talked as we normally did when we met. I went away upset that he looked so ill, but I did not know then that Robin Boyd- he was about to go to hospital and to die. I think that his death brought a sadness and sense of personal loss to many people, some of whom knew him the student well but many only through his public activities. Somehow the personal qualities were communicated through the printed word, the voice and the television image. What he said, and the manner of his saying it, made him a very special person in the life of the Australian community. I remember so much gay, intelligent, happy, serious, - irreverent talk. I suppose, if I associated one particular word with him, it was "mad", which came so often in conversation and in writing. It meant a variety of things: "preposterous", "zany", "absurd", "pretentious", and he looked out on a world and in particular on Australian society with eyes which so readily and keenly saw the "mad"-ness in one or other of its forms. He was an unrelenting critic of society, but he worked from within, it. He set store, as anyone of us who refreshes memory from the photographs of him, remembers full well, by personal elegance, and he lived with grace. He worked very hard at the tasks of his profession, and he served- it not only as a practitioner, but as a devoted member and leader of its official organisations and activities. He was never an outsider. Yet no one had a keener eye Emergence of his literary and for the stuffy, the pretentious, the absurd. In this sense critical abilities in student he sympathised with young social critics and with publications "Lines" and others who questioned the ancient ways. He was kind, "Smudges" by Peter Newell, he was moderate, he was sensible and very practical L/FRAIA,ACIV. and meticulous; he was also irreverent and liked to Unlike the large numbers of students make his life among people who looked out on an odd enrolling or being refused admission and often not very pleasing world with eyes not very • into the architectural schools since different from his own, though none of us had his World War II, ours was a very small capacity to describe and dissect it. I think that he was but dedicated group which comprised happy to have public recognition, though he could laugh the composite course of the Royal a little at its forms. I remember that not so long before Institute of Technology his death he was given a decoration which a newspaper and the Melbourne University in the confused somewhat by giving it two different titles, mid-thirties. Obviously, we had and I wrote congratulating him and to ask which was ignored the warnings of our elders, the case, he replied that he was exhausted commanding who had either experienced or heard the British Empire. of the almost total unemployment over the previous five years of our Robin was a Lovely Man "feast and famine" profession which was only then recovering from the In the end he was cruelly exhausted and he has gone, Great Depression. and it is appalling that it is so. I remember, a month or Fortunately, we were not to know so after he died, sitting with another friend who knew that the architects were only to enjoy him well, as I did. He said that Robin was a lovely man. a few busy years, during which they It was an unusual word in the mouth of the man who partially surmounted the effects of spoke it, but I think that it was exactly right and I know the Depression, before World War II that there are very many who would agree. It is good closed down most practices for the that he had so much drive and energy and so much skill second time in a decade; otherwise in the harnessing and exploitation of that energy, our zeal might have been somewhat because he has left behind much that will, I like to think, diminished. have continuing impact on the life and style of this Certainly our motivation did not resistant country. And so long as those of us who knew stem from our (or our parents') him continue to live, we shall cherish, we shall specially belief in the social status and earning cherish, his memory. capacity of the architect, which * * # apparently contributes so much to About the Author swelling the numbers now entering Professor Zelman Cowen, CMG, DCL, MA Oxon, BA, LL.M Melb, the profession; but from our LL.D Hong Kong, has been vice-chancellor of secondary school art masters, who University since 1970. Prior to that, from 1967-1969, he was advised those of their students who vice-chancellor of the University of New . At this time, in excelled in sketching sprigs of pussy 1969, he produced The Private Man, for the ABC Boyer Lectures. willow or making geometrical Other distinctions include: Emeritus Professor University of drawings, to train as architects! Melbourne: Fellow and Tutor, Oriel College Oxford 1947-50; Robin Boyd was one of this small Professor of Public Law and Dean of Faculty of Law, University of number. He had been articled to the Melbourne 1951-67; Barrister-at-Law, Gray's Inn; Member of the Victorian and Queensland Bar; Foreign Honorary Member of the then-prominent architect/ American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Member of the Social businessman, Kingsley Henderson. Science Research Council of ; Member of the Board, This would have made him one of International Association for Cultural Freedom, 1970; elected an the last students to enter the Academic Member of the Hebrew University in 1969. profession under articles, before In 1953-54 and 1963-64 he was Visiting Professor, Harvard Law improved architectural education School and Visiting Professor at various times at the Universities and the Depression created lack of of Chicago, Illinois, Utah, Washington, St. Louis and the Fletcher parents with the necessary guineas School of Law and Diplomacy. He has been a director of the ended that invidious system. Australian Opera Company since 1970.

