Harry Seidler (25 June 19239 March 2006) was an Austrian-born Australian architect who is considered to be one of the leading exponents of Modernism's methodology in Australia and the first architect to fully express the principles of the Bauhaus in Australia.
Seidler designed about 119 buildings (96 of which were in his home state of New South Wales) but some have since been demolished or altered in a non-Seidler manner, and he received much recognition for his contribution to the architecture of Australia. Seidler consistently won architectural awards every decade throughout his Australian career of almost 58 years across the varied categories – his residential work from 1950, his commercial work from 1964, and his public commissions from the 1970s. He was a controversial figure throughout his long career as he regularly publicly criticised planning authorities and the planning system in Sydney.
Early life Seidler was born in Vienna, Austria, the son of a Jewish clothing manufacturer. Soon after Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938, his older brother Marcell, who was already in England, obtained a visa for Harry to join him as a student in Cambridge.
Architecture education
In England, he studied building and construction at Cambridgeshire Technical School. Even though he was categorised by British wartime tribunal as a "Category C – no risk" refugee fleeing the Nazis,"Survivors of the Shoah Visual History – Harry Seidler filmed interview 21 September 1997. USC Shoah Foundation USA – view at worldwide access sites https://sfi.usc.edu/locator ; Oral history interview with Harry Seidler by Janis Wilton 15 January 1982 – transcript p. 15., Ethnic Affairs Commission of New South Wales – Oral Histories Project (N.S.W.). State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, https://primo-slnsw.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=ADLIB110316338&context=L&vid=SLNSW&search_scope=EEA&tab=default_tab&lang=en_US because he was born in Austria, on 12 May 1940, he was interned by the British authorities as an enemy alien,information on internment of civilians at http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/timeline/factfiles/nonflash/a6651858.shtml where he was in internment camps first at Huyton near Liverpool, then on the Isle of Man before being shipped to Quebec, Canada and continued to be internedfirst in Camp L in Cove Field Barracks, Plains of Abraham in Quebec City, then Camp N in Sherbrooke until October 1941, when he was released on probational release from internment to study architecture at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, where he graduated with first class honours in 1944.
After working briefly for an architectural firm in Toronto, Seidler (at the age of 21) became a registered architect in Ontario, in February 1945.
Although he was ten years old when the Bauhaus was closed, Seidler's analysts invariably associate him with the Bauhaus because he later studied under emigrant Bauhaus teachers in the USA. He attended Harvard Graduate School of Design under Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer on a scholarship in 1945/46, and during the university winter (Christmas) inter-semester approximate four weeks break Seidler worked with Alvar Aalto in Boston drawing up plans for the Baker dormitory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He then studied visual aesthetics at Black Mountain College under the painter Josef Albers in mid 1946 for the US summer.
Early career outside Australia Seidler worked as the first ever assistant to modernist architect Marcel Breuer in New York from late 1946 until March 1948. Seidler also worked in Rio de Janeiro with the architect Oscar Niemeyer for almost two months from shortly after 20 April to early June 1948.
Life in Australia
Seidler's parents migrated to Sydney, Australia in 1946, and (while he was working for Breuer in New York) in late 1947 or early 1948, his mother wrote to him to commission him to come to Sydney to design their home. Seidler arrived in Sydney on (likely) 20 June 1948 (which was a few days before his 25th birthday), with no intention to remain in Australia, but to stay only until the house was finished."Ancestry.com flight records show Seidler left Honolulu for Sydney on 18 June 1948 on a Pan Am clipper flight And flight schedules show it took 2 days to reach Sydney. So mistake in statements referring to arriving in July 1948 in Harry Seidler interview (oral history)" with Janis Wilton 1982, audio recording online at State Library of New South Wales sl.nsw.gov.au The house became known as the Rose Seidler House in Wahroonga, in remote bushland of a suburb on Sydney's Upper North Shore. This project was the first completely modern domestic residence to fully express the philosophy and visual language of the Bauhaus in Australia and won the Sulman Award of 1951. From the huge publicity of this house, others approached Seidler to design their homes. With so many clients and his enjoyment of the Sydney climate and harbour views, Seidler decided to stay in Australia.Harry Seidler interview with Alan Saunders, By Design, ABC (Australian Broadcaasting Corporation) Radio National, 18 July 1998; Harry Seidler "In Search of an Australian Style" article in Bulletin magazine Sydney issue entitled "Why Australia is the Best Place in the World to Live", pp. 60–64 at 60–61 The Rose Seidler House became a house-museum in 1991.
In 1952, Seidler successfully appealed against Ku-ring-gai Council's refusal to approve his design of a glass house in Roseville.
