Arthur Baldwinson

Arthur Norman Baldwinson (1908–1969) was one of Australia's first generation of prominent modernist architects to experience the European modernist movement first hand.

Baldwinson was born in Kalgoorlie, West Australia in 1908.

A talented sketcher, Baldwinson was encouraged to study architecture and in June 1925 enrolled at the Gordon Institute of TAFE, Geelong, Victoria.

He trained in architecture (1925–1929) under George R. King, the head of the architecture program at the Gordon Institute of Technology, Geelong, Victoria.

Baldwinson's work, especially in the areas of drawing and rendering, was exemplary and this led King to ask him to stay on as 'Architectural Instructor'.

His modernist contemporaries include Roy Grounds and Frederick Romberg in Victoria, as well as Sydney Ancher and Walter Bunning in New South Wales; their respective Australian architectural careers in modernism began in the late 1930s.

Baldwinson won the William Campbell sketching competition in 1930 and next year was admitted as an associate of the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects (RVIA).

Baldwinson held a teaching position from 1930 until 1932 when he left for London.

In London, Baldwinson was first employed in the office of Raymond McGrath, an architecture graduate from the University of Sydney.

Whilst there, Baldwinson worked alongside such major talents like Serge Chermayeff and Wells Coates.

McGrath's practise at the time included designing the interiors for the BBC's studios at Portland Place, London.

Baldwinson's winning entry was described in the RVIA Journal "to be congratulated upon the very excellent standard of his work throughout, which in the opinion of the assessors, in every way merits the award of the R.V.I.A. Bronze Medal. The composition of the sheets has been skilfully handled and the drafting and rendering in particular, are excellent. The field notes also exhibit evidence of considerable skill with the pencil on the part of the competitor and of precision and care in the measuring of the work." In 1931 Baldwinson was awarded first prize in the Drawing and Design (Silver Medal) for students by the RVIA.

The Depression brought building to a standstill.

After saving £42 for the fare, in April 1931 Baldwinson reached London where he was employed as a casual illustrator and in the office of the Australian-born architect Raymond McGrath.

Baldwinson described his own work as being "in the real spirit of modern architecture" (Arthur Baldwinson, diary 1934).

In mid-1934, Baldwinson worked for the firm Adams Thompson and Fry during the period when principal partner and co-founder of MARS (Modern Architectural Research Society), Maxwell Fry, in collaboration with social reformer Elizabeth Denby, was designing Kensal House, the progressive, modernist housing scheme for the Gas Light and Coke Company.

In October 1934, Maxwell Fry formed a partnership with Walter Gropius with whom Baldwinson worked directly until early 1937.

On his return to Australia in 1936 he worked in both Sydney and Melbourne before establishing his own practice in 1938.

Gropius departed for the United States in March 1937.

Baldwinson was actively involved in the design and drawings of Gropius's commissions including: Isokon 3 medium density project, Windsor; the E. W. Levy House, Chelsea; the Donaldson House, Sevenoaks; the Impington Village College, Cambridgeshire and the Christ's College project for Cambridge University.

In January 1937, Baldwinson began his return trip to Australia with a determination to plant the flag of "the new architecture"; he took up a position with Stephenson & Meldrum, first in their Melbourne office, then later in Sydney as Stephenson & Turner.

Baldwinson's active professional career as an active practising architect was relatively short (1938–1960).

In early 1938 Baldwinson entered the annual Victorian Timber Development Association (TDA) prize for residential timber buildings and won in three categories.

Soon after this success, he established his own practice in Pitt Street, Sydney.

In 1938–1939, he formed a brief design partnership with fellow-West Australian, John Oldham (Oldham & Baldwinson) to design a workers' housing project near Coomaditchy Lagoon, Port Kembla, New South Wales.

In 1938, Baldwinson had his first solo commission, Collins House at Palm Beach.

Baldwinson designed a red-stained weatherboard house on a sandstone plinth comprising an external stair ramp, two bedrooms, upper-level verandah and playroom on the lower level.

The house received considerable media attention.

During World War II, Baldwinson worked for the Commonwealth Aircraft Factory designing and constructing buildings engaged in the manufacture of aircraft.

By 1943, he had been promoted Chief Architect of the Beaufort Division, Department of Aircraft Production (DAP).

Baldwinson later developed an all-steel pre-fabricated 'Beaufort' house for DAP post-war sale to the Victorian Housing Commission in 1946.

This was Australia's first fully factory-manufactured prefabricated steel house.

Arthur Baldwinson's dream of the 'machine-made house' was part of the early 20th century modernist vision of standardised housing with factory-produced interchangeable components, modular plans and elevations produced at a price accessible to every citizen.

(Apperly & Reynolds 1993, Baldwinson)

(Apperly & Reynolds 1993, Baldwinson)

Baldwinson was inspired by modernism from his earliest designs.

He looked to contemporary modernist principles and the theories of Walter Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus.

He became convinced that new building techniques allowed the architect to create original forms, cleansed of surface ornament and free from historical style.

(Apperly & Reynolds 1993, Baldwinson)

(Bogle, M, 2011) He also won first prize in the 1930 RVIA Bronze Medal for measured architectural drawing (student prize).