Fifty years after its first publication, Robin Boyd's bestselling The Australian Ugliness remains the definitive statement on how we live and think in the environments we create for ourselves. In it Boyd rallied against Australia's promotion of ornament, decorative approach to design and slavish imitation of all things American. 'The basis of the Australian ugliness,' he wrote, 'is an unwillingness to be committed on the level of ideas. In all the arts of living, in the shaping of all her artefacts, as in politics, Australia shuffles about vigorously in the middle - as she estimates the middle - of the road, picking up disconnected ideas wherever she finds them.' Boyd was a fierce critic, and an advocate of good design. He understood the significance of the connection between people and their dwellings, and argued passionately for a national architecture forged from a genuine Australian identity. His concerns are as important now, in an era of suburban sprawl and inner-city redevelopment, as they were half a century ago. Caustic and brilliant, The Australian Ugliness is a masterpiece that enables us to see our surroundings with fresh eyes. This handsome anniversary edition is complemented by Robin Boyd's original sketches for the book and a new afterword by major contemporary architects.

The Australian Colonial House is the first comprehensive history of domestic architecture in New South Wales during its first fifty years. It looks at houses that were built and the influences on their building."--Book Jacket.

Karen McCartney's Iconic Australian Houses books are re-imagined so cleverly in this freshly redesigned, encyclopaedic book, which brings together in one volume the best of 50 years of Australian residential architecture.' Lucy Feagins - The Design Files Iconic: Modern Australian Houses 1950--2000 showcases, in a fresh, new and collectible edition, the best residential projects from the previously published works 50/60/70 and 70/80/90 and which formed successful exhibitions shown at the Museum of Sydney. Completely redesigned in a new format, with revised introduction, this classic will find audiences both new to and familiar with the gems of Australian modernist architecture. Featuring houses from: Harry Seidler, Peter Muller, Roy Grounds, Peter McIntyre, Russell Jack, Robin Boyd, McGlashan Everist, Enrico Taglietti, Neville Gruzman, Bruce Rickard, Hugh Buhrich, Ian McKay, Iwan Iwanoff, Ian Collins, Richard Leplastrier, Glenn Murcott, Barrie Marshall, Ken Woolley, Lovell Chen, Wood Marsh, Andresen O'Gorman, Durbach Block, Sean Godsell, Stutchbury and Harper, Donovan Hill.

From the 1950s to the 1970s, the work of Lloyd Wright, Gropius and Mies Van Der Rohe strongly influenced a generation of young Australian architects, who adopted modernist principles in their work. In Iconic Australian Houses: Three Decades of Domestic Architecture, Karen McCartney presents 15 significant examples of homes from this period, each designed by a different architect, that combine outstanding architectural principles and authentic interior decor. A detailed introduction places the period in social, historical and architectural context, before each of the selected homes is individually reviewed in an informed and engaging style. In each example the relationship between the architect and owner is discussed, as is the linking of the building to its site, materials and architectural detailing. The author has interviewed many architects and owners for their personal insights. Each study includes a feature on the interior decoration and a discussion of designers and manufacturers of iconic furniture, fittings and fabrics. Iconic Australian Houses features stunning photography, both panoramic and detailed, throughout. The homes from these three decades form a significant part of Australian architectural history and this book is a timely reminder of the need to preserve them as cultural artefacts.

Increasingly, domestic architecture has sought to enhance everyday life by providing resonant settings that reflect the human need for comfort, safety and connection. A house has walls and ceilings, and perhaps a garden, but beyond that, there is always that one part of a home that becomes a place of belonging, around which people gather. Architecture at the Heart of the Home showcases those special places and features that make a residence unique. Of course, there are kitchen and dining areas, but a home's heart can also be the physical link between the interior and the exterior, a view, a particular room, or even an architectural feature: a pool that reflects the sky overhead, windows that frame a panoramic vista, or a building's position in the landscape. The projects in this book are not necessarily grand in scale, but all reveal extraordinary settings that fill the heart with joy and the soul with happiness - the places where memories are made.

When a group of brilliant young scientists arrived in Australia's national capital after World War II to take up leading roles in the establishment of national research institutions, they commissioned Australia's leading architects to design their private houses. The houses that resulted from these unique collaborations rejected previous architectural styles and wholeheartedly embraced modernist ideologies and aesthetics. The story of how these progressive clients contributed to the innovative design of their houses brings fresh insights to mid-twentieth-century Australian domestic architecture and to Canberra's rich cultural history.

Detail in Contemporary Residential Architecture provides analysis of both the technical and the aesthetic importance of details in the development of contemporary residential architecture. Featuring many of the world's most highly acclaimed architects, the book presents more than 50 of the most recently completed and influential house designs. For each house there are color photographs, plans of every floor, sections and elevations as well as numerous consistently styled construction details. The book also features in-depth information for each project.

This book tells the story of the architects and buildings that have defined Australia’s architectural culture since the founding of the modern nation through Federation in 1901. That year marked the beginning of a search for better city forms and buildings to accommodate the changing realities of Australian life and to express an emerging, distinctive, and, eventually, confident Australian identity. While Sydney and Melbourne were the settings for many of the major buildings, all states and territories developed architectural traditions based on distinctive histories and climates. Harry Margalit explores the flowering of these many architectural variants, from the bid to create a model city in Canberra, through the stylistic battles that opened a space for modernism, to the idealism of postwar reconstruction, and beyond to the new millennium. Australia reveals a vibrant and influential culture of the built environment, at its best when it matches civic idealism with the sensuality of a country of stunning light and landscapes.