Customer Reviews

Leaves of Iron: Glenn Murcutt: Pioneer of an Australian Architectural Form

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As is now known, Glenn Murcutt is a Pritzker prize winning famous architect who has generated his own ouvre that has garnered international interest.

This original book published in 1985, written by one of Australias contemporary architecture critic, reviews the history, background and philosophy of Glenn Murcutt and puts his early works ( 19 75- 1984) into context, all before he became internationally famous. Thus it provides an insight into what shapes his early architecture.

This book is a square format 270 x 270 mm of 148 pages in a 2 column layout
7 chapters titled :
Germinal - outline his family and childhood when living in New Guinea and his fathers influence on him
Continuity - outline his European travels and his employment with Ancher Mortlock and Murray
The glass paviallion 1970-73 - outlines his early works which had a glass house/pavillion theme somewhat inspired by Mies Farnworth House - some good drawings and explanations
Turning point - his visit to Maison De Verre and meeting with Jose Coderch " put all your effort into the work, all your love, all your surfferings so that even it turns out poorly, traces of such feeling with remain"
A style of thought - outlines his thinking on various topics- western architecture, , natural house, Australian nature, geography, Aboriginal sense of land, the sky, lineality, trees and leaves and bark, the sun, the wind, the rain, invention, dwellings and interpretation of these things as materials.
A way of building 1974- outlines his projects which drawings photos and explanations
An open independent architecture - a poetic review of murcutts architecture

Personally as a young architect student at the time of my original purchase ( 1988) it inspired me to pursue a life of design centred on ecology and doing buildings well, of maintaining a committment to the work and to pursue solutions to building problems - light, typography, construction, structure, hydrology and use.


Compared to the original purchase price, this has now become a valuable collectors items and is a deserved publication in anyone's library.