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Harry Seidler Architect

Modern Architecture Practice in Australia – 20th Century Building Designs

post updated 15 Mar 2020

Harry Seidler Architecture Exhibition in Brazil

Intercontinental Curatorial Project in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Apr 11 – May 16 2014

1st of April 2014 – Intercontinental Curatorial Project’s exhibition Harry Seidler: Architecture, Art and Collaborative Design
will open next Friday, April 11 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil:

Harry Seidler: Art, Architecture and Collaborative Design
Instituto dos Arquitetos do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro
April 11 – May 16, 2014
http://www.iab.org.br/agenda/exposicao-arquitetura-arte-e-design-colaborativo-de-harry-seidler

The curator’s lectures:
April 10, 11 am – Faculty of Architecture an Urbanism, FAU-UFRJ
April 11, 7 pm – Instituto dos Arquitetos do Brasil

To view photos of the current exhibit in São Paulo until April 6, please visit:
http://curatorialproject.com/exhibitions/harryseidlerinsaopaulo.html

The book Harry Seidler: Lifework is released today by Rizzoli in stores and on Amazon:

http://www.rizzoliusa.com/book.php?isbn=9780847842285

11 Mar 2014

Harry Seidler Architecture Exhibition

Intercontinental Curatorial Project in Moscow, Russia

11 Mar – 11 Apr 2014

Intercontinental Curatorial Project’s special photo/video exhibition Australia: Seidler’s Modernism opened March 11 at legendary VKHUTEMAS Gallery at MArchI, Moscow Architectural Institute (State Academy):

Australia: Seidler’s Modernism
VKHUTEMAS Gallery, Moscow
March 11 – April 11, 2014
http://www.vkhutemas.ru/event/466

To view photos of the current traveling exhibit Harry Seidler: Architecture, Art and Collaborative Design in São Paulo (February 11 – April 6), please visit:
http://curatorialproject.com/exhibitions/harryseidlerinsaopaulo.html

Images:
Harry Seidler: LIFEWORK
RIZZOLI, April 1, 2014

Harry Seidler Exhibition in Bulgaria

Intercontinental Curatorial Project in Sofia, Bulgaria

10 Jan – 10 Feb 2013

Intercontinental Curatorial Project presents its ongoing traveling exhibition

‘Harry Seidler: Architecture, Art and Collaborative Design’ at Sofia’s VIVACOM Art Hall

Embassy of Australia, Paris, France, 1973-77:

photograph : Max Dupain

Opening Day Program, 10 January:
18.00 – exhibition opens
18.15 – intro speech by architect and co-curator Georgi Stanishev
18.30 – lecture by curator Vladimir Belogolovsky
19.30 – drinks

Photo report from Seidler’s Inaugural exhibition in Tallinn, Estonia:
http://curatorialproject.com/exhibitions/harryseidlerintallinnl

Featured Building

Australian Embassy Building, Paris, France
Date built: 1978
Architects: design with Marcel Breuer and Pier Luigi Nervi

picture © Rebecca Breun
Australian Embassy Building Paris
Parisian building in the Modernist style.
The distinctively Modernist embassy, and several pieces of its original furniture, was designed by Australian architect Harry Seidler, with Marcel Breuer and Pier Luigi Nervi being consulting designers. Like many works by this architect, the Embassy was built from precast modularised concrete, with a quartz and granite faced exterior and prestressed precast floors.

Architect Harry Seidler

1923 – 2006

Harry Seidler was born in Vienna, Austria.

In World War Two he escaped to England (he was the son of a prosperous Jewish merchant) when the Germany occupied Austria in 1938.

In England, he studied building and construction at the Cambridgeshire Technical School. In 1940, he was interned by the UK, and extradited to Quebec, Canada. He was released in 1941 on parole from internment to study architecture at the University of Manitoba.

He later studied under emigrant Bauhaus teachers in the USA – attending Harvard Graduate School of Design under Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer on a scholarship in 1945-46, during which time he did vacation work with Alvar Aalto in Boston drawing up plans for the Baker dormitory at MIT. He then attended Black Mountain College under the painter Josef Albers, and then worked for Marcel Breuer in New York. He also worked in the studio of the architect Oscar Niemeyer in Rio de Janeiro.

His parents migrated to New South Wales, Australia and commissioned him to design their home which became known as the Rose Seidler House in Wahroonga, New South Wales (1948-50). This project was the first domestic residence to fully express the philosophy of the Bauhaus in Australia.

In the 1960s he again broke new ground with his radical design for the Australia Square project (1961-67). At the time Australia Square was the world’s tallest light weight concrete building. The design introduced the two principles of incorporating large public open spaces and circular forms to office towers in Australia.

Harry was a founding member of the Australian Architecture Association. In 1984 Harry became the first Australian to be elected a member of the Académie d’architecture, Paris and in 1987 was made a Companion of the Order of Australia. Over the years he was also awarded five Sulman Medals by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects.

Harry Seidler – Key Buildings

1950: Rose Seidler House, Wahroonga, Sydney, Australia
1951: Marcus Seidler House, Turramurra, Sydney, Australia
1952: Hutter House, Turramurra, Sydney, Australia
1961: Blues Point Tower, McMahons Point, Sydney, Australia
1967: Australia Square Tower, Sydney, Australia
1962: Ski Lodge, Thredbo, Australia
1967: Harry and Penelope Seidler House, Killara, Sydney, Australia
1970: Condominium Apartments, Acapulco, Mexico
1975: MLC Centre, Sydney, Australia
1977: Embassy of Australia in Paris, France
1994: Harry Seidler Offices and Apartments, Milsons Point, Sydney, Australia
1982: Hillside Housing, Kooralbyn, Gold Coast, Australia
1984: Hong Kong Club Building, Hong Kong Central
1988: Grosvenor Place, Sydney, Australia
1986: Riverside Centre, Brisbane, Australia
1985: Garden Island Dockyard Workshop, Garden Island (Sydney), Australia
1989: 1 Spring Street, Melbourne, Australia
1990: Monash Gallery of Art, Wheelers Hill, Melbourne, Australia
1998: Horizon Apartments, Darlinghurst, Sydney, Australia
2000: Grollo Tower project, Melbourne, Australia – unbuilt
1998: Elizabeth Street Offices, Surry Hills, Sydney, Australia
2002: Hochhaus Neue Donau, Vienna, Austria
2006: Meriton Tower, Sydney, Australia
2003: North Apartments, Sydney, Australia
2007: Ian Thorpe Aquatic Centre, Sydney, Australia
2009: Alliance Française Building, Sydney, Australia

Key Architecture Awards

1966 Honorary Fellowship from the American Institute of Architects
1976 RAIA Gold Medal from the Royal Australian Institute of Architects
1987 Companion of the Order of Australia
1990 Gold Medal City of Vienna
1992 Officer of the Order of the British Empire
1996 Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects
1996 Austrian Badge of Honour for Science and Art

More architectural information on Harry Seidler online soon

Location: 2 Glen Street, Milsons Point, NSW 2061, Australia