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Harry seidler dies

astrojax69

01:43 / 09.03.06

don't know if there is much discussion on architecture on this board - must confess to it being one i rarely venture into [not for want of interest..] - but if there is perhaps
the news of harry seidler's death will be sad news to some.

he was an iconic australian designer who developed from his bauhaus roots to make some truly wonderful and revolutionary buildings. a fellow architect was just heard to quip on a radio report that he often wondered, as a boy, why a tall round building was called 'australia square'.

vale harry

Loomis

08:40 / 10.03.06

This site has some cool pics.

astrojax69

02:16 / 11.03.06

thanks loomis. there doesn't seem to be much interest in architecture here...

lot of people saying he was an ugly designer - i think he was more a function over form designer. that said, blues pt tower is pretty ugly, esp given its most fantastic site [for those unaware, right beside the harbour bridge in sydney, one bay along, diagonally opposite the opera house.]

but he brought solar passive into the australian equation - bless him for that alone!

Jack Vincennes

06:04 / 11.03.06

astrojax: i think he was more a function over form designer

Just from those photos, I think I like the more functional work better -none of the houses appealed to me, I didn't like the look of the 'flowing' roofs so much. But I liked almost all the apartment buildings, which had a much more functional design.

Incidentally, is there a reason I think I've heard of the Meriton Tower? I have this idea I've seen it in my brother's BIG BOOK OF MASSIVE SKYSCRAPERS or somewhere like that...

astrojax69

20:01 / 12.03.06

my new sweetheart, bless her, moved out from my place (where she'd been, initially, just a tenant) into a seidler-designer flat in canberra, where we have a few of his houses - and had more that have since been replaced by other buildings for various reasons.

i suspect she may be the first new tenant in a seidler place post his death? how about that? (and i happened to be driving past her soon-to-be-home on thursday as they were discussing him on radio and mentioned those particular units! [cue twilight zone theme...] )

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