Walter Bunning News Today

Increased environmental awareness in the 1960s drove designs using alternative technology. A revival of vernacular forms, exploratory domes and autonomous houses were intended to address issues of ecology and energy. Mainstream housing was untroubled by a few remote hippy houses on the fringe, no matter how audacious.

The word sustainability, at least as applied to design, traces back to the 1970s, but the origins of the idea go back to interests in passive solar and better urban design after WW2 (Homes in the Sun, Walter Bunning, 1945). The 1960s then saw two emerging and intersecting trends.

The National Library incorporates major works of art that have become closely associated with the building. As the concept for the Library’s building developed, the chief architect, Walter Bunning (1912-1977), made the suggestions for initial artworks, believing they should reflect the classical style of the architecture. Most of these works of art were commissioned by Bunning around the time the Library was opened in 1968, and can still be found in the foyer, exterior and grounds of the bu...

International House sits on City Road across from Victoria Park, between the Wilkinson Building and the Seymour Centre. Since opening seven odd decades ago…

Jackson finds that Freeland’s history holds up in the hindsight of more rigorous research, although she claims it mentions too few architects, which Jackson sets to ‘writes’ by name checking every architect with a significant building in Australia in the last 230 years.

Tone Wheeler Formidable designer Derek Wrigley, passed away last month, aged 97. You can find his obituary on the ArchitectureAU website and the DIA’s (Design Institute of Australia) website. I knew and worked with Derek for some years in Canberra and I think his design interests were so broad and deep that his exploits could have filled four lives. Architect Derek Wrigley graduated in architecture from the Manchester College of Art in 1945 and worked briefly in the UK before emigrating to Au...

Building art The National Library incorporates major works of art that have become closely associated with the building. As the concept for the Library’s building developed, the chief architect, Walter Bunning (1912-1977), made the suggestions for initial artworks, believing they should reflect the classical style of the architecture. Most of these works of art were commissioned by Bunning around the time the Library was opened in 1968, and can still be found in the foyer, exterior and grou...

The Lintel Sculpture is spread in monumental proportions above the exterior of the Library’s front doors. Comprising over 3 tonnes of copper, the sculpture was transported in 3 trucks to the Library, where the pieces were welded together on site. The work is based on allegorical symbols based on ancient Sumerian and Akkadian seals dating back to 3000 BC. At the centre is the winged sun, symbolising enlightenment and inspired truth. On the right are spear-like tree branches representing the ...

The National Library of Australia under construction, c. 1967, nla.obj-147040537 The National Library of Australia building located at Parkes Place, Canberra was opened on 15 August 1968 by Prime Minister John Gorton. When the building opened it was the first time since the Library moved to Canberra in 1927 that all of the collections and staff were located in one building. Walter Bunning (1912-1977) of the architectural firm Bunning and Madden was the chief architect in association with T.E...

Tone Wheeler Many know that my favourite book on Australian architecture is Walter Bunning’s Homes in the Sun, which I’ve referenced in talks and columns (see the Third Wave and the Future after Covid). So why, some correspondents asked, wasn’t it in my list of books for students? Good question. Answer here. It comes from a time when architects and authors were interested in the average house, mass and social housing, suburbia and urban planning. A golden era of innovation in the 30 or ...