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.

Crucial record of the best buildings created in one of the most fascinating and dynamic countries in the world. recording some two hundred of the most significant strauctures and places. These projects range from the breezy east-coast houses of Clare Design and Peter Stutchbury and the stadia built for the Sydney Olympics, to Melbourne's wave of daring monuments by Denton Corker Marshall, Peter Corrigan, Ashton Raggatt McDougall and Wood Marsh.

To understand how architecture is both built and practiced today, we often think of drawings and plans, digital visualisations and 3D models. Or, perhaps the tired 'napkin sketch' and its romantic progenitor, the architect's hand. However, these processes represent only a small portion of the full story.Better together: 33 documents of contemporary Australian architecture & their associated short stories does just that-examines 33 artefacts surrounding the design and construction of contemporary Australian buildings. The book's definition of architectural documents is expansive, encompassing not just working drawings, but correspondence, mock-ups and contracts, 1:1 models and conceptual sculptures, journalism, photography and other formats that expose the unique processes of contemporary architectural production.Through short stories, authors Guillermo Fernández-Abascal, Kate Finning, Urtzi Grau and Anna Tonkin contextualise documents from practitioners including Andrew Power, Edition Office, panovscott, Parlour, Richard Stampton, Sibling, Studio Bright, Trias, Vokes and Peters to unravel the artefacts' inner lives. Contributions by Giovanna Borasi, Bruther (Stephanie Bru), Sarah Hearne, Adam Jasper and Emma Letizia Jones, Erika Nakagawa, and Jesús Vassallo explore the potent conventions of gallery display, the value of big models and mock-ups, the multilayered relationships between photography and architecture, and the theatrics of the architect's studio. Originally presented as an exhibition at Monash University's MADA Gallery, this cross-section of the work of Australian architects highlights the best and most innovative in the field. It also presents a new blueprint for how we structure, document and understand contemporary Australian architecture.

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.

From the Sydney Opera House and the National Gallery of Victoria to sought-after homes across the country, the pervasive presence of modernism is inescapable in Australia. Led by the likes of Robin Boyd, Harry Seidler and Walter Burley Griffin, modernist architects and designers set out to rebuild at all scales, from vast infrastructure projects, to public health and education institutions, to new centres of culture, consumption and leisure.Australia Modern vividly captures this architectural legacy with a survey of 100 significant modern sites, richly illustrated with archival images and newly commissioned photographs. Contextual essays by leading voices in architecture and conservation explore modernism's influence on every facet of life in Australia and the ongoing challenges facing preservation. Showcasing projects from the iconic and the urban to the everyday, the regional and the lesser known, Australia Modern cultivates an appreciation for the modern architects and buildings that will increasingly constitute the heritage of tomorrow.