Robin Boyd
Encyclopedia
CBE
CBE and C.B.E. are abbreviations for "Commander of the Order of the British Empire", a grade in the Order of the British Empire.Other uses include:* Chemical and Biochemical Engineering...
(3 January 1919 – 16 October 1971) was an influential Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n architect
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...
, writer, teacher and social commentator. He, along with Harry Seidler
Harry Seidler
Harry Seidler, AC OBE 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...
, stands as one of the foremost proponents for the International Modern Movement
Modern architecture
Modern architecture is generally characterized by simplification of form and creation of ornament from the structure and theme of the building. It is a term applied to an overarching movement, with its exact definition and scope varying widely...
in Australian architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
.
Like his American contemporary John Lautner, Boyd had relatively few opportunities to design major buildings and his best known and most influential works as an architect are his numerous and innovative small house designs.
Background and early life
Robin Boyd was a scion of the illustrious Boyd artistic dynastyBoyd Family
The Boyd family is an Australian artistic dynasty. Members of the family over several generations have established themselves as painters, artists, illustrators, sculptors, potters, ceramists, writers, architects, graphic designers, and musicians....
in Australia, and many of his extended family were noted painters, sculptors, architects, writers or other arts professionals. Robin was the younger son of the painter Penleigh Boyd
Penleigh Boyd
Theodore Penleigh Boyd was an Australian artist.Penleigh Boyd was a member of the Boyd artistic dynasty: his parents Arthur Merric Boyd and Emma Minnie Boyd were well-known artists of the day, and his brothers included Merric Boyd the ceramacist and the novelist Martin Boyd...
, and his own son, named after his grandfather Penleigh, is also an architect. He was a nephew of author Martin Boyd
Martin Boyd
Martin à Beckett Boyd was a member of Australia’s most prolific artistic dynasty of painters, sculptors, potters, writers, architects, graphic designers and musicians....
and a first cousin of famed Australian painter Arthur Boyd
Arthur Boyd
Arthur Merric Bloomfield Boyd, AC, OBE was one of the leading Australian painters of the late 20th Century. A member of the prominent Boyd artistic dynasty in Australia, his relatives included painters, sculptors, architects or other arts professionals. His sister Mary Boyd married John Perceval,...
and his brothers David Boyd
David Boyd
David Boyd may refer to:* David Boyd , Australian artist* David Boyd , Canadian children's author* David Boyd , cinematographer* David Boyd , Australian rugby league player...
and Guy Boyd
Guy Boyd
Guy Boyd may refer to:*Guy Boyd *Guy Boyd...
(founders of the Martin Boyd Pottery studio) and his first commission, in fact, was a backyard studio for Arthur Boyd. Robin's cousin Joan (Weigall) Lindsay
Joan Lindsay
Joan Lindsay, Lady Lindsay was an Australian author, best known for her "ambiguous and intriguing" novel Picnic at Hanging Rock.-Life:...
(author of Picnic at Hanging Rock
Picnic at Hanging Rock
Picnic at Hanging Rock is a 1967 drama and mystery novel by Australian author Joan Lindsay. She wrote it over a four-week period at her home Mulberry Hill in Baxter, on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula. It was first published in 1967 in Australia by Cheshire Publishing and was released in...
) married Daryl Lindsay, who became curator of the National Gallery of Victoria
National Gallery of Victoria
The National Gallery of Victoria is an art gallery and museum in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest and the largest public art gallery in Australia. Since December 2003, NGV has operated across two sites...
and was the brother of artist Lionel Lindsay
Lionel Lindsay
Sir Lionel Arthur Lindsay was an Australian artist and brother of artist and illustrator Norman Lindsay.-Early life:...
and renowned artist and author Norman Lindsay
Norman Lindsay
Norman Alfred William Lindsay was an Australian artist, sculptor, writer, editorial cartoonist, scale modeler, and boxer. He was born in Creswick, Victoria....
.
Robin's Queensland-born mother, Edith Susan Gerard Anderson, was herself a skilled painter who also came from a prominent family. Her father had been Director of the Queensland Department of Public Instruction, her brother Arthur was a well-known physician, and her eldest sister Maud was of one of the first women to graduate with a B.A. degree 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 is thought to have been Queensland's first female university graduate.
Robin Boyd and his older brother Pat spent their early childhood at "The Robins", the family home and studio that his father had built on land he purchased at Warrandyte, near Melbourne but in 1922 Penleigh sold "The Robins" and moved his family to Sydney. Soon after arriving, he was enlisted by Sydney Ure Smith
Sydney Ure Smith
Sydney George Ure Smith was an Australian arts publisher and promoter who 'did more than any other Australian to publicize Australian art at home and overseas'....
as one of the organisers of a major exhibition of contemporary European art. Penleigh took his family with him to England late in the year to pick paintings; he returned to Sydney without them in June 1923 to set up the exhibition, which was staged in Sydney and Melbourne during July–August. During his wife's absence Penleigh had a brief affair with another woman but shortly before his family returned from England he bought back "The Robins" and purchased a new car.
