National Library of Australia - Gateways

ISSN 1443-0568 | no. 70 | August 2004


Kenneth Myer Lecture* 2004
Modernism’s Legacy and Future: Harry Seidler AC, OBE

A black & white photograph of Harry Seidler.  Copyright Montalbetti+Campbell
Harry Seidler
Copyright Montalbetti+Campbell

2004 is the ‘Year of the Built Environment’, so it was fitting for the Friends Committee of the National Library of Australia to decide that this year the Kenneth Myer Lecture would be delivered by a specialist in a field not previously represented in this celebrated lecture series—namely architecture. They  have invited as speaker one of the world’s great living architects, Harry Seidler AC, OBE.

Harry Seidler was born in Vienna and was educated there and in England. He studied in Canada before winning a scholarship to Harvard, where he attended Walter Gropius’ Masters Class. He studied design under Josef Albers, and became Marcel Breuer’s chief assistant in New York. After working with Oscar Niemeyer in Rio de Janeiro, he commenced architectural practice in Sydney in 1949. His first commissioned house in Australia, the Rose Seidler House (1950) at Wahroonga, is owned and operated as a House Museum by the Historic Houses Trust of  NSW.

Harry Seidler’s awards and honours are far too numerous to list; however, he is an Honorary Fellow of both the American Institute of Architects and the Royal Institute of British Architects, with the latter awarding him their highest honour, the Royal Gold Medal, in 1996. He is a Life Fellow of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects and has received over 50 awards for his work over the years, including five Sulman Medals and the Gold Medal of the RAIA in 1976. He was awarded the British OBE in 1972 and Australia’s highest Honour, the Companion of the Order of Australia, in 1987. He was elected Member of the Académie d’Architecture de France in 1982 and was awarded Austria’s highest honour, The Cross of Honour for Arts & Sciences, 1st Class, in 1995, and the Gold Medal of the City of Vienna in 1989. He has received Honorary Doctorates from the University of Manitoba, Canada, the University of Technology, Sydney, the University of New South Wales, and the University of Sydney, as well as the Golden Decoration for Services to the Viennese State.

Like many exponents at the height of their craft, Harry Seidler has taught and lectured extensively all over the world. He was Visiting Professor at the G.S.D. Harvard (1976-77), Thomas Jefferson Professor at the University of Virginia (1978), E.T.H. Zürich (1993), as well as lecturing at many Australian universities. He is currently Adjunct Professor of Architecture at the University of Sydney and a member of the Visiting Committee of Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

The work of Harry Seidler is built upon, and extends, the tenets of modern architecture. He has completed projects in Australia, Europe, Central America and Asia. Best known for his domestic work, apartments and high-rise offices, his designs include the Australian Embassy in Paris, the Hong Kong Club and Offices, Australia Square, Grosvenor Place, the MLC Centre and the Horizon apartments in Sydney, QV1 in Perth and the Shell Headquarters in Melbourne. In his native Vienna, he has built a self-contained community for 2500 people along the Danube.

Harry Seidler will make a significant contribution to the tradition of the Kenneth Myer Lecture when he comments upon the responsibilities of the modern architect to both society and to the natural environment in his talk, Modernism’s Legacy and Future.

Don’t miss this world-class presentation on Thursday 5 August 2004, at 6 pm in the National Library Theatre.
—James Halligan, Executive Officer, Friends of the National Library of Australia Inc.

*The Friends of the National Library of Australia instituted the Kenneth Myer Lecture in 1990 as a major annual event in recognition of Kenneth Baillieu Myer’s outstanding contribution to the National Library. Kenneth Myer’s lengthy and intimate association with the Library includes his appointment in 1960 as an inaugural member of the Interim Council of the National Library, his appointment as Chair of the Library Council 1974–1982, and as a most generous donor to the Library’s Trust Fund as well as to numerous other specific Library programs. The underlying philosophy of the Kenneth Myer Lecture is straightforward: to provide an eminent Australian with a forum in which to make a significant comment on a subject of importance to them. Many distinguished persons have previously delivered the Lecture, including a former Prime Minister, a former State Governor, a Nobel Prize winner, and others outstanding in the fields of theology, business, politics, academia and science.

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