The Influence of Harry Rembert's European Architectural

“Enthusiasm, Energy and Originality”: The Influence of Harry Rembert’s European Architectural Investigations on Australian Post-war University Design Nicola Pullan and Robert Freestone University of New South Wales Tertiary expansion during the 1950s and 1960s in Australia was unprecedented. With growing student numbers and a global technological revolution came the pressing need for modern scientific educational and research facilities. This paper examines the design of university campus buildings during the post-war decades through the lens and the mobility of European influences both physical and cultural. The NSW Government Architect was charged with the design and construction of new buildings for higher education in Sydney. To meet the design needs of this challenging program, in 1955 Harry Rembert, the office’s Senior Designing Architect, embarked on an extended architectural study tour overseas, visiting North America, the UK and Europe. Already a practitioner of Dudokian Modernism experienced at a distance through architectural journals, Rembert was enlightened and excited by his first-hand encounters with the “inherent good , edited by Victoria Jackson Victoria by , edited Energy and Originality’: The taste” of the best modern European architecture. In the only substantive report of his career, he documented the “enthusiasm, energy and originality” of European exemplars of community facilities, administrative buildings and housing, as well as laboratories, schools and other structures. He returned to Sydney to direct, give responsibility to, and then support a group of younger architects striving to make their mark with innovative modernist designs whilst still acknowledging Proceedings of the Society of Architectural Historians, Proceedings of the Society of Architectural , Distance Looks Back the country’s distinctive character and traditions. Drawing on Rembert’s report, 36 archival research and interviews, our paper addresses the question “What is Europe?” by examining the concept of Europe and the European through the eyes of an Australian architect charged with the oversight of major state government and Robert Freestone, “‘Enthusiasm, projects. It explores the influence of his and his colleagues’ appreciation and understanding of European Modernism on the design of buildings constructed Pullan from the mid-1950s at the University of Sydney and the new University of New South Wales. Nicola Influence of Harry Rembert’s European Architectural Investigations on Australian on Investigations European Architectural Rembert’s Harry of Influence Design” in University Post-war Zealand and New Australia 2020), 324-38. SAHANZ, (Sydney: Andrew Leach and Lee Stickells Wyatt, 10, 2019. for publication November Accepted Keywords: Modernism; Harry Rembert; University of Sydney; University of New South Wales; School of Chemistry; Fisher Library 324 The post-war decades in Australia saw a period of massive growth in university campus construction as the student population rapidly increased and tertiary institutions were required to offer a modern technological education. In New South Wales, the Government Architect’s Branch of the Department of Public Works was charged with providing for these needs. However, by the late-1940s, long disrupted by depression and war, the rate of government building had declined and the quality of architecture stagnated leaving the Government Architect’s Branch (hereafter GAB) with few enthusiastic and inspired architects and a reputation for mediocre design that failed to acknowledge contemporary 1 1 Russell C. Jack, “The Work of the N.S.W. innovations. This was also the case with many private Government Architect’s Branch – 1958-1973” architectural firms. Despite this general weakening of design (M Arch. diss, University of New South Wales, 1980), 3. skills, a small number of architects had contrived to break with the past and were producing high quality architecture during this period. Among them was Harry Rembert, whose work in the GAB’s general drawing office during the 1930s and 1940s was a major contribution to the small assemblage of modern, 2 2 Peter Webber, “E. H. Rembert”, Architecture inter-war Functionalist-inspired public buildings in NSW. Australia 74, no. 1 (1985): 51-58, 51. As building recommenced after the war, Harry Rembert was given responsibility for the design output of the office and commenced a number of initiatives aimed at improving design standards. In 1955, to prepare for the specialised requirements of the looming technologically-challenging tertiary building program, he embarked on a four-month international architectural study tour. Although his brief was to investigate university, school and hospital design innovations, as a practitioner of Modernist architecture Rembert was particularly enlightened and excited by his first-hand encounters with the many examples of the best contemporary European design he 3 3 Andrew Andersons (trainee and architect saw en-route. In the only substantive report of his entire career, with GAB 1959-1989), interview with author Rembert documented these European exemplars of Modernist 1, March 27, 2019; E. H. Rembert, Report on Architectural Investigations Overseas 1955 architecture in detail and returned to Australia determined to (Sydney: Government Architect’s Branch, Department of Public Works of New South continue to encourage and support comparable design standards Wales, 1955), 3. 