia in ParisEmbassy of Australia in ParisThe Australian Embassy in Paris is located 400 metres southwest of the Eiffel Tower, on Rue Jean Rey in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, near the Bir-Hakeim bridge on the Seine. The embassy is situated on a triangular shaped block, and comprises a pair of nine-storey buildings...
, France - 1973-94: Harry Seidler Offices and Apartments, Milsons Point (Sydney), Australia
- 1978-80: Karalyka Centre (formerly Ringwood Cultural Centre) (many non-Seidler alterations), Ringwood (Melbourne), Australia
- 1979-82: Hillside Housing, Kooralbyn (Gold Coast), Australia
- 1980-84: Hong Kong Club Building, Hong Kong Central
- 1981-83: Merson House, Palm Beach (Sydney), Australia
- 1982-84: Monash City Council (formerly Waverley Civic Centre), Glen Waverley (Melbourne), Australia
- 1982-88: Grosvenor PlaceGrosvenor Place (Sydney)Grosvenor Place is a skyscraper in George Street, Sydney, Australia, which was designed by renowned architect Harry Seidler.-Description:The modern style building occupies an entire block in Sydney's financial district between The Rocks and the Sydney central business district...
, Sydney, Australia - 1983-84: Hannes House, Cammeray (Sydney), Australia
- 1983-86: Riverside CentreRiverside Centre, BrisbaneThe Riverside Centre is a skyscraper designed by Harry Seidler and located at 123 Eagle Street, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Completed in 1986, it contains 40 storeys and rises 146 m above ground...
, Brisbane, Australia - 1984-89: 9 Castlereagh St (formerly Capita CentreCapita CentreCapita Centre, also known as the Castlereagh Centre, is a skyscraper in Sydney, Australia. Located at 9-11 Castlereagh Street, it is 183 m tall from spire and 158 m tall from roof. The building was designed by Harry Seidler & Associates....
), Sydney, Australia - 1985: Garden Island Dockyard Workshop, Garden Island (Sydney), Australia
- 1985-89: 1 Spring Street (formerly Shell House), Melbourne, Australia
- 1987-91: QV1, Perth, Australia
- 1989-91: Hamilton House, Vaucluse (Sydney), Australia
- 1990: Monash Gallery of Art (with non-Seidler additions), Wheelers Hill (Melbourne), Australia
- 1990-98: Horizon ApartmentsHorizon ApartmentsThe Horizon Apartments, also short The Horizon, is a residential high rise building in Darlinghurst, a suburb in the inner-city of Sydney, NSW, Australia. It is located on at 184 Forbes Street between Liverpool and William Streets. The controversial highrise was completed in 1998...
, Darlinghurst (Sydney), Australia - 1993-98: Wohnpark Neue Donau, Vienna, Austria
- 1994-95: Meares House, Birchgrove (Sydney), Australia
- 1995-96: Gilhotra House, Hunters Hill (Sydney), Australia
- 1995-00: Grollo Tower project, Melbourne, Australia (never built)
- 1996-98: Elizabeth Street Offices, Surry Hills (Sydney), Australia
- 1996-99: Berman House, Joadja, New South WalesJoadja, New South WalesJoadja is a ghost town in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, in Wingecarribee Shire.It was a thriving mining town between 1870–1911. It was home for approximately 1100 people, many of Scots ancestry, and was connected to the nearby town of Mittagong by a narrow gauge railway that...
, Australia - 1996-02: Hochhaus Neue Donau, Vienna, Austria
- 1999: Cove Apartments, Sydney, Australia
- 1999-05: Riparian Plaza, BrisbaneRiparian Plaza, BrisbaneRiparian Plaza is a 53-storey skyscraper located in the central business district of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The building stands at in height to its communications spire and to its roof. It is the city's tallest building, or second tallest if measured to roof after the Aurora Tower, not...
, Australia - 1999-00: ARCA Showroom, Perth, Australia
- 2001-06: Meriton Tower, Sydney, Australia
- 2003: North ApartmentsNorth ApartmentsThe North Apartments, located at 91 Goulburn Street, Sydney, Australia, were designed by the late architect Harry Seidler.The building is oriented with a single façade to the North, facing Goulburn Street....
, Sydney, Australia - 2001-07: Ian Thorpe Aquatic Centre, (formerly "Ultimo Aquatic Centre") Sydney, Australia
- 2004-09: Alliance Française Building, Sydney, Australia (his last commercial design)
Honours
- 1951, 1967, 1981, 1983, 1991 Sir John SulmanJohn SulmanSir John Sulman was an Australian architect. Born in Greenwich, England, he emigrated to Sydney, Australia in 1885. From 1921 to 1924 he was chairman of the Federal Capital Advisory Committee and influenced the development of Canberra.-Early life:Sulman was born in was born at Greenwich, England...
Medal - 1965, 1966, 1967 Wilkinson AwardWilkinson AwardThe Wilkinson Award is an Australian architectural prize presented by the Australian Institute of Architects and was first awarded in 1961....
- 1966 Honorary Fellowship from the American Institute of ArchitectsAmerican Institute of ArchitectsThe American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...
(AIA) - 1967 Civic Design Award
- 1968 Pan Pacific Citation of the American Institute of Architects (AIA)
- 1976 RAIA Gold MedalRoyal Australian Institute of Architects Gold MedalThe Gold Medal is the highest award of the Australian Institute of Architects awarded annually since 1960. The award was created to recognise distinguished service by Australian architects who have:* designed or executed buildings of high merit;...
from the Royal Australian Institute of Architects - 1984 Member of the Académie d'architectureAcadémie d'architectureThe Académie royale d'architecture was a French learned society founded on December 30, 1671 by Louis XIV, king of France under the impulsion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert...
, Paris - 1984 Honorary Member of the Society of Graphic Artists of Austria (KünstlerhausVienna KünstlerhausThe Vienna Künstlerhaus is an art exhibition building in Vienna. It is located on Karlsplatz near the Ringstraße, next to the Musikverein....
) - 1985, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1992, 2001 various honours of the Royal Australian Institute of ArchitectsRoyal Australian Institute of ArchitectsThe Australian Institute of Architects is a professional body for architects in Australia. Until August 2008, the Institute traded as the "Royal Australian Institute of Architects", which remains its official name....
(RAIA) - 1985 Honorarary Citizenship of Austria
- 1987 Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) (Australia's highest honour)
- 1990 Gold Medal City of Vienna
- 1992 Officer of the Order of the British EmpireOrder of the British EmpireThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
- 1996 Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British ArchitectsRoyal Institute of British ArchitectsThe Royal Institute of British Architects is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally.-History:...
