Robin Boyd (1919-1971), architect, writer and social commentator, tried harder than anyone else to persuade Australia to embrace Modernism. Born in Melbourne into the famous Boyd family of artists and writers, he designed his first houses in the late 1940s, and published Victorian Modern in 1947. Becoming noted for his remarkable domestic houses, Boyd was the Director of the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects Small Homes Service from 1947 to 1953. During this period he wrote weekly articles on architecture for the Age. In 1956 Walter Gropius invited him to take a teaching position in Boston, but he returned to Australia a few years later. Boyd's best-known book, Australian Ugliness, was published in 1960. A Life Fellow of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects, in 1969 he was awarded the RAIA Gold Medal. The Institute's annual national domestic architecture award is named in his honour.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased with funds provided by Sir Roderick Carnegie 2003
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