Designing the ideal marriage

There was something about his power of expression and his determination’, reflected Penelope Seidler on her spouse and fellow architect, Harry. There was also the refreshing contrast to the ‘other boys’, whose conversations concerned ‘cars and drinking beer’.

According to Penelope, her husband Harry Seidler ‘was so … committed and so sincere and revolutionary … I could really see that he had drive’. Much of this drive was directed towards the application of modernist principles in architecture, with his vision seeing him winning every major Australian prize in the discipline. Among Seidler’s most noteworthy designs was ‘Killara’, the family home he and Penelope created. It won the 1967 Wilkinson Award, presented by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects for a design of outstanding merit. Harry’s portrait shows him seated in this space, evoking a quiet pride in his creation and career, while Fiona Lowry’s Archibald-winning 2014 painting of Penelope captures her expression as she looks back at Killara from behind the house, her countenance a mixture of grace and strength. In the 1950s studio portrait, the Seidlers appear the happy embodiment of glamorous modern Sydney.