(RIBA) - 1996 Austrian Badge of Honour for Science and Art
- 2002 Golden Badge of Honour for Merits for Vienna
- 2004 Honour for International Highrises of the city of FrankfurtFrankfurtFrankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
for "Cove Apartments" in Sydney
Gallery
Harry Seidler, AC OBE (25 June 19239 March 2006) was an Austrian-born Australian architectArchitect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
who is considered to be one of the leading exponents of Modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
's methodology in Australia and the first architect to fully express the principles of the Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
in Australia.
Harry Seidler designed more than 180 buildings and he received much recognition for his contribution to Architecture of Australia
Architecture of Australia
Architecture in Australia incorporates the architecture produced in the area of the Commonwealth of Australia...
. Seidler consistently won architectural awards every decade throughout his Australian career of almost 58 years across the varied categories - his residential work from 1950, his commercial work from 1967, and his public commissions from the 1970s.
Early life
Seidler was born in ViennaVienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, the son of a prosperous Jewish merchant of Romanian
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
origin. He fled as a teenager to England soon after Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
Germany occupied Austria in 1938.
Education
In England, he studied building and construction at Cambridgeshire Technical School. In May 1940, he was internedInternment
Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people, commonly in large groups, without trial. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the meaning as: "The action of 'interning'; confinement within the limits of a country or place." Most modern usage is about individuals, and there is a distinction...
by the British authorities as an enemy alien, before being shipped to Quebec, Canada and continued to be interned until October 1941, when he was released on parole from internment to study architecture at the University of Manitoba
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba , in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is the largest university in the province of Manitoba. It is Manitoba's most comprehensive and only research-intensive post-secondary educational institution. It was founded in 1877, making it Western Canada’s first university. It placed...
.
Although he was ten years old when the Bauhaus was closed, Seidler's analysts invariably associate him with the Bauhaus because he later studied under emigrent Bauhaus teachers in the USA. He attended Harvard Graduate School of Design
Harvard Graduate School of Design
The Harvard Graduate School of Design is a graduate school at Harvard University offering degrees in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning and Design.-History:...
under Walter Gropius
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius was a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School who, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture....
and Marcel Breuer on a scholarship in 1945-46, during which time he did vacation work with Alvar Aalto in Boston drawing up plans for the Baker dormitory at MIT. He then attended Black Mountain College
Black Mountain College
Black Mountain College, a school founded in 1933 in Black Mountain, North Carolina, was a new kind of college in the United States in which the study of art was seen to be central to a liberal arts education, and in which John Dewey's principles of education played a major role...
under the painter Josef Albers
Josef Albers
Josef Albers was a German-born American artist and educator whose work, both in Europe and in the United States, formed the basis of some of the most influential and far-reaching art education programs of the 20th century....
, and then worked for Marcel Breuer
Marcel Breuer
Marcel Lajos Breuer , was a Hungarian-born modernist, architect and furniture designer of Jewish descent. One of the masters of Modernism, Breuer displayed interest in modular construction and simple forms.- Life and work :Known to his friends and associates as Lajkó, Breuer studied and taught at...
in New York. Seidler also worked in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
with the architect Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho is a Brazilian architect specializing in international modern architecture...
, who heavily influenced some of his early residential works, such as the Rose Siedler House and the Meller House.
Life in Australia
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
and later commissioned him to design their home which became known as the Rose Seidler House
Rose Seidler House
Rose Seidler House is a Bauhaus-styled home designed by Harry Seidler located at 71 Clissold Road, Wahroonga, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is managed by the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales as a museum that has been open to the public since 1991. Built in 1949-1950, it...
(1948–1950), in Wahroonga, on Sydney's North Shore . This project was the first domestic residence to fully express the philosophy of the Bauhaus in Australia.
In the 1960s Seidler again broke new ground with his radical design for the Australia Square
Australia Square
Australia Square is an office and retail complex in the central business district of Sydney, Australia. Its main address is 264 George Street, and the Square is bounded on the northern side by Bond Street, eastern side by Pitt Street and southern side by Curtin Place.The building was designed by...
project (1961–67). At the time Australia Square was the world's tallest light weight concrete building. The design introduced the two principles of incorporating large public open spaces and circular forms to office towers in Australia.
He was a founding member of the Australian Architecture Association
Australian Architecture Association
The Australian Architecture Association was set up in 2004 as a not for profit organisation to promote the understanding of both local and world architecture in Australia. The Chicago Architecture Foundation is used as the model for the development of the organisation.In late 2004, it began to...
. In 1984 he became the first Australian to be elected a member of the Académie d'architecture
Académie d'architecture
The Académie royale d'architecture was a French learned society founded on December 30, 1671 by Louis XIV, king of France under the impulsion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert...
, Paris and in 1987 was made a Companion of the Order of Australia
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
, an honour which he accepted in his trademark suit and bowtie. Over the years Mr Seidler was also awarded five Sulman Medals by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects
Royal Australian Institute of Architects
The Australian Institute of Architects is a professional body for architects in Australia. Until August 2008, the Institute traded as the "Royal Australian Institute of Architects", which remains its official name....
, as well as the Royal Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal
Royal Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal
The Gold Medal is the highest award of the Australian Institute of Architects awarded annually since 1960. The award was created to recognise distinguished service by Australian architects who have:* designed or executed buildings of high merit;...
in 1976, and the Royal Gold Medal
Royal Gold Medal
The Royal Gold Medal for architecture is awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects on behalf of the British monarch, in recognition of an individual's or group's substantial contribution to international architecture....
by the Royal Institute of British Architects
Royal Institute of British Architects
The Royal Institute of British Architects is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally.-History:...
in 1996.
Personal life
Harry Seidler married Penelope Evatt, daughter of Clive EvattClive Evatt
Clive Evatt QC was an Australian politician, barrister and raconteur. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1939 until 1959. At various times he sat as a member of the Industrial Labor Party, ALP and as an independent.-Early life:Evatt was born in Maitland and was the...
on 15 December 1958, they had two children, a son Timothy and daughter, Polly.
Seidler enjoyed photographing architecture around the world and some of these are documented in his photography book The Grand Tour. He also enjoyed skiing.
Penelope Seidler, herself an architect, gained her Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
and joined Seidler and Associates in 1964 as architect and financial manager.
On 24 April 2005, Harry Seidler suffered a stroke from which he never fully recovered, and died in Sydney on 9 March 2006 at age 82.