Edith, Pat and Robin returned to Australia on 23 November 1923, but Penleigh and Edith had a heated argument soon after the homecoming. A few days later, for reasons unknown, Penleigh left Melbourne to drive to Sydney in the company of another person, but he lost control of the vehicle on a sharp bend near Warragul and it overturned. The passenger survived but Penleigh suffered terrible injuries and died at the scene within minutes. The proceeds of Penleigh's estate—including the sale of "The Robins", the repaired car and about 40 paintings, plus an annual allowance from Penleigh's father, and a small inheritance from her own father—enabled Edith Boyd to support her sons without needing to work, even during the depths of the Depression.
After Penleigh's death Edith and the boys lived for a time in rented premises in Toorak
Toorak, Victoria
Toorak is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 5 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district located on a rise on the south side of a bend in the Yarra River. Its Local Government Area is the City of Stonnington...
and Robin's first two years of schooling were at Glamorgan Preparatory School. Edith bought a modest house in East Malvern in 1927, when Robin was enrolled at the nearby Lloyd Street State School. As a schoolboy he read widely and became an avid fan of films and jazz music. In 1930 he moved on to the Malvern Church of England Grammar School, where he completed his schooling. He sat for his Leaving Certificate
Leaving Certificate
The Leaving Certificate Examinations , commonly referred to as the Leaving Cert is the final examination in the Irish secondary school system. It takes a minimum of two years preparation, but an optional Transition Year means that for those students it takes place three years after the Junior...
in 1934 and although he failed one subject (Commercial Principles) at the first attempt, he passed that the following year. He had evidently decided quite early on architecture as his chosen career so his mother arranged for him to be articled to leading Melbourne architect Kingsley Henderson. He served in Papua-New Guinea during World War II and resumed his architectural career in 1945.
Architectural career
Boyd first came to notice in the late 1940s for his promotion of inexpensive, functional, partially prefabricated homes incorporating modernist aesthetics. Most of his architectural output was residential, although he also designed some larger buildings including the Domain Park residential tower block and the John Batman Motor Inn in Melbourne, the famous Australian Pavilion for Expo '67 in Montreal, Canada, and the Australian headquarters of the Winston Churchill Memorial TrustWinston Churchill Memorial Trust
The Winston Churchill Memorial Trusts are three independent but related living memorials to Sir Winston Churchill. They are based in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. The Winston Churchill Memorial Trusts are three independent but related living memorials to Sir Winston Churchill. They are based...
in Canberra, ACT, on which he was working at the time of his death.
Boyd was the first Director of the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects Small Homes Service from 1947–1953 and for many years from 1948 he was the editor of this service for The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
newspaper, for which he also wrote weekly articles. The Small Homes Service provided designs of inexpensive houses, which attempted to incorporate modern architectural aesthetics and functional planning and were sold to the public for a small fee, and through this work Boyd became a household name in Victoria.
In 1948 Boyd was the recipient of the RVIA Robert and Ada Haddon Travelling Scholarship. The scholarship gave Boyd his first opportunity to travel through Europe which would have a profound influence on his later work.
In 1953 he formed a partnership with Frederick Romberg
Frederick Romberg
Frederick Romberg, , born on June 21, 1913 in Tsingtao, China, is a Swiss-trained architect who migrated to Australia in 1938....
(1910–1992) and Roy Grounds
Roy Grounds
Sir Roy Burman Grounds , wasone of Australia's leading architects of the modern movement.-Biography:Born in Melbourne, Grounds was educated at Scotch College and then Melbourne University and worked for the architectural firm of Blackett, Forster and Craig...
(1905–1981); their influential Melbourne firm became a significant force in Australian architecture and through the 1950s and 1960s Boyd developed a number of important houses in the regional style, including a 1952 Canberra house for Australian historian Manning Clark
Manning Clark
Charles Manning Hope Clark, AC , an Australian historian, was the author of the best-known general history of Australia, his six-volume A History of Australia, published between 1962 and 1987...
.
Boyd was a prolific architect, with over 200 designs to his credit in his relatively short career. He was the sole designer of most of these projects although a number of early commissions were jointly designed with his unofficial partners Kevin Pethebridge and Frank Bell
Frank Bell
Francis Jardine "Frank" Bell was an American politician. He was the 6th Governor of Nevada. He was a member of the Republican Party.-Biography:...