4 amongst the staff of the specialist section of the GAB. 4 Rembert, Report, 8. Rembert’s individual work has been discussed in a small number of publications as has his position in the GAB, however his role in the introduction of Modernism to university campuses 5 in NSW remains unacknowledged. Drawing on Rembert’s 5 Ted Heath, “The Work of the New South Wales Government Architect,” The report, archival research and interviews conducted by the Architectural Review (December 1967): 472-75; Peter Webber, E. H. Rembert: The authors with three of the trainee-architects involved at the Life and Work of the Sydney Architect, 1902- 1966 (Sydney: University of Sydney, 1982); time, our paper addresses the question “What is Europe?” by Webber, “E. H. Rembert.” examining the concept of Europe and the European through the eyes of an Australian architect charged with the oversight of 325 major state government projects. It explores the influence of his and his trainees’ appreciation and understanding of European Modernism on the design of buildings constructed from the mid-1950s at the already-existing University of Sydney and the newly-established University of New South Wales, and proposes that his oversight of, and support for, their innovative designs led to a significant elevation in the standard of architectural design achieved by the NSW GAB by the mid-1960s. Harry Rembert, Senior Designing Architect A quiet and retiring person, Edward Henry (Harry) Rembert was articled in 1920 to Thomas J. Darling, a well-regarded Sydney architect, and studied architecture part-time at Sydney 6 Technical College, qualifying in 1924 aged 22. He then 6 Webber, “E. H. Rembert,” 51. worked in the office of Henry White before commencing at the “remarkably entrenched and conservative” GAB in 1926, the year Walter Gropius completed the Bauhaus Buildings and Le Corbusier announced his Modernist design manifesto, “Five Points of a New Architecture.”7 Certainly aware of Frank Lloyd 7 Webber, E. H. Rembert, 4, 10; Richard Ingersoll and Spiro Kostof, World Architecture: Wright’s dictum that “form and function were one,” Rembert’s A Cross-cultural History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 800. stylistic approach was influenced by European Modernism gleaned second-hand, initially the ideas of Gropius then, from 1936, “strongly and obviously” drawn to the design philosophy of Dutch architect, Willem Dudok, who promoted both “strong social feeling” in design and the privileging of public interest 8 Ingersoll and Kostof, World Architecture, 8 over individual design preferences. 796; Webber, E. H. Rembert, 58. Figure 1. E. H. Rembert, Senior Designing Architect, GAB. (Courtesy of G.P. Webber.) 326 Rembert appreciated buildings that were “uncompromisingly functional,” direct, utilised new techniques and materials and were “well put together,” yet were also sensitive to their context, suited to purpose, used natural materials honestly, and drew on 9 9 Webber, E. H. Rembert, 27; Webber, “E. H. a mainly natural colour palette. Notable examples of Rembert’s Rembert,” 53; Heath, “The Work of the New own work include Hunter Technical College, Newcastle (1935- South Wales Government Architect,” 475. 40) and the University of Sydney’s Wallace Theatre (1947), in which “greatest attention [was] given to the way in which it fits into the sloping site.”10 Fort Street Public School (1941) on 10 Webber, E. H. Rembert, 29, 35, 51. Observatory Hill was also a Rembert composition and has been described as “very much a Functionalist design, very unclassical … with all the bits articulated, given separate expression.”11 11 Andersons, interview, 2019. In 1947, Rembert was appointed Senior Designing Architect in the GAB by Cobden Parkes, NSW Government Architect.12 12 Webber, E. H. Rembert, 54. From this date, his personal design work ceased, replaced with supervision of the design work of the entire office. Fully supported by Parkes, Rembert instituted a number of organisational changes aimed at transforming ingrained practices.13 He first established the Design Room, a specialised 13 Webber, “E.

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