Modernism and principles of design
The form of Seidler's work changed as building technology changed: from his timber houses in the 1950s, to reinforced concrete houses and buildings in the 1960-1780s, and the development of curves with advances in concrete techhnology in the 1980s and later, as well as developments in steel technology that allowed for curved rooves in the 1990s onwards (e.g. Berman House). Upon celebrating 50 years of architectural practice in Australia, Seidler noted that developments in building technology allowed for more richness of form in his then soon-to-be completed Horizon apartment tower: "I could not have built Horizon twenty years ago...in earlier building technology (the way one could) span distancesit was very limited. (But Horizon) is made (possible) by devices such as prestressed concrete which is ...economic and quick. And that also gives you greater freedom of the shapes that you can use. Nowadays we can span huge distances and to do so (by) not just putting steel mesh or something into the concrete but to put steel, high tensile steel wire into it and pull it tight and that makes it easy to span distances and give this kind of change of shape of a building which would have been very difficult to achieve any other way." (Express, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 7.10.1998).
His visual approach to two-dimensional and three-dimensional spacial arrangement was consistent throughout his whole career. He articulated his approach in his first work, the Rose Seidler House. "This house explodes the surfaces that enclose a normal house or space, and turns it into a continuum of free standing planes, through which the eye can never see an end, you are always intrigued what’s beyond, you can always see something floating into the distance, there is never an obstruction to your vision, it is a continuum (of space), that I believe 20th century man’s eye and senses responds positively to that, we crave this”.Harry Seidler quote from “Rose Seidler House – the House that Harry built” (Review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, 14 April 1991).
In 1991, Seidler acknowledged that that his first house (Rose Seidler House) which was built of timber, despite the north facing sunshades "is generally too vulnerable to temperature changes...I didn't fully appreciate the intensity of the Australian sun"(Harry Seidler quote from “Rose Seidler House – the House that Harry built” Review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, 14 April 1991). Thus, later in his career, he sought to use more thermally stable materials like reinforced concrete and to respond to Australian climate by the extensive use of sunshades and flamboyantly-shaped rain protecting canopies on his skyscrapers, (such as Grosvenor Place, Riverside Centre, and QV1), large covered balconies in his houses, as well as shaping his designs to maximize views and enjoyment of the outdoors from inside.
Collaboration with visual artists
Seidler was a frequent and enthusiastic collaborator with visual artists in the creation of his buildings. While his collaborators include famous or notable figures such as Alexander CalderAlexander Calder
Alexander Calder was an American sculptor and artist most famous for inventing mobile sculptures. In addition to mobile and stable sculpture, Alexander Calder also created paintings, lithographs, toys, tapestry, jewelry and household objects.-Childhood:Alexander "Sandy" Calder was born in Lawnton,...
, Frank Stella
Frank Stella
Frank Stella is an American painter and printmaker, significant within the art movements of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction.-Biography:...
, Lin Utzon, Victor Vasarely
Victor Vasarely
Victor Vasarely was a Hungarian French artist whose work is generally seen aligned with Op-art.His work entitled Zebra, created by Vasarely in the 1930s, is considered by some to be one of the earliest examples of Op-art...
, Norman Carlberg
Norman Carlberg
Norman Carlberg is an American sculptor and printmaker. He is noted as an exemplar of the modular constructivist style....
(a fellow but later student of Josef Albers
Josef Albers
Josef Albers was a German-born American artist and educator whose work, both in Europe and in the United States, formed the basis of some of the most influential and far-reaching art education programs of the 20th century....
), and many others, by far the most important of the collaborators was his mentor Albers. Seidler included works by Albers - perhaps the single person most influential on his design philosophy - in a number of projects (notably the MLC Centre with 'Homage to the Square' and 'The Wrestle'). As Paul Bartizan indicates in his obituary tribute to Seidler, these works of art were not mere 'plop art
Plop art
Plop art is a pejorative slang term for public art made for government or corporate plazas, spaces in front of office buildings, skyscraper atriums, parks, and other public venues...
'; they were really planned to be integrated with and complementary to the buildings into which they were placed: "In many of his projects, Seidler worked with artists whose works became an intrinsic component of his designs."
List of buildings
- 1948-50: Rose Seidler HouseRose Seidler HouseRose Seidler House is a Bauhaus-styled home designed by Harry Seidler located at 71 Clissold Road, Wahroonga, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is managed by the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales as a museum that has been open to the public since 1991. Built in 1949-1950, it...
, Wahroonga (Sydney), Australia - 1949-51: Marcus Seidler House, Turramurra (Sydney), Australia
- 1950: Meller House, Castlecrag (Sydney), Australia
- 1952: Hutter House, Turramurra (Sydney), Australia - since greatly modified such that hardly anything of Seidler's design remains.
- 1952-53: Williamson House, (also known as Igloo House), Mosman (Sydney), Australia http://www.heritage.nsw.gov.au/07_subnav_02_2.cfm?itemid=5045139
- 1959: Canberra South Bowling Club, Griffith (Canberra), Australia http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/pictoria/a/2/3/doc/a23177.shtml
- 1960: Ithaca Gardens, Elizabeth Bay (Sydney), Australia
- 1961: Grimson & Rose Exhibition House, Pennant Hills (Sydney), Australia
- 1961: Blues Point TowerBlues Point TowerBlues Point Tower is an apartment block in Sydney, Australia. Located in McMahons Point, close toNorth Sydney, the tower is 83m tall with 144 apartments over 25 levels...
, McMahons Point (Sydney), Australia - 1961: Wood House, Penrith (Sydney), Australia
- 1961-67: Australia Square TowerAustralia SquareAustralia Square is an office and retail complex in the central business district of Sydney, Australia. Its main address is 264 George Street, and the Square is bounded on the northern side by Bond Street, eastern side by Pitt Street and southern side by Curtin Place.The building was designed by...
, Sydney, Australia - 1962: Ski Lodge, Thredbo, Australia
- 1963: Muller House, Port Hacking (Sydney), Australia
- 1963-65: Rushcutters Bay Apartments, Rushcutters Bay (Sydney), Australia
- 1964-67: NSW Housing Commission Apartments, Roseberry (Sydney), Australia
- 1964-68: Garran Group Housing, Canberra, Australia
- 1965-66: Arlington Apartments, Edgecliff (Sydney), Australia
- 1966-67: Harry and Penelope Seidler HouseHarry and Penelope Seidler HouseHarry and Penelope Seidler House was the home of architect Harry Seidler. It is located on 13 Kalang Ave in the suburb of Killara on Sydney's North Shore, and was designed by Harry and Penelope Seidler.-Features:...
, Killara (Sydney), Australia - 1969-70: Condominium Apartments, Acapulco, Mexico
- 1970-74: Edmund Barton BuildingEdmund Barton BuildingThe Edmund Barton Building is a large Canberra office building positioned prominently on the Parliamentary Triangle in the suburb of Barton, Australian Capital Territory. It was designed by the major Australian architect Harry Seidler...