(1945–47) and others were jointly designed with his partners Grounds and Romberg (1953–62). After the acrimonious departure of Grounds from the practice in 1962, Romberg continued in partnership with Boyd until the latter's death.
Boyd was equally prolific and influential as a writer, commentator, educator and public speaker. For many years from 1947 he was director of the The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
Small Homes Service and influenced many people with his popular weekly articles on the subject. He was also lecturer in architecture at the University of Melbourne
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...
, and in 1956-57 he took up a teaching position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
in Boston offered by 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....
, a friend of Boyd’s and a Director at MIT.
Boyd was close friend of satirist Barry Humphries
Barry Humphries
John Barry Humphries, AO, CBE is an Australian comedian, satirist, dadaist, artist, author and character actor, best known for his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage, a Melbourne housewife and "gigastar", and Sir Les Patterson, Australia's foul-mouthed cultural attaché to the...
and wrote the liner notes for Humphries' first commercial recording, the EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
Wild Life in Suburbia (1958).
Boyd wrote nine books. His groundbreaking Australia's Home (1952) was the first substantial historical survey of Australian domestic architecture, and his best-known and most influential work, The Australian Ugliness
The Australian Ugliness
The Australian Ugliness is a 1960 book by Australian architect Robin Boyd. Boyd investigates the Australian aesthetic in regard to architecture and the suburbs and in the process coins the doctrine "featurism" to describe it...
(1960) was a popular and outspoken criticism of prevailing establishment tastes in architecture and in popular culture. Boyd was a dogged critic of the decorative tendency that he dubbed "Featurism", which he described as:
In 1967 Boyd presented the ABC's annual Boyer Lectures
Boyer Lectures
The Boyer Lectures began in 1959 as the ABC Lectures. They were renamed in 1961 after Richard Boyer , the ABC board chairman who had first suggested the lectures...
, which were broadcast nationally on on ABC radio. He delivered five lectures on a variety of topics and issues relating to Australia, architecture and design and prevailing cultural values of the time, under the series title 'Artificial Australia
Artificial Australia
Artificial Australia was the title of a series of lectures given by prominent Australian architect, Robin Boyd in 1967 on the Australian Broadcasting Commission....
.
He was awarded the RAIA 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;...
by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects in 1969. The Scholarship gave Boyd his first opportunity to visit Europe which would have a profound influence on his later work.
Death and legacy
Boyd travelled overseas in April–May 1971, when he contracted an infection and on his return to Australia his doctor detected a heart murmur. In early July his condition worsened and he was admitted to St Andrew's Hospital in Melbourne; he was diagnosed with interstitial pneumonia, told that the infection had settled in one of his heart valves and administered massive six-hourly doses of ampicillinAmpicillin
Ampicillin is a beta-lactam antibiotic that has been used extensively to treat bacterial infections since 1961. Until the introduction of ampicillin by the British company Beecham, penicillin therapies had only been effective against Gram-positive organisms such as staphylococci and streptococci...
. He recovered somewhat and struggled on through August–September, maintaining his usual heavy work schedule, but in early October his condition deteriorated again and he was admitted to the Royal Melbourne Hospital
Royal Melbourne Hospital
The Royal Melbourne Hospital , located in Parkville, Victoria an inner suburb of Melbourne is one of Australia’s leading public hospitals. It is a major teaching hospital for tertiary health care with a reputation in clinical research...
. Doctors puzzled over a diagnosis but eventually decided to extract all his teeth under full anesthetic, believing the infection had settled there. He suffered a stroke while recovering from the operation, and although he briefly rallied enough to recognize his wife Patricia, he died three days later on 16 October 1971, aged only fifty-two.
In 2005 the not-for-profit Robin Boyd Foundation was established by a group including Boyd's family, the Australian Institute of Architects (Victoria Chapter), the faculties of architecture at the University of Melbourne
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...
, Deakin University
Deakin University
Deakin University is an Australian public university with nearly 40,000 higher education students in 2010. It receives more than A$600 million in operating revenue annually, and controls more than A$1.3 billion in assets. It received more than A$35 million in research income in 2009 and had 835...
and RMIT University
RMIT University
RMIT University is an Australian public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. It has two branches, referred to as RMIT University in Australia and RMIT International University in Vietnam....
, and others with expertise, interest and commitment to the advancement of design. Their website lists the Foundation's aims, which are to deepen understanding of the benefits of design through design awareness, design literacy and design advocacy. The Hon. Gough Whitlam
Gough Whitlam
Edward Gough Whitlam, AC, QC , known as Gough Whitlam , served as the 21st Prime Minister of Australia. Whitlam led the Australian Labor Party to power at the 1972 election and retained government at the 1974 election, before being dismissed by Governor-General Sir John Kerr at the climax of the...
is the Founding Patron for the Foundation.
