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OBITUARY
Architect, educator, furniture designer, set designer, innovator,
utopian, Bill Lucas died last year in the midst of ongoing work.
Ruark Lewis and David and Anne Lucas compile a brief account of his
diverse career and Peter Myers gives an affectionate account of this
remarkable man.
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Review |
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When Bill was at Castlecrag and later
Paddington, I, like many of us, used to drop in from time to
time. I never ceased to marvel at Bill’s working drawings for
his wonderful houses, usually one A2 sheet of tracing paper with
all the plans, sections and elevations, plus a handwritten
specification down one side in his decisive italic script.
That was all he needed to begin construction; the economy
of means of Bill Lucas’s houses began with an austere sheet of
working drawings and continued right through to the understated
elegance of the completed project.
For example, his little timber and glass pavilion up on
the slope at Surf Road, Palm Beach, will, if it has withstood
the ravages of Sydney’s real estate maelstrom, be one day even
more treasured for what it is – an architectural masterpiece!
You see, it is easy to miss Bill’s commitment to the idea
of the “solo architect in mass society” and maybe just relegate
him to the margins of the so-called Sydney School.1 However,
unlike many of his then contemporaries, Bill Lucas never lost
sight of the idea of the architect as a maker of prototypes,
from which others could learn and progress.
So, like his mentors Amancio Williams, and Rafael Soriano,
Bill Lucas always saw the universal possibilities in even the
most modest commissions, such as the stillcathartic Bennett’s
Grove housing Bill did with the late Michael Coote in
Paddington.2
That all work is purposeful and to be done “at the edge of
the possible” is a concept we more readily associate with
painters and sculptors, except in a rare occurrence of an
architect of Bill Lucas’s vision and ability.3
I remember, at the time of Bill’s studies for a proposed
multi-storey building in Potts Point for the Clune family, that
we went over to look at a prototype housing extension somewhere
in Cremorne. In this little extension were all the principals
Bill wanted to further refine in the Clune tower; it was a
marvellous demonstration of just how a truly creative mind can
transcend even the limitations of a new front verandah.
Of course, like Williams and Soriano, Bill was way ahead
of his time: the Clune project was to have walls of vegetation
sustained by its own recycling systems, etc, etc, all of
twenty-five years before it even began to be discussed here in
Australia.
If there is a call that we can make at this time I believe
it is for the establishment of a W. E. Lucas Archive at the
State or National Library to further the study of his work and
to facilitate the drafting of some sort of advanced permanent
conservation order status for those still-intact Bill (and Ruth)
Lucas houses, such as their ever-exhilarating 80 The Bulwark,
Castlecrag.
Bill Lucas was one of those really important Australian
architects, whose renown will grow exponentially in coming
generations.
Finally, I think Bill Lucas, and especially his
architectural journey, can be best described in that old garment
district oneliner, “forget the width, think of the quality!”4
1. Famously coined by Frederick Starr to describe his
architect hero Konstantin Melnikov (1890-1974).
2. Amancio Williams (1913-1989) radical modern Argentine
architect. Rafael Soriano (1970-) Greek modern architect active
on the West Coast of the US. Michael Coote (died several years
ago, Bill told me this year), AA Dipl, Rhodesian expatriate and
architectural design lecturer at UNSW during the 1960s.
3. Statement made by Joern Utzon during a 1973 BBC
television interview.
4. Of which the obverse is “forget the quality, think of
the width”.
Peter Myers
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A career in brief |
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Bill Lucas, born 31/12/1924, Sydney.
1943-46 RAAF Air Crew active service. 1946-50 School
of Architecture, University of Sydney, awarded B.Arch(Hons),
studies visual art at East Sydney Technical School. 1948
Works in New Zealand with Hugh Grierson Architects, and designs
and builds first home at Gymea Bay, Sydney, with his brother
Neville.