(formerly Trade Group Offices), Canberra, Australia - 1971-72: Gissing House, Wahroonga (Sydney), Australia
- 1972-75: MLC CentreMLC CentreThe MLC Centre is a skyscraper in Sydney, Australia. This office building is 228 metres high and has 60 storeys. Occupants include the Sydney Consulate of the United States of America. The podium of the building includes a shopping centre with several exclusive fashion labels and a 1,186 seat...
, Sydney, Australia - 1973-77: Embassy of Australia in ParisEmbassy of Australia in ParisThe Australian Embassy in Paris is located 400 metres southwest of the Eiffel Tower, on Rue Jean Rey in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, near the Bir-Hakeim bridge on the Seine. The embassy is situated on a triangular shaped block, and comprises a pair of nine-storey buildings...
, France - 1973-94: Harry Seidler Offices and Apartments, Milsons Point (Sydney), Australia
- 1978-80: Karalyka Centre (formerly Ringwood Cultural Centre) (many non-Seidler alterations), Ringwood (Melbourne), Australia
- 1979-82: Hillside Housing, Kooralbyn (Gold Coast), Australia
- 1980-84: Hong Kong Club Building, Hong Kong Central
- 1981-83: Merson House, Palm Beach (Sydney), Australia
- 1982-84: Monash City Council (formerly Waverley Civic Centre), Glen Waverley (Melbourne), Australia
- 1982-88: Grosvenor PlaceGrosvenor Place (Sydney)Grosvenor Place is a skyscraper in George Street, Sydney, Australia, which was designed by renowned architect Harry Seidler.-Description:The modern style building occupies an entire block in Sydney's financial district between The Rocks and the Sydney central business district...
, Sydney, Australia - 1983-84: Hannes House, Cammeray (Sydney), Australia
- 1983-86: Riverside CentreRiverside Centre, BrisbaneThe Riverside Centre is a skyscraper designed by Harry Seidler and located at 123 Eagle Street, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Completed in 1986, it contains 40 storeys and rises 146 m above ground...
, Brisbane, Australia - 1984-89: 9 Castlereagh St (formerly Capita CentreCapita CentreCapita Centre, also known as the Castlereagh Centre, is a skyscraper in Sydney, Australia. Located at 9-11 Castlereagh Street, it is 183 m tall from spire and 158 m tall from roof. The building was designed by Harry Seidler & Associates....
), Sydney, Australia - 1985: Garden Island Dockyard Workshop, Garden Island (Sydney), Australia
- 1985-89: 1 Spring Street (formerly Shell House), Melbourne, Australia
- 1987-91: QV1, Perth, Australia
- 1989-91: Hamilton House, Vaucluse (Sydney), Australia
- 1990: Monash Gallery of Art (with non-Seidler additions), Wheelers Hill (Melbourne), Australia
- 1990-98: Horizon ApartmentsHorizon ApartmentsThe Horizon Apartments, also short The Horizon, is a residential high rise building in Darlinghurst, a suburb in the inner-city of Sydney, NSW, Australia. It is located on at 184 Forbes Street between Liverpool and William Streets. The controversial highrise was completed in 1998...
, Darlinghurst (Sydney), Australia - 1993-98: Wohnpark Neue Donau, Vienna, Austria
- 1994-95: Meares House, Birchgrove (Sydney), Australia
- 1995-96: Gilhotra House, Hunters Hill (Sydney), Australia
- 1995-00: Grollo Tower project, Melbourne, Australia (never built)
- 1996-98: Elizabeth Street Offices, Surry Hills (Sydney), Australia
- 1996-99: Berman House, Joadja, New South WalesJoadja, New South WalesJoadja is a ghost town in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, in Wingecarribee Shire.It was a thriving mining town between 1870–1911. It was home for approximately 1100 people, many of Scots ancestry, and was connected to the nearby town of Mittagong by a narrow gauge railway that...
, Australia - 1996-02: Hochhaus Neue Donau, Vienna, Austria
- 1999: Cove Apartments, Sydney, Australia
- 1999-05: Riparian Plaza, BrisbaneRiparian Plaza, BrisbaneRiparian Plaza is a 53-storey skyscraper located in the central business district of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The building stands at in height to its communications spire and to its roof. It is the city's tallest building, or second tallest if measured to roof after the Aurora Tower, not...
, Australia - 1999-00: ARCA Showroom, Perth, Australia
- 2001-06: Meriton Tower, Sydney, Australia
- 2003: North ApartmentsNorth ApartmentsThe North Apartments, located at 91 Goulburn Street, Sydney, Australia, were designed by the late architect Harry Seidler.The building is oriented with a single façade to the North, facing Goulburn Street....
, Sydney, Australia - 2001-07: Ian Thorpe Aquatic Centre, (formerly "Ultimo Aquatic Centre") Sydney, Australia
- 2004-09: Alliance Française Building, Sydney, Australia (his last commercial design)
Honours
- 1951, 1967, 1981, 1983, 1991 Sir John SulmanJohn SulmanSir John Sulman was an Australian architect. Born in Greenwich, England, he emigrated to Sydney, Australia in 1885. From 1921 to 1924 he was chairman of the Federal Capital Advisory Committee and influenced the development of Canberra.-Early life:Sulman was born in was born at Greenwich, England...
Medal - 1965, 1966, 1967 Wilkinson AwardWilkinson AwardThe Wilkinson Award is an Australian architectural prize presented by the Australian Institute of Architects and was first awarded in 1961....
- 1966 Honorary Fellowship from the American Institute of ArchitectsAmerican Institute of ArchitectsThe American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...
(AIA) - 1967 Civic Design Award
- 1968 Pan Pacific Citation of the American Institute of Architects (AIA)
- 1976 RAIA Gold MedalRoyal Australian Institute of Architects Gold MedalThe Gold Medal is the highest award of the Australian Institute of Architects awarded annually since 1960. The award was created to recognise distinguished service by Australian architects who have:* designed or executed buildings of high merit;...
from the Royal Australian Institute of Architects - 1984 Member of the Académie d'architectureAcadémie d'architectureThe Académie royale d'architecture was a French learned society founded on December 30, 1671 by Louis XIV, king of France under the impulsion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert...
, Paris - 1984 Honorary Member of the Society of Graphic Artists of Austria (KünstlerhausVienna KünstlerhausThe Vienna Künstlerhaus is an art exhibition building in Vienna. It is located on Karlsplatz near the Ringstraße, next to the Musikverein....
