Glenn Murcutt

1936 - born on July 25 in London to Australian parents
1961 - diploma at Sydney Technical College (UNSW)
1964-69 - works for Ancher Mortlock Murray & Woolley, Sydney
1969 - establishes his own office in Sydney

Glenn Murcutt was born to an Australian couple in London in 1936, grew up in New Guinea, and now lives in Sydney, and is by no means a metropolitan person. What made this architect famous are his family homes, located somewhere in the vastness of Australia, far from all cities. The houses, with their corrugated iron roofs, large glass facades, and constructions that resemble more of a temporary tent. Houses like Meager House, Marie Short Funhouse, Riversdale-Houses nestled in the landscape, look like beetles with their flaps and metal wings and could almost scuttle around. These light and nature-friendly homes have made Murcutt one of the most famous Australian architects. Wherever "Australian architecture" is showcased, where there is talk of unity between nature and architecture, Murcutt's retreats are also shown. This represents a double misunderstanding: Murcutt's houses are not any "Australian" architecture, but rather European dreams of simple living transposed into the Australian landscape. "What influenced me the most", says Murcutt, "was the architecture of Mies van der Rohe and Thoreau's famous treatise Walden."
What he builds is a mix of both: romantic solitude in the wilderness, a dream of immediate life far from civilization. Not everything is ecological — in fact, Murcutt's homes come close to the most unecological ideas about building at all (a lonely house outside the city). The idea that led to nature-devouring satellites of family homes on the outskirts of cities, from which columns of cars daily spew forth while simultaneously flattening what they diligently seek: nature. Murcutt is a romantic who has managed to realize his dreams of living in one of the last unspoiled ecosystems on this planet. When he received the Pritzker Prize as its 26th laureate, the jury clearly indicated the following: Not only ecologically advanced buildings for the future of cities, but also romantically conceived structures, show how nature and living can be brought closer together.
One quality of this oddball, who drives a 1979 Citroën and lives on a 700-acre farm, I value above all. As an architect working independently without partners, he has helped establish at least 16 new offices, giving young architects projects he himself did not have time for.
"I showed that as a self-employed architect, I can survive. Not in a wonderfully paid way, but I survived. Young architects saw that they could start their own practice without having to be associated with giant firms for the rest of their lives. The outlook for a young architect to be corporate is not the only path in Australia — there are lots of young people practicing independently or with only one or two others." GM