Harry Seidler was an Austrian-born Australian architect who is considered to be the father of Australian modernism, and also the first architect to fully express the principles of the Bauhaus in Australia.
During a career that spanned almost 60 years, Seidler was a tireless champion for dramatic yet graceful architecture, and the artist behind many landmark Australian buildings. Seidler designed more than 180 buildings and he received much recognition for his contribution to the architecture of Australia.
The form of Seidler’s work changed as building technology changed: from his timber houses in the 1950s, to reinforced concrete houses and buildings in the 1960-1780s, and the development of curves with advances in concrete technology in the 1980s and later, as well as developments in steel technology that allowed for curved roofs in the 1990s onwards (e.g. Berman House).
His uniquely stylised and innovatively engineered structures include landmark buildings such as the Blues Point Tower overlooking Sydney Harbour, the circular office tower in Sydney’s Australia Square, the MLC Centre, the modernist skyscraper QV.1, and the Australian embassy in Paris.
The State Library of New South Wales has an extensive Harry Seidler collection which includes over 6,000 architectural plans and drawings, photographs, specifications and personal papers.