62 architecture in australia aprii 1973 He is remembered as a withdrawn, indiscriminately the good with the but witty, youth, whose literary bad; their descriptions and remarks ability was more apparent in the are often trite and misleading, early years of the course than his invariably flattering, and (is it ethical design talents. These were to to admit?) generally composed in develop later, culminating in his the office of the architect.responsible. winning the coveted Robert and Ada These columns are simply semi- Haddon Travelling Scholarship in social records of building operations 1947. —mere trade reports. The aesthetics In those days, the Victorian of the job are left to be gushed over Architectural Students' Society in the arty-crafty columns of the already published an annual women's page". magazine, "Lines", sub-titled "A In May, 1939, all registered Journal of Architectural and Allied architects and student society Interests". In 1937, a new editorial members received.the first copy of a committee comprising Roy Simpson, colourful newsletter titled Robin Boyd and Peter Newell was "Smudges" in their mail. Since formed, and "Lines" reappeared with nobody had been enterprising a new format derived from bold enough to heed the "Lines" editorial experiments in typography and a and publish unbiased architectural diversity of material from voluntary criticisms, Boyd, with the encourage­ contributors. ment of the V.A.S.S. Committee,- Perhaps because he was a member of launched this brash monthly, in the talented and the son which shattering criticisms of two of a distinguished artist, Robin recent city buildings appeared. campaigned continually against the "Smudges" had an immediate absence of informed architectural impact in the profession, because of criticism in Australia. the presumptuous manner in which This became the editorial theme of Two linocut covers of the student callow students awarded a "Bouquet "Lines, 1937", which pronounced, publication "Smudges", with a T-square of the Month" for what was, in their in part: "It seems a great pity that no theme. Top: symbolises the crosses of a considered judgment, the best honest criticism of local building war cemetery, July 1940. Bottom: building completed during the month design is available to the public. In "brandished defiantly", October 1939. and the "Blot of the Month" for the Australia, where architectural worst. appreciation is so limited and so As it grew in size, colour, little understood by the majority, enthusiasm and indiscretion, its cost there appears to be a great need for was defrayed by advertisements, of authoritative and unbiased criticism an appropriate character, contributed by the daily press. Such criticism by a few building material should have a twofold result. Firstly, manufacturers who remained loyal it would quicken interest and to its end. progress amongst practitioners. Secondly, it would give the laity a • Boyd's cynicism and satire, aimed fair indication of where, according to at the Australian scene generally and contemporary thought, lies quality. the state of the profession in "Criticism is the prerogative and the 'particular, pervaded each issue. stimulant of Art. Today, despite After its initial shock, the unprecedented dissemination of profession's reception of "Smudges" news and culture by the radio and the encouraged and sustained him. His press, criticism is practically denied penetrating insight and wit were the Mother of all Arts. The Building succinctly expressedwith a mastery columns of our daily press do not fill of phrase. this want. They associate "Smudges" unofficial publishing office was the snack bar at the

architecture in australia april 1973 63 Victorian Coffee Palace, where the editors, during meat pie and tea suppers, after signing off at the Atelier, selected the month's awards, prepared the copy and hacked out the lino cut illustrations. "Smudges" reputation spread inter­ state and overseas. Sydney's Modern Architectural Research Society Monthly "Angle" adopted its aims and format. In 1941, a copy found its way to the Harvard University School of Architecture, where an enthusiastic group of students launched a publication titled "Task". Their editorial board acknowledged that the U.S. Architectural students' concerns were identical to those in Australia and stated that their aim was "stimulating just that critical and vital spirit which was manifested in such original form in 'Smudges' ". Boyd's articles were terminated when his master found, to his embarrassment, that his pupil had no exceptions when choosing the

BLOT cuquet OF THE cl the iMcntA. MONTH

To Yurcken, Freeman, Freemen and Grif­ To Aichiteclurol Atelier administrators — for fiths, for the Barclay Hotel (nee Colonial Bank Koteil. Its tan, white and blue face-lift absolves ind (or the ill-mannered, ill-worded "confidential Little Collins Street cf another dreary survival of circular" sent to them by penny postage. ••'-'-.'-'••.'~vy\ P:--. '• ,; '

The famous Blot and Bouquet of the Month section from "Smudges", December 1939 Review.