) - 1985, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1992, 2001 various honours of the Royal Australian Institute of ArchitectsRoyal Australian Institute of ArchitectsThe Australian Institute of Architects is a professional body for architects in Australia. Until August 2008, the Institute traded as the "Royal Australian Institute of Architects", which remains its official name....
(RAIA) - 1985 Honorarary Citizenship of Austria
- 1987 Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) (Australia's highest honour)
- 1990 Gold Medal City of Vienna
- 1992 Officer of the Order of the British EmpireOrder of the British EmpireThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
- 1996 Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British ArchitectsRoyal Institute of British ArchitectsThe Royal Institute of British Architects is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally.-History:...
(RIBA) - 1996 Austrian Badge of Honour for Science and Art
- 2002 Golden Badge of Honour for Merits for Vienna
- 2004 Honour for International Highrises of the city of FrankfurtFrankfurtFrankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
for "Cove Apartments" in Sydney
Gallery
Harry Seidler, AC OBE (25 June 19239 March 2006) was an Austrian-born Australian architectArchitect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
who is considered to be one of the leading exponents of Modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
's methodology in Australia and the first architect to fully express the principles of the Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
in Australia.
Harry Seidler designed more than 180 buildings and he received much recognition for his contribution to Architecture of Australia
Architecture of Australia
Architecture in Australia incorporates the architecture produced in the area of the Commonwealth of Australia...
. Seidler consistently won architectural awards every decade throughout his Australian career of almost 58 years across the varied categories - his residential work from 1950, his commercial work from 1967, and his public commissions from the 1970s.
Early life
Seidler was born in ViennaVienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, the son of a prosperous Jewish merchant of Romanian
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
origin. He fled as a teenager to England soon after Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
Germany occupied Austria in 1938.
Education
In England, he studied building and construction at Cambridgeshire Technical School. In May 1940, he was internedInternment
Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people, commonly in large groups, without trial. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the meaning as: "The action of 'interning'; confinement within the limits of a country or place." Most modern usage is about individuals, and there is a distinction...
by the British authorities as an enemy alien, before being shipped to Quebec, Canada and continued to be interned until October 1941, when he was released on parole from internment to study architecture at the University of Manitoba
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba , in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is the largest university in the province of Manitoba. It is Manitoba's most comprehensive and only research-intensive post-secondary educational institution. It was founded in 1877, making it Western Canada’s first university. It placed...
.
Although he was ten years old when the Bauhaus was closed, Seidler's analysts invariably associate him with the Bauhaus because he later studied under emigrent Bauhaus teachers in the USA. He attended Harvard Graduate School of Design
Harvard Graduate School of Design
The Harvard Graduate School of Design is a graduate school at Harvard University offering degrees in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning and Design.-History:...
under Walter Gropius
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius was a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School who, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture....
and Marcel Breuer on a scholarship in 1945-46, during which time he did vacation work with Alvar Aalto in Boston drawing up plans for the Baker dormitory at MIT. He then attended Black Mountain College
Black Mountain College
Black Mountain College, a school founded in 1933 in Black Mountain, North Carolina, was a new kind of college in the United States in which the study of art was seen to be central to a liberal arts education, and in which John Dewey's principles of education played a major role...
under the painter Josef Albers
Josef Albers
Josef Albers was a German-born American artist and educator whose work, both in Europe and in the United States, formed the basis of some of the most influential and far-reaching art education programs of the 20th century....
, and then worked for Marcel Breuer
Marcel Breuer
Marcel Lajos Breuer , was a Hungarian-born modernist, architect and furniture designer of Jewish descent. One of the masters of Modernism, Breuer displayed interest in modular construction and simple forms.- Life and work :Known to his friends and associates as Lajkó, Breuer studied and taught at...
in New York. Seidler also worked in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
with the architect Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho is a Brazilian architect specializing in international modern architecture...
, who heavily influenced some of his early residential works, such as the Rose Siedler House and the Meller House.
Life in Australia
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
and later commissioned him to design their home which became known as the Rose Seidler House
Rose Seidler House
Rose Seidler House is a Bauhaus-styled home designed by Harry Seidler located at 71 Clissold Road, Wahroonga, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is managed by the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales as a museum that has been open to the public since 1991. Built in 1949-1950, it...
(1948–1950), in Wahroonga, on Sydney's North Shore . This project was the first domestic residence to fully express the philosophy of the Bauhaus in Australia.
In the 1960s Seidler again broke new ground with his radical design for the Australia Square
Australia Square
Australia Square is an office and retail complex in the central business district of Sydney, Australia. Its main address is 264 George Street, and the Square is bounded on the northern side by Bond Street, eastern side by Pitt Street and southern side by Curtin Place.The building was designed by...
project (1961–67). At the time Australia Square was the world's tallest light weight concrete building. The design introduced the two principles of incorporating large public open spaces and circular forms to office towers in Australia.
He was a founding member of the Australian Architecture Association
Australian Architecture Association
The Australian Architecture Association was set up in 2004 as a not for profit organisation to promote the understanding of both local and world architecture in Australia. The Chicago Architecture Foundation is used as the model for the development of the organisation.In late 2004, it began to...
. In 1984 he became the first Australian to be elected a member of the Académie d'architecture
Académie d'architecture
The Académie royale d'architecture was a French learned society founded on December 30, 1671 by Louis XIV, king of France under the impulsion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert...
, Paris and in 1987 was made a Companion of the Order of Australia
Order of Australia
The Order of Australia is an order of chivalry established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, "for the purpose of according recognition to Australian citizens and other persons for achievement or for meritorious service"...
, an honour which he accepted in his trademark suit and bowtie. Over the years Mr Seidler was also awarded five Sulman Medals by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects
Royal Australian Institute of Architects
The Australian Institute of Architects is a professional body for architects in Australia. Until August 2008, the Institute traded as the "Royal Australian Institute of Architects", which remains its official name....
, as well as the Royal Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal
Royal Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal
The Gold Medal is the highest award of the Australian Institute of Architects awarded annually since 1960. The award was created to recognise distinguished service by Australian architects who have:* designed or executed buildings of high merit;...
in 1976, and the Royal Gold Medal
Royal Gold Medal
The Royal Gold Medal for architecture is awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects on behalf of the British monarch, in recognition of an individual's or group's substantial contribution to international architecture....
by the Royal Institute of British Architects
Royal Institute of British Architects
The Royal Institute of British Architects is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally.-History:...
in 1996.
