The Australian Ugliness

The Australian Ugliness PDF Author: Robin Boyd
Publisher: Text Publishing
ISBN: 1921922443
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 301

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Book Description
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 railed 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 sustainability, 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.

The Australian Ugliness

The Australian Ugliness PDF Author: Robin Boyd
Publisher: Text Publishing
ISBN: 1921922443
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 301

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Book Description
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 railed 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 sustainability, 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.

After The Australian Ugliness

After The Australian Ugliness PDF Author: NAOMI ET AL. STEAD
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781760761899
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


Robin Boyd

Robin Boyd PDF Author: Christine Marie Phillips
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780648435594
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 108

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Book Description
Robin Boyd: Late Works unveils the urban and public architectural projects designed by Robin Boyd, one of Australia's most iconic mid-century modernists, in the final decade before his untimely death in 1971. One of the few architects in Australia's history to have become a household name, Boyd rose to prominence as a public intellectual after the release of his book The Australian Ugliness in 1960, a biting attack on what he saw as the debased quality of Australia's cities and design culture. Upon its release, the book drew both condemnation and praise in Australia's media, but in the process gave Boyd a national platform from which to campaign throughout the 1960s for the betterment of Australia's built environment. Concomitant with his public pronouncements during this time, though, Boyd was hard at work attempting to prosecute his vision of a more coherent and contemporary Australian urban environment and culture. This work took the form of building and planning designs, at sometimes vast scales, that run counter to Boyd's reputation as an architect of polite modernist private houses.Robin Boyd: Late Works considers these important but largely forgotten architectural projects alongside his exhibition work, multimedia designs and his writing. Bringing to light material buried deep in the archives of several national institutions, this book documents Boyd's ambitions and struggles to shape Australia's understanding of itself as an urban nation during this time. For Boyd, the 1960s was a turbulent decade of architectural practice that, by the time of his death, had come with thwarted ambitions and high personal cost.

Robin Boyd

Robin Boyd PDF Author: Geoffrey Serle
Publisher: Miegunyah Press
ISBN: 9780522872989
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Robin Boyd, gifted architect, writer, teacher and social commentator, was the leading Australian propagandist for the International Modern Movement in architecture. In partnership with Roy Grounds and Frederick Romberg, he was noted for his innovative domestic buildings. Indeed the suburban home was often a focus of Boyd's thinking, writing and criticism, and in Australia's Home (1952) he provided the first substantial interpretation of Australia's architectural history. But the most popular and controversial of Boyd's nine books was The Australian Ugliness (1960) in which he scourged prevailing tastes in both architecture and popular culture.The sentiments he expressed here made him one of Australia's liveliest social critics. But his criticism sprang from patriotism and ambition for his country. Boyd was a very private man who left few personal letters or records. In this highly acclaimed and beautifully-illustrated book Geoffrey Serle writes predominantly about Boyd's work and public activities, allowing key selections from Boyd's writings to reveal the inner man.

Ugly

Ugly PDF Author: Robert Hoge
Publisher: Hachette Australia
ISBN: 0733634346
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 106

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Book Description
A beaut story about one very ugly kid. Robert Hoge was born with a tumour in the middle of his face, and legs that weren't much use. There wasn't another baby like him in the whole of Australia, let alone Brisbane. But the rest of his life wasn't so unusual: he had a mum and a dad, brothers and sisters, friends at school and in his street. He had childhood scrapes and days at the beach; fights with his family and trouble with his teachers. He had doctors, too: lots of doctors who, when he was still very young, removed that tumour from his face and operated on his legs, then stitched him back together. He still looked different, though. He still looked ... ugly. UGLY is the true story of how an extraordinary boy grew up to have an ordinary life, and how that became his greatest achievement of all.

The Australian Ugliness: Text Classics

The Australian Ugliness: Text Classics PDF Author: Robin Boyd
Publisher: Text Publishing
ISBN: 1921921994
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 301

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Book Description
Brilliant, witty, scathing, The Australian Ugliness is the classic postwar account of Australian society, how we live in the environments we create, and the consequences of our failure to think about how we live.

A Life in Architecture

A Life in Architecture PDF Author: James Birrell
Publisher: University of Queensland Press
ISBN: 0702254320
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
In A Life In Architecture James Birrell reflects on his life in architecture: the influence of architect Roy Grounds; his respect for Walter Burley Griffin's original Canberra plan and his emphasis on the value of incorporating the landscape in its entirely into building design and planning; and his own significant contribution to Australia's post-war architecture. Birrell writes candidly about Queensland's lacklustre approach to town planning during the 1950s; the iconic buildings he designed in his years as Chief Architect for Brisbane City Council; and the revolutionary planning schemes he developed at The University of Queensland and James Cook University, in Papua New Guinea and regional Queensland. Now, at the age of 84, Birrell comments on Robin Boyd's 1960 book, The Australian Ugliness. While acknowledging the influence Boyd had on Australian architecture, he prompts readers to take a moment to consider their built environment in the light of the architectural legacy and lineage created by Griffin, Grounds and others.

The Swan Book

The Swan Book PDF Author: Alexis Wright
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501124781
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Originally published: Australia: Giramondo, 2013.

First Knowledges Design

First Knowledges Design PDF Author: Alison Page
Publisher: Thames & Hudson Australia
ISBN: 1760761850
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
Aboriginal design is of a distinctly cultural nature, based in the Dreaming and in ancient practices grounded in Country. It is visible in the aerodynamic boomerang, the ingenious design of fish traps and the precise layouts of community settlements that strengthen social cohesion. Alison Page and Paul Memmott show how these design principles of sophisticated function, sustainability and storytelling, refined over many millennia, are now being applied to contemporary practices. Design: Building on Country issues a challenge for a new Australian design ethos, one that truly responds to the essence of Country and its people. About the series: Each book is a collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous writers and editors; the series is edited by Margo Neale, senior Indigenous curator at the National Museum of Australia. Other titles in the series include: Songlines by Margo Neale & Lynne Kelly (2020); Country by Bill Gammage & Bruce Pascoe (2021); Plants by Zena Cumpston, Michael Fletcher & Lesley Head (2022); Astronomy (2022); Innovation (2023).

White Earth

White Earth PDF Author: Andrew Mcgahan
Publisher: Soho Press
ISBN: 1569474419
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 385

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Book Description
“The saga of the McIvors is nothing less than a grim and supremely entertaining take on colonialism in Australia and the tortured, stained hearts of all its New World cousins. A-.”—Entertainment Weekly After his father’s death, young William is cast upon the charity of an unknown great-uncle, John McIvor. The old man was brought up expecting to marry the heiress to Kuran Station—a grand estate in the Australian Outback—only to be disappointed by his rejection and the selling off of the land. He has devoted his life to putting the estate back together and has moved into the once-elegant mansion. McIvor tries to imbue William with his obsession, but his hold on the land is threatened by laws entitling the Aborigines to reclaim sacred sites. William’s mother desperately wants her son to become John McIvor’s heir, but no one realizes that William is ill and his condition is worsening. The White Earth won Australia’s Miles Franklin Award for 2005 and was selected as Book of the Year (2004) by The Age and the The Courier-Mail.