Architecture
Design Legacy: 5 Lessons Robin Boyd Taught Us About Architecture
Discover how this Australian architect developed affordable, functional, and well-designed houses with sensitivity to the local environment
Robin Boyd (1919-1971) was a prominent and prolific Australian architect, writer, teacher, and critic. He is recognised as a leading proponent of modern architecture in Melbourne in the 1950s and ’60s, adapting the rational design of the International Style to the Australian environment and climate. As an outspoken advocate for good design, Boyd challenged established tastes and passionately investigated architectural alternatives for more functional ways of designing houses and living in them.
Boyd is best known for his small house designs, his historical survey of Australian domestic architecture, Australia’s Home (1952), and his ground-breaking work, The Australian Ugliness (1960). Boyd also served as the first Director of the Small Homes Service provided by the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects from 1947–53. The unprecedented service provided plans and designs for affordable, well-designed houses, and promoted partially prefabricated homes with functional planning and modern aesthetics.
Boyd left an indelible and influential mark on Australian residential architecture. Here are five highlights of the many lessons he taught us about architecture and how they remain relevant today.
Boyd is best known for his small house designs, his historical survey of Australian domestic architecture, Australia’s Home (1952), and his ground-breaking work, The Australian Ugliness (1960). Boyd also served as the first Director of the Small Homes Service provided by the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects from 1947–53. The unprecedented service provided plans and designs for affordable, well-designed houses, and promoted partially prefabricated homes with functional planning and modern aesthetics.
Boyd left an indelible and influential mark on Australian residential architecture. Here are five highlights of the many lessons he taught us about architecture and how they remain relevant today.
A CONTEMPORARY EXAMPLE: Located in a precarious position, this New Zealand house has been built to merge with its cliffside location with a colour palette (the cladding is a mix of cedar board-and-batten and dark corrugated metal) that recedes into the background. The main living zone of this house wraps around a protected pohutukawa tree, embracing the tree as a sculptural focus.
Read more about this house
Read more about this house
LESSON 2: Define spaces for children and adults
With a focus on functional design and open-plan living, Boyd designed his houses with great consideration of who lived in them and how they lived in them. He created zones to temper the effect of adults and children living together in open plan spaces, with the intention to create mutual privacy for all.
In Walsh Street House – as can be seen in the elevation above – the two zones are physically distinct from each other, linked only by the walkway next to the courtyard. While the rear zone was for Boyd’s children, the front section contained a floating upper level for the adults (Boyd and his wife), which combines a formal living area, master bedroom and Boyd’s study. It is cantilevered over the lower level with a less formal family, dining, and kitchen space where adults and children spend time together.
Drawing by Rebecca D.G
With a focus on functional design and open-plan living, Boyd designed his houses with great consideration of who lived in them and how they lived in them. He created zones to temper the effect of adults and children living together in open plan spaces, with the intention to create mutual privacy for all.
In Walsh Street House – as can be seen in the elevation above – the two zones are physically distinct from each other, linked only by the walkway next to the courtyard. While the rear zone was for Boyd’s children, the front section contained a floating upper level for the adults (Boyd and his wife), which combines a formal living area, master bedroom and Boyd’s study. It is cantilevered over the lower level with a less formal family, dining, and kitchen space where adults and children spend time together.
Drawing by Rebecca D.G
A CONTEMPORARY EXAMPLE: The owners of this Arts and Crafts cottage in Perth extended the house to accommodate their three growing children. The box-like addition is eye-catching against the existing house. Internally, the box is its own zone, housing the children’s bedrooms, guest room and a bathroom, while the original house accommodates the parents.
Read more about this house
Read more about this house
LESSON 3: Create indoor-outdoor environments for family privacy
The interior courtyard is a signature element of Boyd’s residential designs, as he sought to incorporate private indoor-outdoor environments that fostered a sense of intimacy within the home. In this manner the courtyard becomes the centre of the house, and allows for light, privacy and a moderated outdoor living environment.
Boyd enclosed his interior courtyards with the walls of the house, be they solid material punctured with small windows, as can be seen in Baker House (pictured), or expansive glass panes, as in Walsh Street House (see elevation in third photo, above).
Photo by Chewy5000
The interior courtyard is a signature element of Boyd’s residential designs, as he sought to incorporate private indoor-outdoor environments that fostered a sense of intimacy within the home. In this manner the courtyard becomes the centre of the house, and allows for light, privacy and a moderated outdoor living environment.
Boyd enclosed his interior courtyards with the walls of the house, be they solid material punctured with small windows, as can be seen in Baker House (pictured), or expansive glass panes, as in Walsh Street House (see elevation in third photo, above).
Photo by Chewy5000
A CONTEMPORARY EXAMPLE: A void within this Sydney terrace is designed to be an internal courtyard completely secluded from neighbours. Light filters through the void, while concertina glass doors truly blur the lines between indoor and outdoor space.