Personal life
Harry Seidler married Penelope Evatt, daughter of Clive EvattClive Evatt
Clive Evatt QC was an Australian politician, barrister and raconteur. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1939 until 1959. At various times he sat as a member of the Industrial Labor Party, ALP and as an independent.-Early life:Evatt was born in Maitland and was the...
on 15 December 1958, they had two children, a son Timothy and daughter, Polly.
Seidler enjoyed photographing architecture around the world and some of these are documented in his photography book The Grand Tour. He also enjoyed skiing.
Penelope Seidler, herself an architect, gained her Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
and joined Seidler and Associates in 1964 as architect and financial manager.
On 24 April 2005, Harry Seidler suffered a stroke from which he never fully recovered, and died in Sydney on 9 March 2006 at age 82.
Modernism and principles of design
The form of Seidler's work changed as building technology changed: from his timber houses in the 1950s, to reinforced concrete houses and buildings in the 1960-1780s, and the development of curves with advances in concrete techhnology in the 1980s and later, as well as developments in steel technology that allowed for curved rooves in the 1990s onwards (e.g. Berman House). Upon celebrating 50 years of architectural practice in Australia, Seidler noted that developments in building technology allowed for more richness of form in his then soon-to-be completed Horizon apartment tower: "I could not have built Horizon twenty years ago...in earlier building technology (the way one could) span distancesit was very limited. (But Horizon) is made (possible) by devices such as prestressed concrete which is ...economic and quick. And that also gives you greater freedom of the shapes that you can use. Nowadays we can span huge distances and to do so (by) not just putting steel mesh or something into the concrete but to put steel, high tensile steel wire into it and pull it tight and that makes it easy to span distances and give this kind of change of shape of a building which would have been very difficult to achieve any other way." (Express, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 7.10.1998).
His visual approach to two-dimensional and three-dimensional spacial arrangement was consistent throughout his whole career. He articulated his approach in his first work, the Rose Seidler House. "This house explodes the surfaces that enclose a normal house or space, and turns it into a continuum of free standing planes, through which the eye can never see an end, you are always intrigued what’s beyond, you can always see something floating into the distance, there is never an obstruction to your vision, it is a continuum (of space), that I believe 20th century man’s eye and senses responds positively to that, we crave this”.Harry Seidler quote from “Rose Seidler House – the House that Harry built” (Review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, 14 April 1991).
In 1991, Seidler acknowledged that that his first house (Rose Seidler House) which was built of timber, despite the north facing sunshades "is generally too vulnerable to temperature changes...I didn't fully appreciate the intensity of the Australian sun"(Harry Seidler quote from “Rose Seidler House – the House that Harry built” Review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV, 14 April 1991). Thus, later in his career, he sought to use more thermally stable materials like reinforced concrete and to respond to Australian climate by the extensive use of sunshades and flamboyantly-shaped rain protecting canopies on his skyscrapers, (such as Grosvenor Place, Riverside Centre, and QV1), large covered balconies in his houses, as well as shaping his designs to maximize views and enjoyment of the outdoors from inside.
Collaboration with visual artists
Seidler was a frequent and enthusiastic collaborator with visual artists in the creation of his buildings. While his collaborators include famous or notable figures such as Alexander CalderAlexander Calder
Alexander Calder was an American sculptor and artist most famous for inventing mobile sculptures. In addition to mobile and stable sculpture, Alexander Calder also created paintings, lithographs, toys, tapestry, jewelry and household objects.-Childhood:Alexander "Sandy" Calder was born in Lawnton,...
, Frank Stella
Frank Stella
Frank Stella is an American painter and printmaker, significant within the art movements of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction.-Biography:...
, Lin Utzon, Victor Vasarely
Victor Vasarely
Victor Vasarely was a Hungarian French artist whose work is generally seen aligned with Op-art.His work entitled Zebra, created by Vasarely in the 1930s, is considered by some to be one of the earliest examples of Op-art...
, Norman Carlberg
Norman Carlberg
Norman Carlberg is an American sculptor and printmaker. He is noted as an exemplar of the modular constructivist style....
(a fellow but later student of Josef Albers
Josef Albers
Josef Albers was a German-born American artist and educator whose work, both in Europe and in the United States, formed the basis of some of the most influential and far-reaching art education programs of the 20th century....
), and many others, by far the most important of the collaborators was his mentor Albers. Seidler included works by Albers - perhaps the single person most influential on his design philosophy - in a number of projects (notably the MLC Centre with 'Homage to the Square' and 'The Wrestle'). As Paul Bartizan indicates in his obituary tribute to Seidler, these works of art were not mere 'plop art
Plop art
Plop art is a pejorative slang term for public art made for government or corporate plazas, spaces in front of office buildings, skyscraper atriums, parks, and other public venues...
'; they were really planned to be integrated with and complementary to the buildings into which they were placed: "In many of his projects, Seidler worked with artists whose works became an intrinsic component of his designs."
List of buildings
- 1948-50: Rose Seidler HouseRose Seidler HouseRose Seidler House is a Bauhaus-styled home designed by Harry Seidler located at 71 Clissold Road, Wahroonga, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is managed by the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales as a museum that has been open to the public since 1991. Built in 1949-1950, it...
, Wahroonga (Sydney), Australia - 1949-51: Marcus Seidler House, Turramurra (Sydney), Australia
- 1950: Meller House, Castlecrag (Sydney), Australia
- 1952: Hutter House, Turramurra (Sydney), Australia - since greatly modified such that hardly anything of Seidler's design remains.
- 1952-53: Williamson House, (also known as Igloo House), Mosman (Sydney), Australia http://www.heritage.nsw.gov.au/07_subnav_02_2.cfm?itemid=5045139
- 1959: Canberra South Bowling Club, Griffith (Canberra), Australia http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/pictoria/a/2/3/doc/a23177.shtml
- 1960: Ithaca Gardens, Elizabeth Bay (Sydney), Australia
- 1961: Grimson & Rose Exhibition House, Pennant Hills (Sydney), Australia
- 1961: Blues Point TowerBlues Point TowerBlues Point Tower is an apartment block in Sydney, Australia. Located in McMahons Point, close toNorth Sydney, the tower is 83m tall with 144 apartments over 25 levels...
, McMahons Point (Sydney), Australia - 1961: Wood House, Penrith (Sydney), Australia
- 1961-67: Australia Square TowerAustralia SquareAustralia Square is an office and retail complex in the central business district of Sydney, Australia. Its main address is 264 George Street, and the Square is bounded on the northern side by Bond Street, eastern side by Pitt Street and southern side by Curtin Place.The building was designed by...
