Books received
Australia Modern
Australia’s modernist buildings are at risk of becoming endangered. Many twentieth-century buildings have been lost, while the conservation of others is a live issue being hotly debated today.
Hannah Lewi and Philip Goad’s new book, Australia Modern, chronicles one hundred key modernist works by Australian architects from the 1920s to the 1970s. It surveys some of the most important nation-making buildings – from Melbourne’s Capitol Theatre to the Queensland Art Gallery and, of course, the Sydney Opera House – as well as some of Australia’s most revered modernist houses.
“It could be said that modernism’s trajectory paralleled this nation’s emergence and maturity,” the authors write.
The book also includes a series of thematic essays on building typologies, such as heath, housing, worship, landscape and infrastructure, as well as the influence of émigré architects on Australian architectural culture. It is well illustrated with archival images as well as newly commissioned photographs.
As US architectural historian and curator Barry Bergdoll writes in his foreword, Australia has a “complex roster of modernist works, ranging from those in tight dialogue with North American, European and even Japanese trends.”
This book is not only a celebration
