Glenn Murcutt AO (b. 1936), architect, received the world’s highest architectural honour when he was awarded the Pritzker Prize in April 2002. Having spent a good deal of his youth in New Guinea, where he learned to love simple shapes and materials, Murcutt only just scraped into a university architecture course. As a student, he drew on principles he had learned while working for his father, who had a number of building businesses in Sydney after the war. Murcutt is unusual amongst Pritzker winners in that he works alone, mostly on residential homes; he has never made a skyscraper or a tourist attraction; and he uses mostly basic materials. He uses shades, louvres, fully opening walls and carefully planned ventilation to enable his buildings to respond instantly to changing conditions and requirements. His overriding design philosophy is that dwellings should ‘touch the earth lightly’. Murcutt’s latest project is the Australian Islamic Centre, an unconventional mosque in suburban Melbourne. The Islamic Centre project is at the heart of an intimate film about Murcutt by Catherine Hunter, Glenn Murcutt – Spirit of Place (2016).
One of Murcutt’s first significant projects was the Marie Short House, Kempsey, designed in the mid-1970s, purchased and altered by the architect in 1980.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2017
© Robert McFarlane/Copyright Agency, 2021
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves: who we read, who we watch, who we listen to, who we cheer for, who we aspire to be, and who we'll never forget. The Companion is available to buy online and in the Portrait Gallery Store.
Iconic Australian artist Ken Done discusses his life and career as a painter.
Award-winning Australian architect, Glenn Murcutt describes the philosophy of his architectural practice and his minimalist portrait by Ken Done.
