Robin Boyd: Australian Ugliness

In this very special event, we celebrate the legacy of Robin Boyd (1919–71), arguably Australia’s most influential architect.

Fifty years after its first publication, Boyd’s bestselling The Australian Ugliness remains the definitive statement on how we live and think in the environments we create for ourselves.

‘The basis of the Australian ugliness,’ he wrote, ‘is an unwillingness to be committed on the level of ideas.’

The re-release of this Australian classic will be celebrated at the Wheeler Centre with a discussion of Boyd’s seminal work and its continuing relevance.

Chaired by Michael Heyward, the speakers will be Karen Burns, Gideon Haigh and Brenda Niall.

Presenters

Karen Burns

Dr Karen Burns lectures in the Department of Architecture at Monash University (Caulfield).

Gideon Haigh

Gideon Haigh has been writing about sport, business, both and neither for almost thirty years. He left newspapers for freelance journalism in 1995, and has contributed to more than fifty different publications.

Brenda Niall

Melbourne author Brenda Niall has combined her career as an academic in Monash University’s English Department with that of biographer and literary critic.