In the 1960s Seidler again broke new ground with his design for the Australia Square project (first designs 1961, plaza building 1962–64, tower 1964–67). At the time, the Australia Square tower was the world's tallest light weight concrete building. The design introduced the concept of a large public open plaza and prominent artworks to office towers in Australia.
In 1961, Seidler called for the Queen Victoria Building to be demolished, stating "It is an architectural monstrosity, a wasteful, stupid building". In 1966, he helped lead the protests to try to keep Jørn Utzon as the principal architect of the Sydney Opera House.
He was a founding member of the Australian Architecture Association. In 1984 he became the first Australian to be elected a member of the Académie d'architecture, Paris and in 1987 was made a Companion of the Order of Australia, an honour which he accepted in his trademark suit and bowtie. Over the years Mr Seidler was also awarded five Sulman Medals by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects, as well as the Royal Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal in 1976, and the Royal Gold Medal by the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1996.
Personal life
Citizenship Harry Seidler became a Canadian citizen when he was studying in the US in late 1945. He travelled to Australia in 1948 on his Canadian passport (which he collected in mid–1946). By 1958, he had lived in Australia for ten years, and then sought to renew his Canadian passport but was unable to do so because he had been a naturalised Canadian who had not lived in Canada for more than three years).Harry Seidler and Penelope Seidler interviewed by Craig McGregor on 11 February 1990. Craig McGregor MS7949 collection – Oral History and Folklore collection, National Library of Australia, Canberra. Bib id 6416295 He became an Australian citizen in late 1958 so he would have a passport to travel for work and his honeymoon.
Partnership with Penelope Seidler Harry Seidler married Penelope Evatt, daughter of Clive Evatt on 15 December 1958; they had two children.
Penelope Seidler, herself an architect, gained her Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Sydney and joined Seidler and Associates in 1964 as architect and financial manager. She co-designed the Harry and Penelope Seidler House in Killara which won the Wilkinson Award in 1967.Penelope Seidler filmed interview at the house for Monocle magazine, February 2016 entitled "Sydney Residence: Harry and Penelope Seidler House. February 2016" online at https://monocle.com/film/design/sydney-residence-harry-and-penelope-seidler-house/ . Film duration 6:51 minutes
Interests Seidler enjoyed photographing architecture around the world and some of these are documented in his photography book The Grand Tour. He also enjoyed skiing.
Death On 24 April 2005, Seidler suffered a stroke from which he never fully recovered, and died from septicaemia in Sydney on 9 March 2006 at age 82.
Modernism and principles of design
Seidler said the term "International Style" was a misnomer and so he objected to the term being used to describe modern architecture or his own architectural designs – as both changed over time as social use and building technology developed. Seidler insisted that Modernism was not a style but was in constant flux. Seidler would explain that Le Corbusier's 1920s modern architecture had columns placed 6 metres apart, whereas by mid-1980s pre-stressed concrete technology allowed 34 metre column-free space, resulting in different visual expression and openness in architecture.Harry Seidler oral history with Ken Henderson, 21 April and 21 May 1986, National Library of Australia oral history collection, cassette TRC 2173 transcript page 3 notes "modern architecture set out to solve problems of the time and it must, by definition remain in constant flux, it is not a style, it fought against stylism, ... to call it a style ... is an utter misunderstanding of what it set out to do. To demonstrate that one can still say that we may like or still love buildings Le Corbusier built in the 1920s, but they could not be reasonably built today (ed 1986) because technology has taken giant steps – I mean, you have office buildings that have columns at six metre centres. In other words, to span long distances was not feasible, not technically applicable to that time, it just wasn't known how to do that, economically or efficiently. Therefore those buildings by today's standards are outmoded." (Page 4) "pre-stressed concrete was ... not normally used in building (in early twentieth century). Whereas today, you can build buildings that have giant spans. We just built a building in Hong Kong that has 34 meter spans ... from one side to the other ... (hence no need for) columns everywhere"; Harry Seidler essay "Planning and architecture at the end of our century" sub-heading 'Opposition to Modern architecture' in Harry Seidler: Four Decades of Architecture by Kenneth Frampton and Philip Drew (Thames & Hudson, London & New York, 1992) p. 381; page 384 notes that this essay was based on the lecture entitled "A methodology" at the RIBA in London (10 January 1984) and 1987 Habitat Lecture at the Centre for Human Settlements, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada; Harry Seidler, "Movement Against Style" Keynote address at Royal Australian Institute of Architects' International Convention 'Challenge of Excellence', Melbourne, 9 March 1992 (video at Deakin University) or online ""You know there's a great misconception about that modernism is a style. It isn't. It is a methodology of approach, that is in constant flux, constant change. 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." at https://vimeo.com/16877925 ; "In the Mind of the Architect", Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV series episode 1 (2000) see full transcript at https://www.abc.net.au/arts/architecture/ep_trn1.htm