Vale Roger Pegrum 1938–2026 | ArchitectureAu

Roger Pegrum, architect, planner, educational and writer, died in Canberra on 7 August. In a profession spanning greater than six a long time, Roger made a big contribution to Australian structure, neighborhood appreciation of design, skilled discourse and the legacy of Canberra’s constructed atmosphere. Information of his dying has deeply touched the various who knew him as a person of high quality and beauty and as one of many nationwide capital’s most influential architects.

In 1983, Roger wrote The Bush Capital: How Australia Selected Canberra as its Federal Metropolis, and a second version adopted in 2008. It’s a e book of perception, humour and unique illustrations that did greater than maybe every other to form public understanding of why, when, by whom and the way Canberra got here to be. Nugroho Utomo, the present president of the ACT chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects, stated of the e book that “this, maybe greater than anything in Canberra’s historical past, popularised a phrase [“bush capital”] that has now develop into synonymous with the town, and affected how Canberrans take into consideration their relationship with the constructed and pure atmosphere.”

Thirty-five years after the primary launch of The Bush Capital, he revealed A Very Nice Metropolis One Day (2018), a essential late work warning towards “nameless visitors tunnels” and “boring skylines,” and arguing that Canberra ought to draw folks to it as a result of it’s a fantastic metropolis, not as a result of it’s, or would possibly develop into, a giant one.

Roger and his twin brother Anthony (Tony) had been born on 29 August 1938 in Johor Bahru, Malaya, the place their father served as a civil and structural engineer with the British Admiralty. The household returned to England on the outbreak of conflict and in 1948 migrated to Canberra, the place their father took a distinguished function as an engineer in constructing the town. Canberra was then a city of about 15,000 folks, its public buildings sparsely scattered throughout the rising capital plan by Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin, and the Molonglo River nonetheless 16 years from turning into a lake. Roger would reside to see Canberra develop right into a metropolis of near half 1,000,000, and few architects did extra to form its material and the general public’s appreciation of it. As Roger himself put it, “I’ve watched Canberra develop up … It has been an exhilarating journey … At each level it has been clear that it’s not an unusual metropolis.”

With a cadetship from the Commonwealth Division of Works, Roger studied structure on the College of Sydney, the place he lived at St Andrew’s Faculty, made many lifelong connections and represented the college at hockey, incomes a Blue. He would later full a Bachelor of Arts on the Australian Nationwide College (ANU) in 1968, and a Grasp of City and Nation Planning on the College of Sydney in 1978.

Roger returned to Canberra from Sydney in 1961 to start work within the Commonwealth Division of Works, the place he would earn consideration as a uncommon expertise. At simply 22 years of age, he designed the unique customer centre at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve (destroyed within the 2003 bushfires), a public undertaking exceptional for its time. His design for the Garran Major Faculty grew to become a prototype for others within the new city of Woden, and he was charged with the design of the straightforward portico to Previous Parliament Home, which might develop into well-known for its affiliation with Gough Whitlam’s dismissal in 1975.

In 1963, Roger was seconded to the newly fashioned Nationwide Capital Improvement Fee, the place he labored alongside Sir William Holford on Anzac Parade, a part of the ceremonial coronary heart of the Griffins’ unique plan. He designed the avenue’s unique avenue lighting, likened to a string of pearls, which gave it a singular character by evening and day, and is echoed within the new lights now gracing the avenue. At Holford’s invitation, he would later transfer to England, the place he honed his design expertise and adventured in Europe.

In 1968, collectively together with his brother Tony, Roger began what would develop into an iconic Canberra personal follow. It designed almost 40 homes within the following six years, centred in Canberra’s rising suburbs, together with Aranda, Garran, Farrer, Cook dinner and Campbell, the place the pure atmosphere dominated the streetscape. Modernist and in-built a restrained palette of pure supplies, his homes exemplified passive design and responded to Canberra’s inland local weather and distinctive bush setting, an affect nonetheless seen and admired throughout the town immediately. Throughout his profession, Roger’s homes, together with his own residence within the historic suburb of Reid, for which he acquired the 2006 Canberra Medallion, stay a testomony to his attentiveness to position, context and the folks he designed for.

