Between 1890 and 1930, a number of Australian architects and garden designers were heavily influenced by British and American Arts and Crafts movements. They brought to Australia new design forms that radically simplified architecture, garden layouts and suburban planning and, in doing so, foreshadowed the development of modernist design. Although well documented in both Britain and America, the influence of the Arts and Crafts movement in Australia has long been lost between the far better known Gothic and Classical revivals and the modernist movement and obscured by the chronological construction of 'federation' architecture. Here, architectural historian Harriet Edquist remedies this neglect. She explores the work of four of Australia's most radical and innovative Arts and Crafts architects, Walter Butler, Harold Desbrowe-Annear, Walter Liberty Vernon and Robin Dods and situates them in the historical context of the first decades of the twentieth century. The accompanying photographs and plans bring to life the simple lines of their design and illustrate why it is so deserving of further recognition.
