In the 1950s, 60s and 70s architects like Harry Seidler, Robin Boyd, Ken Woolley, Michael Dysart and Graeme Gunn applied their talents to project homes, bringing high-end design to Australian suburbs.

A new book, Designer Suburbs revisits the era of Pettit & Sevitt, Merchant Builders and other project builders, when architects created small, deceptively simple houses which transformed the look of suburbia.

Join us for this evening talk to hear from Designer Suburbs’ authors Judith O’Callaghan (UNSW) and Charles Pickett (Powerhouse Museum), as well as Michael Dysart, probably the most prolific architect of designer project homes. Photographer Eric Sierins will focus on the photography of Max Dupain, David Moore, Wolfgang Sievers, a highlight of the book.

Speaker biographies

Michael Dysart designed the first Pettit & Sevitt project homes with Ken Woolley. These designs, the Split Level and the Lowline, were the most popular P&S homes throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Michael went on to design successful project homes for four other building companies including Program and Habitat. Michael also designed public and cooperative housing plus several schools and colleges for the NSW Government, including the famous UTS tower building. In 2009 he won the most recent of several awards for the renovation and recycling of a 1950s fibro weekender.

Eric Sierins began working for Max Dupain in 1989; with Jill White he took over the management of the Dupain studio in 1992 following Max’s death. Eric has become a leading architectural photographer in his own right, working with Harry Seidler, Ken Woolley and numerous other leading architects. Eric has also managed the Dupain and Associates photo archive so that Sydney’s great post-war era of architectural photography remains appreciated.

Judith O’Callaghan is a senior lecturer in the Interior Architecture Program in the Faculty of the Built Environment at UNSW. She was previously Senior Curator of Contemporary Design at the Powerhouse Museum and, before that, Curator of Decorative Arts at the National Gallery of Victoria. Major exhibition and publication projects have included The Australian Dream: Design of the fifties and Absolutely Mardi Gras: Costume and design of the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras.

Charles Pickett is Curator of Design and the Built Environment at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney. His books include The Fibro Frontier: A different history of Australian architecture, Refreshing! Art off the pub wall and Homes in the Sky: Apartment living in Australia (with Caroline Butler-Bowdon), winner of the 2008 AIA Bates Smart Award for architecture in the media.

$10 entry