An issues paper: the roots/routes of Australian architecture: elements of an alternative architectural history

The dynamism and mobility of architects in their approach to architectural
design practice provides a context that emphasises that architecture, like
culture, is not static or rooted in place, but is intricately configured through
the dual processes of locality and mobility – both physical and theoretical. The
production of architecture in Australia, as in other immigrant-rich societies,
provides a case for reinforcing the theory that architectural mobility and travel
are integral to the architecture of place.
This issues paper sets out to re-examine the contribution of geo-cultural
influences upon Australia’s architectural lineage and considers a diverse range
of themes across an equally broad timeframe; British colonial transpositions; the
dissemination of Modernism in Australia; the latent contribution of mid-twentieth
century European émigré architects; and the secreted history of Australia’s
Asian architecture. Common to all, however, is the notion of architectural
translation as a process of influences transmitted, transposed or adapted to
other contexts. It uses Australia as the focus from which to consider how global
criticism, ideas and theories have travelled and continue to travel transversely
across time and place, from the late-eighteenth century well into the twenty-first.
This paper investigates translations through narratives, processes, networks and
traces of architectural manifestations and begins to draw lines of influence.