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Australia ICOMOS > 2009 (Un)Loved Modern > Tours > Post Conference Tours

Post Conference Tours

Three interesting post conference tours will take place on Saturday 11th July 2009. Tours must be selected and paid by delegates upon registration.

War Sites on Sydney Harbour, 9.30am – 5.45pm – $90 per person
Maximum group size: 40 people
The Defence of Sydney: fortifications and military bases on Sydney Harbour. One day bus tour (including morning tea and lunch) led by architect, Scott Robertson, and archaeologist, Tony Brassil, will examine the fortifications of Sydney Harbour following the stages of development from the late nineteenth century at Middle Head and Georges Heights to the ultimate stage in the development of fixed harbour defences, the World War II fort at North Head.

Seidler and Modernism. 9.30am-5.00pm – $90 per person
Maximum group size: 40 people
The buildings covered in the tour span the Australian lifetime career of Austrian-born architect Harry Seidler, commencing with his first design, the Rose Seidler House at Wahroonga at age twenty-five and ending with the Cove Apartments in The Rocks, completed when he was eighty. Both have been described, along with his own residence at Kalang Avenue, Killara, as the ‘best ever’ buildings designed by him. The tour also includes the 1952 Tuck House that embodies Gropius’ significant impact on Seidler, particularly to “make the benefits of the Modern Movement available to people of modest means”. Seidler’s buildings defied convention and by doing so remain timeless, imbued with a constant spirit that raises them beyond just architecture. Seidler has been regarded as an urban sculptor, creating vital living spaces in the Australian landscape of which he was infatuated. His media are broad and complex and he used them ingeniously, stating: “All the raw materials and necessary industry are here – we need a spirit of independent thought and action coupled with creativeness to produce a genuine modern architecture of our own.” (‘Our Heritage of Modern Building’ by Harry Seidler, 1954). The tour will be guided by Architectural Historian, Dr Zeny Edwards and Roy Lumby, President of the 20th Century Heritage Society Inc.