From 17 August - 2 October 2011, the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery displayed all Robin Boyd's houses that he created for the Mornington Peninsula region.
Major completed projects (by design year)
- Arthur Boyd Pottery Studio (1938), Wahroonga Cresent, Murrumbeena, Victoria (demolished)
- Edith Boyd House (1939), Burwood, Victoria
- Boyd House I (1946–47), 158 Riversdale Road, Camberwell, Victoria
- J.H. White House (1947-8), 31 Mundy Street, Mentone, Victoria
- Alan Brown House 1 (ca.1949), Toorak Road, Malvern, Victoria
- Dustan House (ca. 1949), 17 Yandilla Street, Balwyn, Victoria
- Manning Clark House (1952), 11 Tasmania Circle, Forrest, Australian Capital Territory http://www.manningclark.org.au/html/About_House.html http://www.canberrahouse.com/houses/11-tasmania-circle-forrest-1952/
- Fenner House (1952–53), 8 Monaro Crescent, Red Hill, Australian Capital Territory http://epress.anu.edu.au/nature/mobile_devices/ch05s06.html http://www.canberrahouse.com/houses/8-monaro-crescent-red-hill-1952-53/
- Gillison House (1952), Balwyn, Victoria
- Hilary Roche House (1954), 4 Bedford Street, Deakin, Australian Capital Territory http://www.canberrahouse.com/houses/4-bedford-street-deakin-1954/
- Date House (1956), Studley Park, Kew, Victoria
- Winter-Irving House (1957), Lake Colac, Victoria
- Boyd House II (1957–59), 290 Walsh Street, South Yarra, Victoria http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/vhd/heritagevic#detail_places;13584, http://museumvictoria.com.au/collections/items/247377/architectural-model-boyd-house-ii-south-yarra-1957
- Domain Park Flats (1959–62), Melbourne, Victoria
- Handfield House (1960), Eltham, Victoria
- Black Dolphin Motel (1961), Merimbula, New South Wales
- Holy Trinity Lutheran National Memorial Church (1961), Turner, Australian Capital Territory (Roy GroundsRoy GroundsSir Roy Burman Grounds , wasone of Australia's leading architects of the modern movement.-Biography:Born in Melbourne, Grounds was educated at Scotch College and then Melbourne University and worked for the architectural firm of Blackett, Forster and Craig...
, Frederick RombergFrederick RombergFrederick Romberg, , born on June 21, 1913 in Tsingtao, China, is a Swiss-trained architect who migrated to Australia in 1938....
& Boyd) - St George's Anglican Church (1962), Melbourne, Victoria (by Boyd & Frederick RombergFrederick RombergFrederick Romberg, , born on June 21, 1913 in Tsingtao, China, is a Swiss-trained architect who migrated to Australia in 1938....
) - Verge House (1963–64), 204 Monaro Crescent, Red Hill, Australian Capital Territory http://www.vergehouse.net/v/Home.html http://www.canberrahouse.com/houses/204-monaro-crescent-red-hill-1963/
- Baker House (1964–66), Bacchus Marsh, Victoria http://www.boydbakerhouse.com.au/
- Lyons House (1967), 733 Port Hacking Rd, Dolan's Bay, Sydney, New South Wales http://www.cityofsound.com/blog/2008/08/lyons-house-syd.html http://www.aussieheritage.com.au/listings/nsw/Dolans%20Bay/LyonsHouse/5653
- Australian Pavilion (1967), Expo 67Expo 67The 1967 International and Universal Exposition or Expo 67, as it was commonly known, was the general exhibition, Category One World's Fair held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, from April 27 to October 29, 1967. It is considered to be the most successful World's Fair of the 20th century, with the...
, Montreal, Quebec, Canada (demolished) - John Batman Motor Inn (1967), Melbourne, Victoria
- Featherston House (1967–69), Ivanhoe, Victoria
- Baker Dower House (1968), Bacchus Marsh, Victoria
- 12 Marawa Place (1968–69), Aranda, Australian Capital Territory
- McClune House (1969), Marcus Road, Frankston, Victoria
- Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Headquarters (1968–72), Braddon, Australian Capital Territory (Romberg and Boyd, completed by Neil ClerehanNeil ClerehanNeil Clerehan was born in Melbourne in 1922. He is a President’s Prize for the Hall of Fame Award -winning Australian Architect. Clerehan established several architecture firms: Neil Clerehan Architects , Guilford Bell and Neil Clerehan , Neil Clerehan and Associates , Clerehan – Cran and Neil...
)