Architecture Bulletin March / April 2012Architecture Bulletin March / April 201212 13

Born of a new post-World War II shift in architectural thinking towards re-evaluating social concerns with urban responsibility, Brutalism evolved to combine new ethical concerns with aesthetic formalism. Its robust and imposing buildings not only had an explicit structural expression, they were inventively designed for new uses in commercial and institutional buildings. Australian Brutalism was wonderfully eclectic, with architectural influences extending beyond strict English Brutalism to encompass Le Corbusier and the Japanese Metabolist movement.

To date, there has been little if any comprehensive assessment of significant brutalist buildings within New South Wales. To encourage

Concrete poetry

recognition and conservation of these buildings, the NSW Chapter of the Institute, through its Register of 20th Century Buildings of Significance, is assisting the NSW Heritage Branch in compiling nominations of significant modernist buildings including those late modernist brutalist buildings for inclusion on the State Heritage Register. Lets hope taking the lead forges greater recognition of these important and beautiful buildings beyond mere fashion.

Glenn Harper Associate, Hassell

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1. Wentworth Union Building, University of Sydney (19681972, 1987, 19911992) Darlington Ancher Mortlock Woolley

Ken Woolley, of Ancher Mortlock Woolley designed three student union buildings: Macquarie University, the University of Newcastle and the University of Sydney. At the time of construction there were still separate men and women unions at Sydney University, however, both contributed towards the cost of the new building. The Wentworth Union Building was described by Joseph Buch in a 2007 guide to the universitys architecture as ...the most sculptural of the Universitys buildings. Its design features a deeply cantilevered top oor with projecting sun hoods over the expressed semicircular sun hood and recessed lower level, all punctuated dramatically by its connection to the overhead pedestrian bridge. The Wentworth Union Building received the 1972 Institutes Merit Award. In 2003 an international design competition, Campus 2010, was held. One of the outcomes of which was the reworking by John Wardle of the pedestrian bridge connecting the Wentworth Union Building to the main portion of the campus. Photo: Max Dupain.

3. The Alexander Mackie College of Advanced Education (19751980) Oatley NSW Government Architect

This college received a Merit Award from the Institute in 1980. Its design was the work of the NSW Government Architect, John Thompson, the principal architect, Les Reedman, the project architect, Colin Still and landscape architect Bruce Mackenzie. Working drawings for the college, which was to be erected within a brick pit, were prepared in 1975. Site works and the skeleton of the complex were built between 19751977, however,

7. University Union, Macquarie University (1965) Ryde Ancher Mortlock Woolley

The choice of o-form concrete and the structural grid for this building were set by the existing library building. The building is planned around an east-west service and vertical access spine and was intended to be extended. Lounges and galleries were to the south and larger volumes were to the north. The building forms one side of the main quadrangle of the university. A model of the imposing structure was published and, later, photographs. The Union Building works outwards from its basic cuboid shape. Its strong forms and tough nishes seem to express youth, non-conformity and impatience with formality [that] is the spirit of todays university student. (Cross Section, 1 May 1970). It was not only the university buildings by Le Corbusier in Europe and America that were inuential in this design, the university buildings by Australian architect John Andrews at Harvard, US, and in Canada, which departed from the traditional quadrangle form, were also much admired. Photo: Cross Section, 1 May 1970. Dr Noni Boyd.

6. Warringah Civic Centre (19701973) Dee Why Edwards, Madigan, Torzillo and Briggs (EMTB)

The Warringah Civic precinct, including the Warringah Civic Centre, and the Warringah Library (19651966) was designed by Colin Madigan and Chris Kringas of Edwards, Madigan, Torzillo and Briggs with landscape by Bruce Mackenzie. The complex was built in two stages, the rst of which received the Institutes 1966 Sulman Award. Described as an outstanding example of both the harmonious development of a rugged bushland site and the design of visually strong and dramatic structures, the impressive complex was built on a sandstone shelf forming a new Acropolis above the town centre. The complex is recognised by the Institute as having signicance, though there have been a number of redevelopment proposals in recent years. Photo: Max Dupain.

4. Sirius Apartments (19761980) The Rocks Tao Gofers for the NSW Housing Commission

In 1976, the Green Ban that had halted the redevelopment plans of the Sydney Cove Redevelopment Authority (SCRA) was lifted to allow for the construction of a substantial public housing block on a site occupied by Housing Board buildings erected in 19131916 after the realignment of Cumberland Street. These bond stores, warehouses and government oce buildings had, in turn, replaced a series of sandstone townhouses erected in the 1840s along similar lines to London townhouses. A prototype for the Sirius Apartments complex was built at Brighton Le Sands, and still survives. The carefully modulated block, inspired by Moshe Safdies Habitat 67 in Montreal, Canada, contrasts with the public housing complex Greenway, on the other side of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, designed by Morrow and Gordon and built during 19481953.Photo: Courtesy Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority.

5. Readers Digest Building (19651967) Surry Hills John James

John James designed the Readers Digest Building to t comfortably into its context, a jumble of warehouses and terraces. Jamess philosophical opposition to Brutalism is often quoted. He based his carefully crafted designs on humanist considerations, such as the framing of views. The facade rhythms were derived from a naturally occurring sequence, the Fibonacci sequence: the facade was designed to grow out of the street in the way of the renaissance palazzo.The roof garden by Bruce Mackenzie is one of the rst postwar examples, and was notable for the use of Australian plantings (with exotics for colour) and sculptures by Douglas Annand. The composition was described in the August 1968 edition of Cross Section as A mannerist relish of junctions detailed with extraordinary ebullience and stairwells of hectic drama. The Readers Digest building is arguably Jamess most well-known work. Photo: Cross Section, 1 August 1968.

a funding freeze halted completion, the contract for which was let in April 1978. The pit became an attractive lake that collects stormwater from the surrounding area, and was described in the 1980 Public Works Annual Report as a unique solution to the accommodation requirements of the client on an environmentally hostile site. The use of water as a landscape element and the inclusion of dramatic shadows on the building form reect the inuence of Mexican architecture on the project architects approach to design. Photo: Max Dupain.

2. Sydney Masonic Centre (19741979) Joseland and Gilling Civic Tower (1999-2004) PTW

The Sydney Masonic Centre was designed in the early 1970s by the longstanding rm of architects Joseland and Gilling. Only the podium was initially erected; this was completed in 1979. The intended tower was added 30 years later to designs by Peddle Thorp and Walker. The glass tower idea initially submitted by the developers, who had purchased the air rights, was scrapped in favour of a design that drew closely on the initial proposal. Max Dupains photographs capture the qualities of the foyer and exterior of the recently completed rst stage. Photo: Patrick Bingham-Hall.

A gallery of iconic and award-winning Sydney buildings from the 1960s to the 1980s.

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