Defining Visions Brochure

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EXHIBITION DATES: SYDNEY Customs House January – March 2018 MELBOURNE Federation Square April – June 2018 BRISBANE GOMA July – September 2018

“It was a conviction that what man’s eye seeks in our era, in our time, is not the ponderous solidity of traditional architecture where everything was built to four walls around a room and spaces that were finite. But rather our eyes seek transparency, lightness... being able to look through things.”

ADELAIDE State Library of South Australia October – December 2018 For more information: www.aia.com.au/definingvisions

Defining Visions An awakening of Australian Architecture

-Harry Seidler, Australian architect

Image Credits: Federation Square © 2008 Donald Tong Perth Arena © Peter Bennetts South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute © 2014 Peter Clarke

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In the period before European settlement of Australia in 1788, there were diverse forms of Indigenous architecture across Australia. As a commonwealth colony, the first European buildings were derivatives of the European fashions of the time.

As most of the colonialists where from England the first buildings reflected English ideas. Consequently, the pragmatic architectural traditions of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples largely went unrecognized by the European Settlers.

In contrast, contemporary Australian architecture has returned its focus to a more traditional style, through revitalized ways of thinking and new forms of expression. With twentieth century buildings no longer needing to be made of stone, more and more structures are utilizing steel and glass in their design. This has seen an opening of endless possibilities for space and light, and the transitioning of internal and external space as key design features.

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The use of new materials and technology has coincided with a flood of Utopian, yet uniquely Australian, design ideas.

Defining Visions celebrates the history of Australian architecture and its coming of age. Curated by the Australian Institute of Architects, this exhibition explores the journey that has seen the built environment transition from a position of appropriation to one of self-definition.

For much of the 20th century, architects debated over what it meant to be modern. Some argued that while the early modern architecture was dominated by physical function, it also needed to be balanced by an emotional, spiritual and social sense. Traveling to key Australian locations throughout 2018, Defining Visions is a visual exploration surrounding the intersection of modernism and Australiana and the resulting emergence of our own ‘Australian’ style.

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