LESSON 4: Incorporate multi-functional elements
Boyd rethought the structural elements of his design – the wall, roof, floor and window – interested in making such vital and fundamental architectural elements serve more than one function.
Subsequently, he invented the Stegbar Windowall, a modular, structural window framing system, seen here in Boyd’s 1967 Featherston House for Grant and Mary Featherston. Significant for its structural ability, the Windowall consisted of a prefabricated glazed stud frame that proved to be strong enough to support a roof while still incorporating doors and windows. Stegbar manufactured, mass-produced and marketed the Windowall nationwide in standard sizes and to special order, and it quickly became a distinctive element of Australian suburbs in the 1950s and ’60s.
Photo by Zaidaudi
Boyd rethought the structural elements of his design – the wall, roof, floor and window – interested in making such vital and fundamental architectural elements serve more than one function.
Subsequently, he invented the Stegbar Windowall, a modular, structural window framing system, seen here in Boyd’s 1967 Featherston House for Grant and Mary Featherston. Significant for its structural ability, the Windowall consisted of a prefabricated glazed stud frame that proved to be strong enough to support a roof while still incorporating doors and windows. Stegbar manufactured, mass-produced and marketed the Windowall nationwide in standard sizes and to special order, and it quickly became a distinctive element of Australian suburbs in the 1950s and ’60s.
Photo by Zaidaudi
A CONTEMPORARY EXAMPLE: The wall of windows is still ever-popular today allowing an abundance of natural light, warmth and sun to filter indoors. In this Mornington Peninsula home, one side of the living area is lined with windows, while another side is composed of concertina windows.
Read more about this house
Read more about this house
LESSON 5: Use materials reflective of the local environment
Boyd gave much consideration to the unique Australian environment – materials, landscape, light – and developed a style of architecture related to such.
For a great example of this design strategy, we turn again to Baker House, situated in Bacchus Marsh on the outskirts of Victoria. Boyd paid particular attention to the use of hardy, easy-to-care-for materials that reflected conditions of the surrounding Australian bushland. He utilised locally quarried stone internally and externally, straw ceilings, and bare concrete floors that gave texture and warmth to the house.
Photo by Chewy5000
Boyd gave much consideration to the unique Australian environment – materials, landscape, light – and developed a style of architecture related to such.
For a great example of this design strategy, we turn again to Baker House, situated in Bacchus Marsh on the outskirts of Victoria. Boyd paid particular attention to the use of hardy, easy-to-care-for materials that reflected conditions of the surrounding Australian bushland. He utilised locally quarried stone internally and externally, straw ceilings, and bare concrete floors that gave texture and warmth to the house.
Photo by Chewy5000
A CONTEMPORARY EXAMPLE: This rustic home on the South Australian coast is built with limestone and rammed earth from a local quarry. The low-maintenance materials are reflective of the landscape; they embrace the colours and textures of the coastline.
Read more about this house
TELL US
Can you identify elements of Robin Boyd’s architectural style in your house?
MORE STORIES
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Read more about this house
TELL US
Can you identify elements of Robin Boyd’s architectural style in your house?
MORE STORIES
Reinventing the ‘Bungalow Out the Back’
Roots of Style: How Did Your Rural Australian Home Get Its Look?
6 Houses Inspired by the Australian Vernacular Shed
Name: Robin Boyd (1919-1971)
Design philosophy: Cost-effective, high-quality, functional buildings can be accessible to all through effective design, simple materials and prefabrication methods
Distinctive style: Subtle materiality; sensitivity to the local environment; warm humanity
Significant projects: Fenner House, 1953-54; Walsh Street House, 1958 (a.k.a. Boyd House II); Baker House, 1964-66; Featherston House,1967
Honours include: The Australian Institute of Architects (AIA) awarded Boyd the Gold Medal in 1969, in recognition of his many distinguished works of architecture and architectural writing. Walsh Street House won the Royal AIA 25 Year Award (Victoria and National) in 2006.
While the following architectural lessons are not unique to Boyd, he did bring them to the fore at a time when many houses were poorly suited to Australia’s culture, climate and construction technology.
LESSON 1: Buildings should be sensitive to their environments
Boyd designed houses to be respectful of their neighbours, the streetscape and the environment. Consequently, he gave sensitive consideration to aesthetics, privacy, and a building’s impact on its surroundings.
Fenner House is unlike most Canberra houses of the time, which tended to face the street. Instead, Boyd designed Fenner House to straddle a larger corner site with two completely separate building blocks connected only by a glass entrance hall. He designed the north-facing ‘diurnal’ block with rooms that facilitated daytime activities (living room, dining room, kitchen and laundry); and the south-facing ‘nocturnal’ block for rooms predominantly used in the evening or night-time (bedrooms, bathrooms, a study and playroom).
Photo by Wikimedia Commons user Martin