recipient for the "Blot of the Month". a plan and perspective sketch of one the whole rotten row. Toorak Boyd then worked with of the standard designs available tradespeople seem to have until both enlisted in the services. from the bureau's library. pandered in a great big way to the Both "Lines" and "Smudges", If there were two pet aversions sentimentality of patrons who must having lost their principal inspiration, which stimulated the invective of the now bitterly regret their went into recess for the duration of "Smudges" editors, they were unenlightened excursions. But, once World War II. Toorak Village and the pretentious started, the villagers have outvied It is interesting, in retrospect, that "period" homes which were one another in the race for "Lines 1939-19??", in the last issue proliferating in that fashionable decadence. The result is a setting published before its editors went district. . . Under the caption which would disgrace a tenth-rate on war service, carried an article "Toorak Tombs", Boyd exploded comic opera." "Whoever it was who initiated the deploring the near-exclusion of the "Smudges" was given a good disgusting atavism in this shopping private architect from the small humoured reception by most of the centre of the old and new rich by house field. It proposed that, under recipients of the "Blots" until the recreating the walls of an insanitary the sponsorship of the Institute, a Melbourne Herald's building Tudor England by now have paid Small Homes Bureau should be set columns described "the combination ample penance in observing the up in order to provide the advantages of distinctive styling of Regency and plague they have started pursue its of a professional advice, at nominal other historic architecture" in a block nauseating path through our most cost, to a wide section of the public. of flats built in South Yarra in 1 940. exclusive residential areas." This article was well reported in the Boyd was outraged at this further "This hot-bed of architectural press and the origin of the successful example of unauthoritative corruption called Toorak Village! and influential Small Homes Bureau architectural criticism in the mass Decent, honest buildings cannot of the Melbourne "Age" and the circulation press, so itwas exist amongst this maudlin riot of Royal Victorian Institute of unanimously decided by the editorial half-timbered, crenellated erections. Architects which opened in 1950 committee to award the "Blot of the Pleasant buildings have been with Boyd as its first director. Each Month" to this lavishly praised scrapped to make way for the village week, the "Age" carried his widely building. Under the title, "Tudor idiot; there is no redemption in the read columns on various aspects of Queen Meets Regency Rake", he most distinguished reproduction in residential architecture illustrated by wrote "... there is something in

64 architecture in australia april 1973 Marne Street, South Yarra, which is as bad from a social viewpoint as it is aesthetically. Heaven only knows what it will become in time. It is as though a giant garbage tin had been shaken over Melbourne for about a decade and then, when it seemed that the contents had all come out, a particularly fruity, sticky hunk that had been jammed in the bottom suddenly became dislodged and fell into the middle of one of the most snobbish retreats in the city. 'There's one in your eye', said the giant garbage-tin-shaker. And one in their eye it is! Five stories of it tower above the slender poplars of graceful Marne Street. Its lengthy form is broken into innumerable bays by narrow cavernous light courts across which neighbouring tenants may conveniently discuss the weather. Rusticated brick effects abound. Defensive and offensive, below the tenants may harbour in an air-raid shelter, while high above them the more adventurous may shelter behind turreted battlements while they assail the night bombers with a flood of arrows." "Such is'Castle Towers', one of the worst things that has happened to Melbourne, one of the biggest and baddest of the war babies. If it lasts six months of the post-war world, we may well ask: 'What were we fighting for?' " Shortly after the publication of this outburst, the V.A.S.S. committee received an urgent appeal for assistance from their backyard printer, who had been joined with Robin Boyd, as "Smudges" editor and Ronald Bath, as its distributor, in a £3,000 libel writ, "Castle Towers" architect being the plaintiff. The shattering effect of this writ on Boyd's 1944 wartime Christmas card from the committee, whose average New Guinea. earnings would then have been about thirty shillings a week, can be ended with this epitaph:"... he died 1946, with the same format and imagined. The writ reproduced the because in peace he could not advertisers, under the editorship of article and referred to "distorted produce good architecture, in war . It was eventually photographs" and the reproduction he could not provide worthy superseded by "Cross Section", of a large blot of ink at the side of the national service". Although his which was published monthly by the "malicious words". prophecy was obviously exaggerated Melbourne University School of The case was eventually settled out by his depressed state of mind Architecture. of court, our counsel invoking, created by the war, "Death of the Shortly after the war, in addition to appropriately, a 19th century English Architect" was reported in several directing the Small Homes Bureau act to protect the writers of criticisms overseas architectural magazines. foreshadowed by "Lines" in 1939, of all forms of artistic endeavour. The prestigious New York Journal writing for "'s" weekly Nevertheless, we had to publish a "Pencil Points"—later to be architectural page and "Cross carefully worded apology—which revamped as "Progressive Section", Boyd began on the series was set in Gothic typeface— Architecture"—quoted it in full, of influential books, TV and radio acceptable to our opponent. Even the warning that Boyd's editorial "was, programmes which he produced over legal fee caused the always by no means, an inaccurate forecast the next twenty-five years. impecunious V.A.S.S. such financial of the situation a few years hence in The student who developed his embarrassment that readers' the USA". potentially great critical faculties donations had to be sought to settle Boyd's interest in the development and elegant literary style in student it. of the Australian house did not wane publications, emerged as one of the In the 32nd issue, published from his during his war service. His 1944 world's most prolific and respected army tent, Boyd wrote a bitter Christmas cards, mailed from New spokesmen for architecture. obituary, reporting the "Death of the Guinea, cleverly superimposed over Architect". a native village scene, a postwar^ The author gratefully acknowledges "... The architectural progression is, projection of a proud bride posing in the assistance of Mrs. Patricia Boyd for good or for bad,gone for good. front of her dream home and car and those of his contemporaries who Death of the Little Man of which had styling forecasting the filled the gaps in his memory of the Architecture: the private practitioner, postwar Holden. student years of this remarkable artist in business clothing". He "Smudges" was revived in April, man.

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