, Sydney, Australia - 1962: Ski Lodge, Thredbo, Australia
- 1963: Muller House, Port Hacking (Sydney), Australia
- 1963-65: Rushcutters Bay Apartments, Rushcutters Bay (Sydney), Australia
- 1964-67: NSW Housing Commission Apartments, Roseberry (Sydney), Australia
- 1964-68: Garran Group Housing, Canberra, Australia
- 1965-66: Arlington Apartments, Edgecliff (Sydney), Australia
- 1966-67: Harry and Penelope Seidler HouseHarry and Penelope Seidler HouseHarry and Penelope Seidler House was the home of architect Harry Seidler. It is located on 13 Kalang Ave in the suburb of Killara on Sydney's North Shore, and was designed by Harry and Penelope Seidler.-Features:...
, Killara (Sydney), Australia - 1969-70: Condominium Apartments, Acapulco, Mexico
- 1970-74: Edmund Barton BuildingEdmund Barton BuildingThe Edmund Barton Building is a large Canberra office building positioned prominently on the Parliamentary Triangle in the suburb of Barton, Australian Capital Territory. It was designed by the major Australian architect Harry Seidler...
(formerly Trade Group Offices), Canberra, Australia - 1971-72: Gissing House, Wahroonga (Sydney), Australia
- 1972-75: MLC CentreMLC CentreThe MLC Centre is a skyscraper in Sydney, Australia. This office building is 228 metres high and has 60 storeys. Occupants include the Sydney Consulate of the United States of America. The podium of the building includes a shopping centre with several exclusive fashion labels and a 1,186 seat...
, Sydney, Australia - 1973-77: Embassy of Australia in ParisEmbassy of Australia in ParisThe Australian Embassy in Paris is located 400 metres southwest of the Eiffel Tower, on Rue Jean Rey in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, near the Bir-Hakeim bridge on the Seine. The embassy is situated on a triangular shaped block, and comprises a pair of nine-storey buildings...
, France - 1973-94: Harry Seidler Offices and Apartments, Milsons Point (Sydney), Australia
- 1978-80: Karalyka Centre (formerly Ringwood Cultural Centre) (many non-Seidler alterations), Ringwood (Melbourne), Australia
- 1979-82: Hillside Housing, Kooralbyn (Gold Coast), Australia
- 1980-84: Hong Kong Club Building, Hong Kong Central
- 1981-83: Merson House, Palm Beach (Sydney), Australia
- 1982-84: Monash City Council (formerly Waverley Civic Centre), Glen Waverley (Melbourne), Australia
- 1982-88: Grosvenor PlaceGrosvenor Place (Sydney)Grosvenor Place is a skyscraper in George Street, Sydney, Australia, which was designed by renowned architect Harry Seidler.-Description:The modern style building occupies an entire block in Sydney's financial district between The Rocks and the Sydney central business district...
, Sydney, Australia - 1983-84: Hannes House, Cammeray (Sydney), Australia
- 1983-86: Riverside CentreRiverside Centre, BrisbaneThe Riverside Centre is a skyscraper designed by Harry Seidler and located at 123 Eagle Street, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Completed in 1986, it contains 40 storeys and rises 146 m above ground...
, Brisbane, Australia - 1984-89: 9 Castlereagh St (formerly Capita CentreCapita CentreCapita Centre, also known as the Castlereagh Centre, is a skyscraper in Sydney, Australia. Located at 9-11 Castlereagh Street, it is 183 m tall from spire and 158 m tall from roof. The building was designed by Harry Seidler & Associates....
), Sydney, Australia - 1985: Garden Island Dockyard Workshop, Garden Island (Sydney), Australia
- 1985-89: 1 Spring Street (formerly Shell House), Melbourne, Australia
- 1987-91: QV1, Perth, Australia
- 1989-91: Hamilton House, Vaucluse (Sydney), Australia
- 1990: Monash Gallery of Art (with non-Seidler additions), Wheelers Hill (Melbourne), Australia
- 1990-98: Horizon ApartmentsHorizon ApartmentsThe Horizon Apartments, also short The Horizon, is a residential high rise building in Darlinghurst, a suburb in the inner-city of Sydney, NSW, Australia. It is located on at 184 Forbes Street between Liverpool and William Streets. The controversial highrise was completed in 1998...
, Darlinghurst (Sydney), Australia - 1993-98: Wohnpark Neue Donau, Vienna, Austria
- 1994-95: Meares House, Birchgrove (Sydney), Australia
- 1995-96: Gilhotra House, Hunters Hill (Sydney), Australia
- 1995-00: Grollo Tower project, Melbourne, Australia (never built)
- 1996-98: Elizabeth Street Offices, Surry Hills (Sydney), Australia
- 1996-99: Berman House, Joadja, New South WalesJoadja, New South WalesJoadja is a ghost town in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, in Wingecarribee Shire.It was a thriving mining town between 1870–1911. It was home for approximately 1100 people, many of Scots ancestry, and was connected to the nearby town of Mittagong by a narrow gauge railway that...
, Australia - 1996-02: Hochhaus Neue Donau, Vienna, Austria
- 1999: Cove Apartments, Sydney, Australia
- 1999-05: Riparian Plaza, BrisbaneRiparian Plaza, BrisbaneRiparian Plaza is a 53-storey skyscraper located in the central business district of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The building stands at in height to its communications spire and to its roof. It is the city's tallest building, or second tallest if measured to roof after the Aurora Tower, not...
, Australia - 1999-00: ARCA Showroom, Perth, Australia
- 2001-06: Meriton Tower, Sydney, Australia
- 2003: North ApartmentsNorth ApartmentsThe North Apartments, located at 91 Goulburn Street, Sydney, Australia, were designed by the late architect Harry Seidler.The building is oriented with a single façade to the North, facing Goulburn Street....
, Sydney, Australia - 2001-07: Ian Thorpe Aquatic Centre, (formerly "Ultimo Aquatic Centre") Sydney, Australia
- 2004-09: Alliance Française Building, Sydney, Australia (his last commercial design)
Honours
- 1951, 1967, 1981, 1983, 1991 Sir John SulmanJohn SulmanSir John Sulman was an Australian architect. Born in Greenwich, England, he emigrated to Sydney, Australia in 1885. From 1921 to 1924 he was chairman of the Federal Capital Advisory Committee and influenced the development of Canberra.-Early life:Sulman was born in was born at Greenwich, England...
Medal - 1965, 1966, 1967 Wilkinson AwardWilkinson AwardThe Wilkinson Award is an Australian architectural prize presented by the Australian Institute of Architects and was first awarded in 1961....
- 1966 Honorary Fellowship from the American Institute of ArchitectsAmerican Institute of ArchitectsThe American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...
