Robin Boyd
Robin Gerard Penleigh Boyd CBE (3 January 1919 – 16 October 1971) was an influential Australian architect, writer, teacher and social commentator. He, along with Harry Seidler, stands as one of the foremost proponents for the International Modern Movement in Australian architecture. He is the author of the influential book The Australian Ugliness (1960), a critique on Australian architecture, particularly the state of Australian suburbia.
Like his American contemporary John Lautner, Boyd had relatively few opportunities to design major buildings and his best known and most influential works as an architect are his numerous and innovative small house designs.
Background and early life
Robin Boyd was a scion of the illustrious Boyd artistic dynasty in Australia, and many of his extended family were noted painters, sculptors, architects, writers or other arts professionals. Robin was the younger son of the painter Penleigh Boyd, and his own son, named after his grandfather Penleigh, is also an architect. He was a nephew of author Martin Boyd and a first cousin of famed Australian painter Arthur Boyd and his brothers David Boyd and Guy Boyd (founders of the Martin Boyd Pottery studio) and his first commission, in fact, was a backyard studio for Arthur Boyd. Robin's cousin Joan (Weigall) Lindsay (author of Picnic at Hanging Rock) married Daryl Lindsay, who became curator of the National Gallery of Victoria and was the brother of artist Lionel Lindsay and renowned artist and author Norman Lindsay.
