An exploration & understanding of past architecture can hold many clues for today’s architectural challenges.
These published articles were inspired by my Master’s research thesis on the life and architecture of Howard R Lawson, a very unconventional architect who was truly ahead of his time, and yet has faded from history’s page. Until now.
Howard Lawson rose to fame in 1912, during the building of the Britannia Theatre in Bourke Street, Melbourne.
“The early 20th-century Victorian architect, Howard R Lawson is known today as the eclectic architect who designed the highly dramatic Beverley Hills flats at South Yarra (c. 1935–1936). His reputation has suffered over the decades due to misinformation and a misunderstanding of events.
He was, in fact, a very progressive architect, with a keen interest in bettering lives through considered town planning and thoughtful design. Lawson utilised recycled materials well before it was considered to be fashionable or desirable, and was an early pioneer of building conversions in 1912, many decades ahead of his time.”
Details here.
The enigmatic architecture of Howard R Lawson was discussed in context of care, community and climate, as part of NGV’s DesignWeek 2021. Talk presented by Public Records Office Victoria and Virginia Blue.
Beverley Hills Flats, circa 1935-1936 by the architect and developer Howard Lawson, is a much loved example of community housing which incorporates recycled elements in its architectural language.
“Early twentieth-century Melbourne architect Howard Ratcliff Lawson was larger than life—a prolific designer with over 200 buildings to his name who held court with judges and ministers, discussing his progressive ideas for urban planning and social housing.
But Lawson has gently slipped through the cracks of architectural history. He is largely a forgotten architect, apart from being known as the genius mind behind South Yarra’s astonishing Beverley Hills flats complex. And, in that genre of forgotten Australian architectural history, in the murky depths of vaguely remembered detail, his story has become muddied. Rumours and myths about him circulated for decades after his death, intensifying and becoming more fantastical with each retelling.
Though held in high regard during his lifetime, his architecture was posthumously devalued, partly through the prism of stories that had become ‘facts’ in populist culture, and partly through a lack of either alternate information or extensive academic study to explain his design intent. ”