(AIA) - 1967 Civic Design Award
- 1968 Pan Pacific Citation of the American Institute of Architects (AIA)
- 1976 RAIA Gold MedalRoyal Australian Institute of Architects Gold MedalThe Gold Medal is the highest award of the Australian Institute of Architects awarded annually since 1960. The award was created to recognise distinguished service by Australian architects who have:* designed or executed buildings of high merit;...
from the Royal Australian Institute of Architects - 1984 Member of the Académie d'architectureAcadémie d'architectureThe Académie royale d'architecture was a French learned society founded on December 30, 1671 by Louis XIV, king of France under the impulsion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert...
, Paris - 1984 Honorary Member of the Society of Graphic Artists of Austria (KünstlerhausVienna KünstlerhausThe Vienna Künstlerhaus is an art exhibition building in Vienna. It is located on Karlsplatz near the Ringstraße, next to the Musikverein....
) - 1985, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1992, 2001 various honours of the Royal Australian Institute of ArchitectsRoyal Australian Institute of ArchitectsThe Australian Institute of Architects is a professional body for architects in Australia. Until August 2008, the Institute traded as the "Royal Australian Institute of Architects", which remains its official name....
(RAIA) - 1985 Honorarary Citizenship of Austria
- 1987 Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) (Australia's highest honour)
- 1990 Gold Medal City of Vienna
- 1992 Officer of the Order of the British EmpireOrder of the British EmpireThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
- 1996 Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British ArchitectsRoyal Institute of British ArchitectsThe Royal Institute of British Architects is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally.-History:...
(RIBA) - 1996 Austrian Badge of Honour for Science and Art
- 2002 Golden Badge of Honour for Merits for Vienna
- 2004 Honour for International Highrises of the city of FrankfurtFrankfurtFrankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
for "Cove Apartments" in Sydney
Gallery
File:Australia sq sydney.jpg|Australia Square
Australia Square
Australia Square is an office and retail complex in the central business district of Sydney, Australia. Its main address is 264 George Street, and the Square is bounded on the northern side by Bond Street, eastern side by Pitt Street and southern side by Curtin Place.The building was designed by...
, Sydney (1961-67)
Image:Hong Kong Club Building.jpg|Hong Kong Club Building
Hong Kong Club Building
The Hong Kong Club Building is 25-storey office building located in between Chater Road and Connaught Road Central at the junction of Jackson Road, in Central, Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Club Building is currently in its third generation, in its second location...
, Hongkong, 1980
Image:2006-04-12-Riverside.jpg|Riverside Centre
Riverside Centre, Brisbane
The Riverside Centre is a skyscraper designed by Harry Seidler and located at 123 Eagle Street, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Completed in 1986, it contains 40 storeys and rises 146 m above ground...
, Brisbane (1983-86)
Image:Capita Centre.JPG|Castlereagh (formerly Capita) Centre, Sydney (1984-89)
Image:QV1 tower.jpg|QV.1
QV.1
QV.1 is a 40-storey modernist skyscraper in Perth, Western Australia. Completed in 1991, the building is presently the fourth-tallest building in Perth, after Central Park, the yet to be completed BHP Tower and the BankWest Tower...
, Perth (1988-1991)
File:2006-04-12-Riparian.jpg|Riparian Plaza
Riparian Plaza, Brisbane
Riparian Plaza is a 53-storey skyscraper located in the central business district of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The building stands at in height to its communications spire and to its roof. It is the city's tallest building, or second tallest if measured to roof after the Aurora Tower, not...
, Brisbane (1999-2005)
File:Hochhaus Neue Donau Wien.jpg|Hochhaus Neue Donau, Vienna, Austria (1999-2002)
Image:WienHochhausNeueDonau.jpg|Harry Seidler: Hochhaus Neue Donau Vienna (2002)
by Harry Seidler
- "Internment: The Diaries of Harry Seidler May 1940-October 1941", Unwin Hyman 1987, ISBN 0868619159, in co-operation with Janis Wilton, Judith Winternitz (out of print)
- "The Grand Tour, Travelling the World with an Architect's Eye ", Taschen 2004, ISBN 9783822825556 (English)(704 pages).
about Harry Seidler
- Peter Blake: "Architecture for the New World: The Work of Harry Seidler", Sydney 1973, ISBN 3782814592
- Peter Blake: "Harry Seidler - Australian Embassy Paris. Ambassade d'Australie, Paris", Sydney 1979, ISBN 3782814436
- Philip Drew:"Two Towers. Harry Seidler, Australia Square, MLC-Center", 1980, ISBN 3782814576
- Kenneth Frampton: "Harry Seidler, Riverside Centre", Horwitz Graham, Sydney/ Karl Kraemer, Stuttgart, 1988, ISBN 0725520566
- Kenneth Frampton, Philip Drew: "Harry Seidler: Four Decades of Architecture", Thames & H. 1992, ISBN 0500978387
- Dennis Sharp (introduction): "Harry Seidler: Selected and Current Works", The Master Architect Series III, Images Publishing 1997, ISBN 1875498753
- Alice Spigelman: "The Life of Harry Seidler", Brandl & Schlesinger 2001, ISBN 1876040157
- Chris Abel (introduction): "Harry Seidler - Houses & Interiors", Volume 1 (1948–1970) & Volume 2(1970–2000), Images Publishing, Mulgrave (Melbourne) 2003, (Vol. 1) ISBN 1864701048, (Vol. 2) ISBN 1864701056, Boxed Set ISBN 1920744169
- Wolfgang Förster: "Harry Seidler, Wohnpark Neue Donau Wien", Prestel 2002, ISBN 3791327038
See also
- Australian Architecture AssociationAustralian Architecture AssociationThe Australian Architecture Association was set up in 2004 as a not for profit organisation to promote the understanding of both local and world architecture in Australia. The Chicago Architecture Foundation is used as the model for the development of the organisation.In late 2004, it began to...
- Australian Architectural StylesAustralian architectural stylesAustralian architectural styles, like the revivalist trends which dominated Europe for centuries, have been primarily derivative.-Background:...
- Formalism (art)Formalism (art)In art theory, formalism is the concept that a work's artistic value is entirely determined by its form--the way it is made, its purely visual aspects, and its medium. Formalism emphasizes compositional elements such as color, line, shape and texture rather than realism, context, and content...
External links
- Harry Seidler official website
- solo arquitectura - Harry Seidler
- Harry Seidler Works
- ninemsn Sunday website -- "Deconstructing Harry"
- The Seidler Collection - State Library of NSW
- Harry Seidler In Memoriam
- Harry Seidler illustrated lecture film "Architecture responding to Nature" (1993) - on Hong Kong Club and Capita Centre