1948-51 Designs Gymea Bay Community Hall and Gymea
Bay Baby Health Centre. 1950 Buys 3 adjoining house sites
in Castlecrag. 1952-55 Designs and builds furniture with
Lucas-Gee Associates, the Kearns House at Sylvania, and various
other steel and timber houses. Designs factories. Develops
systems for furniture manufacture. 1955-57 Design Group
with Neville Gruzman, Ruth Harvey and Tony Moore. They lobby for
an international competition and jury for the proposed Sydney
Opera House. 1956 Marries colleague Ruth Harvey. Wins
Forestry Commission Furniture Competition.
Designs and builds Mt Irvine Village Hall. 1956-60
Designs road haulage depots and offices for Kwikasair & Ipec.
1956-63 Works with Marion Best, interior designer
and Carl Neilsen, industrial designer on Elizabeth Arden Salon
and Moonbah Ski Lodge, Thredbo. 1957 Designs The Glass
House, 80 The Bulwark, Castlecrag, with Ruth Lucas. 1960
Gyngell House,Woollahra, and Saltis House, Castlecrag. 1961
Works to reclaim the Marion Mahony/Walter Burley Griffin
parkways and outdoor amphitheatre in Castlecrag. 1962
Designs Orange Tree Grove Cooperative Art Centre with Owen
Tooth, Marion Best and Mary White. Moves to Underwood Street
Paddington and helps to develop The Paddington Society and its
objection to inner city slum clearance. 1960s With
selected architects creates the inaugural UNSW architecture
program and begins tutoring.1965-75 Design tutor, co-ordinating
students (UNSW, USyd, NSWIT) on projects for R. Buckminster
Fuller’s World Design Science Decade. As a result RBF visits
Australia on several occasions. 1966 Designs and builds
final house at Castlecrag. 1967 Clune House, Avalon.
Designs medium density housing project, Orange Tree Grove,
Paddington, on proposed arts centre site, and supervises
construction.Works to develop proposals for Tranby Aboriginal
Cooperative at Mission Beach Queensland. 1968 City
Council plants Paddington street trees as proposed. Designs
Blackheath Motor Inn. Designs a motel tower with perimeter
indigenous plants each level (retaining the ”Yellow House”), for
the Clune Family. 1969 Integral role in establishing the
Paddington Market Centre with Uniting Church. 1970
Arranges purchase of “Sea View Villa”, Oxford St, Paddington,
(built by Alfred Fairfax, 1841) where Ruth helps helps to
establish Guriganya Progressive Community School. Designs and
builds Bourke Aboriginal Housing with community. 1973
Works with students on the major Woolloomooloo redevelopment
proposal. Designs and installs hygiene infrastructure at the
Aquarius Festival in Nimbin. Codesigns Murawina – Kindergarten &
Hostel for Aboriginal Mothers, Redfern. 1975 Begins
documentary of Paddington’s renewal and regrowth. Loses
Underwood properties. 1978 Designs Sieverding House.
1979 Visits Bali on study tour for proposed Masters Degree,
“The Greening Of Cities”. Media Room for Reg Grundy, Bayview: a
four-hour fire-rated prototype for rebuilding cities. 1981
Begins collaborations with Theatre Unlimited. 1983
Designs sets for One Extra Dance Company. 1985 3 month
study trip working with the people of Erromango, Vanuatu.1985-2001
Honorary technical advisor to many individuals and community
groups here and Europe. 1990-2001 Occasional associate,
Cracknell & Lonergan Architects (Tranby Aboriginal Coop). Recent
studies and proposals testing evolving systems include: UTS
Redevelopment, Broadway; Taylors Square Redevelopment;
Reservoir and John Thomson Reserve, Paddington; Alexandra
Canal; Green Square; Everleigh Workshops; MCA; Circular Quay;
West Circular Quay; Circular Quay; UNSW Redevelopment; White
City Redevelopment; Police Citizen’s Youth Club, Paddington.
2001 Dies of a heart attack at Thredbo. Bill Lucas is
survived by his ex-wife Ruth and six children. |
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