Growing Up Modern traces the life of Canberra's Heritage-listed Round House — a Pythagorean-geometrical modernist landmark — through the intersecting stories of the philosopher who commissioned it, the Czech refugee architect who designed it, and the family who lived within it.
About This Book
At its core, Growing Up Modern is about what a house holds: not just structure and material, but biography, ideology, and time. Roger Benjamin grew up in the Round House, a building that won Australian House of the Year in 1958 and was Heritage Listed in 2003 — and this book is his meticulous account of its creation and the lives it shaped. Architect Alex Jelinek, a modernist-trained Czech refugee who fled his homeland by hijacking a plane, brought a European rigour to Canberra's postwar landscape. The clients, Bruce and Audrey Benjamin, were no less extraordinary. The result is a work where Australian modernist architecture, Cold War history, and intimate memoir converge with unusual clarity.
Key Features
- 200 pages of architectural documentation, family history, and visual records of the Round House
- Written by Roger Benjamin, who grew up in the Round House
- Covers the Round House, Canberra — Australian House of the Year 1958, Heritage Listed 2003
- Published by Halstead Press, 2003
What You'll Discover
- The Pythagorean geometrical logic behind the Round House's deceptively circular exterior, including its central glass cylinder and mahogany structural beams
- The biography of Alex Jelinek — modernist architecture student in Prague, postwar refugee, and contributor to Australia's Snowy Hydro Scheme
- How the Round House's unique handmade furniture by Krimper contributed to its status as a cohesive work of modernist design
- The cultural forces that shaped the house's story: Communist Czechoslovakia, postwar Canberra modernism, and the countercultural influence of the 1960s and 70s
About the Author
Roger Benjamin is the author's name as presented; he grew up in the Round House, the subject of this book, and has meticulous documented its design, construction, and the lives of those central to its creation. His account draws on personal memory as well as historical research into the building's architectural and social context.
Specifications
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 200
- Dimensions: 278 x 217 mm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9781875684090
- Publisher: Halstead Press
- Publication Date: 2003
Perfect For: Architects and historians with an interest in Australian modernism, readers drawn to the intersection of architecture and biography, and those researching Canberra's mid-century built heritage.