Living the Modern: Australian Architecture

In Australia, many aspects of architectural Modernism have been transformed, interpreted, used, reformed and converted to that country's very particular geographic qualities, perhaps to a greater degree than in most other countries. Much Australian Modernist architecture is characterized by the pervasive presence of strong light, and by ranging structures that spread out across the terrain, avoiding any hierarchical organization of component parts in ways that would be impractical and inappropriate elsewhere. Living the Modern traces the unusually independent development of Australian architecture, through examples of constructions built in the last 15 years by 25 different architects. The culturally and environmentally specific development of Modern architecture (especially homes) in Australia demonstrates what a truly diverse "Progressive Modernism" might be. Essays by Philip Drew, Philip Goad and Gevorks Hartoonian elucidate its unique qualities.