From 1974 to 1986, Roger pursued academia at his alma mater, the College of Sydney, as a lecturer and later affiliate professor. Throughout this era, he revealed the primary quantity of Particulars in Australian Structure in 1984; a second quantity adopted in 1987. The books impressed many college students and professionals to understand that good architectural design will depend on and is mirrored in building element.

Presently he additionally started to publish broadly in journals and magazines on design issues, a ardour he would proceed for the remainder of his life. He was a prolific author. Few architects have been as vocal on so many features of design as Roger, with greater than 75 publications to his identify. His writing didn’t adhere to traditional slender topics for specialist readers, however addressed a big public viewers on many topics, bringing structure to the broader neighborhood and upsetting public dialogue on city design, planning and the constructed atmosphere. His 1977 essay The Job for a Genius questioned the proposed procurement for a brand new Parliament Home and argued for a design competitors – Australia acquired one.

Roger as soon as once more returned to Canberra in 1986 to take up the distinguished place of Commonwealth director of structure (what would now be referred to as authorities architect), the final individual to carry the place, as historical past would have it. He steered the creation of the 1988 bicentenary publication Australian Authorities Architects as its editor, and used the function to advertise the worth of excellence in planning and design inside authorities.

Roger returned to personal follow shortly afterwards, initially as a Canberra director of Jackson Teece Chesterman Willis (JTCW) (1989–91), and in his personal corporations Pegrum/Ciolek Architects (1992–95; with Tomasz Ciolek) and Pegrum and Associates (1995 onwards).

Roger believed in design competitions (open and invited) and would enter and win many together with his corporations, together with first prize within the design competitions for Metropolis Hill in Canberra (1989), the Sydney Showground (1989), the College of Sydney College of Training (1991), the College of Asian Research on the ANU (1993), the celebrated Chancery at Authorities Home, Yarralumla (1994), and others. Quietly assured in presentation and meticulously detailed, the Chancery acquired the Sir Roy Grounds Award for Enduring Structure on the Australian Institute of Architects’ 2023 ACT Structure Awards. It’s the undertaking Roger known as his “most necessary constructing, a constructing that’s and will probably be beautifully sorted.” Different vital Pegrum/Ciolek commissions included St Clare’s Faculty Gymnasium and Dance Studio (1992), Gordon Major and Infants Faculty (1993). Pegrum and Associates’ initiatives, many award-winning, embrace the Belconnen Soccer Membership (2003), the Calvary Hospital Specialist Medical Clinic (2001), and the refurbishment and adaptive reuse for West Row of the enduring Melbourne Constructing (2001), together with personal residences and residences, and townhouses that will now be considered “lacking center.”

Past his constructed work, Roger’s lasting affect lay in his reward for chatting with each the general public and the career by means of lectures, articles, interviews, and participation in numerous Institute awards juries (chapter, state and nationwide), committees, panels and boards, together with the Previous Parliament Home Governing Council.

His lengthy affiliation with the Australian Institute of Architects was recognised when he was named a life fellow in 2009. The quotation famous his “distinguished report in follow, structure training and coverage, publication and promotion of structure, skilled service and neighborhood contribution,” and described him as “really one of many founding architects of Canberra.” The quotation continued, “Few architects in Australia have made such a steady, numerous and significant contribution to the development of structure over such a protracted time frame.”

Away from structure, Roger was social and engaged in a lot of totally different pursuits over his lifetime (few had been conscious of his expertise as a magician!). He was a eager golfer and loved sport usually, together with teaching a major college and Previous Canberrans Hockey Membership groups. He was a pure storyteller with a watch for the amusing and had a assured presence on the dance ground.

Those that knew him, in personal and in public life, keep in mind him persistently as a real gentleman: considerate, variety, principled and quick-witted. He’s survived by his spouse Annabelle, additionally an architect, and youngsters and grandchildren from their loving blended households, who really feel his loss deeply.

Ready with the help of Elisabeth Judd.