Ermin Smrekar
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Ermin Smrekar (1931–25 June 2016) (
FAIA Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (FAIA) is a postnominal title or membership, designating an individual who has been named a fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). Fellowship is bestowed by the institute on AIA-member ...
) was an Italian born Australian
architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
who practiced in
Melbourne, Australia Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metropol ...
from the 1960s to the 1990s. He is known for designing outside the mainstream of Australian architecture in the period, his individual approach drew from
organic architecture Organic architecture is a philosophy of architecture which promotes harmony between human habitation and the natural world. This is achieved through design approaches that aim to be sympathetic and well-integrated with a site, so buildings, furni ...
, angular and circular geometries, as well as historical sources, to create sometimes bold sculptural forms.


Early life and training

Originally named 'Erminio',
, in Melbourne's northern suburbs and Smrekar continued his education at the University of Melbourne Design Atelier (1960 – 1962) and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), registering as an Architect in 1963. Ermin began his architectural practice in 1964 and established Smrekar Architects in 1969. The firm operated up to 2007 when it amalgamated with BGA Architects of Bendigo to form e+ architecture, continuing to operate from the same Melbourne office and retaining senior key personnel from Smrekar Architects. Smrekar had previously worked with Terry Mitton for 12 years before the latter joined BGA as a director in 1998.


Architecture

Smrekar's work was highly individual, lying well outside the mainstream of architecture of his adopted country. His work reveals a range influences, including the organic architecture of
Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...
and the off-form concrete of
Brutalist architecture Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by minimalist constructions that showcase the ba ...
, also seen in the work of fellow Italian emigre, Canberra architect
Enrico Taglietti Enrico Taglietti (16 April 1926 – 3 May 2019) was an Italian-born Australian architect, known for designing a number of acclaimed buildings in Australia. In 2007, he was the winner of the Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal. Biogra ...
. He may also have been influenced by the sculptural, expressive and sometimes historicist Italian architecture of the 1950s and 60s, such as works by
Luigi Moretti Luigi Walter Moretti (2 January 1907 – 14 July 1973) was an Italian architect. Active especially in Italy since the thirties, he designed buildings such as the Watergate Complex in Washington DC, The Academy of Fencing, and ''Il Girasole'' (" ...
, Marcello D'Olivo,
Carlo Scarpa Carlo Scarpa (2 June 1906 – 28 November 1978) was an Italian architect, influenced by the materials, landscape and the history of Venetian culture, and by Japan. Scarpa translated his interests in history, regionalism, invention, and the tec ...
and architect and theorist
Paolo Portoghesi Paolo Portoghesi (born 2 November 1931, Rome) is an Italian architect, theorist, historian and professor of architecture at the University La Sapienza in Rome. He is a former president of the architectural section of the Venice Biennale (1979–92 ...
. His work was often bold and sculptural, featuring battered walls, horizontal emphasis with protruding cantilevered elements, sharp angles and quarter and semi-circular elements in plan and detailing, and later stepped, gridded and triangular geometries, to create sometimes dramatic forms. The most outstanding of his 70s work includes the 1972 Fisherman's Pier restaurant in Geelong, variously described as like an oyster shell or upturned hull, but also employing angled forms and concrete and timber marked with bold parallel lines, reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright and Carlo Scarpa. His Veneto Club in Bulleen is another boldly sculptural work, a square set on the diagonal, the floors supported and demarcated by deep concrete beams projecting out to form cantilevered balconies, the central beams marked by a geometric pattern of superimposed circles, rectangles, lines and squares. Many of his projects had a connection to the Italian community in Victoria, and in particular Trieste emigres, such as the remodeling of a factory in Essendon for the Trieste community's San Giusto Alabarda Club, the Veneto Club, a social venue for the 'Veneti' Italian community in the northeast suburb of
Bulleen Bulleen ( ) is an eastern suburb in Melbourne, Australia, 13 km north-east of the Melbourne central business district, located within the City of Manningham local government area. Bulleen recorded a population of 11,219 at the 2021 census. ...
, where he is also credited with designing a "...variety of large homes.... which were designed with a distinct 'Mediterranean feel' for an Italian clientele." He designed three projects on Lygon Street Carlton, which had become the heart of the Italian community by the 1950s, a position it still holds. Lygon Lodge was the first in 1967, followed by the controversial Lygon Court Shopping Centre in the 1980s, which involved community action to save the historic Holdsworth Building, and the loss of
The Pram Factory __NOTOC__ The Pram Factory was an Australian alternative theatre venue in the Melbourne suburb of Carlton from around 1970 until the 1981. It was home to the Australian Performing Group and Nindethana, Australia's first Aboriginal theatre group ...
theatre at the rear, and finally the Clocktower development of shops, apartment and offices arranged around an Italian style courtyard complete with clocktower, in the early 1990s. Two of his churches were designed at least in part to serve Italian congregations; St Mel's in Shepparton was built to serve a Catholic congregation bolstered by significant Italian postwar migration, and St Luke's in Lalor served a local population that was 40% Italian by the 70s. Probably his most well known design, but least representative, is the Old Melbourne Motor Inn, completed in 1971 for prominent Melbourne hotel entrepreneur George Frew, for whom Smrekar would also later design the San Giorgio Restaurant in Carlton (demolished). This design, with its overtly historicist aspects such as use of reclaimed bluestone and bricks, mansard roof forms and cast-iron lace balconies earned him the nickname "The King of Kitsch", and a scathing review from modernist architect and critic Robin Boyd, cementing Smrekar's reputation as unconcerned with modernist orthodoxies. His Eureka Stockade basement restaurant in Bourke Street completed the same year was equally historicist, again with second hand bricks and cast iron lace, and a central circular space defined by a rough timber post and beam structure. A landmark of his later work is the cliff-top residence 'Miramare' at San Remo Victoria, built in the mid 1980s. It employs dramatic opposing triangular forms, huge areas of glass, and interpenetrating double height spaces and walkways, described as having "... a kind of discordant splendor."


Works

* Mirabella House, 38 Henry Street, Keilor East (1966) *Lygon Lodge Hotel/Motel, 220 Lygon Street, Carlton (1967) ltered beyond recognition*Own house, 14 Carn Avenue, Ivanhoe (1969) *St Mel's Church, Shepparton (1970) *Old Melbourne Motor Inn, North Melbourne (1971) *Eureka Stockade Restaurant, 287 Bourke Street, Melbourne (1971) emolished*Fisherman's Pier Restaurant, Eastern Beach Road, Geelong (1972) *
Veneto Club The Veneto Club is an Italian social club in Bulleen, Victoria, Australia. It was established in the late 1960s on a site in the eastern suburbs, which had become an attractive area for Italian migrants to move to from the working class inner subu ...
, Bulleen (1972) *Lenna Hotel extension, Runnymede St, Hobart (1973) *St Luke's Church, 1A David St, Lalor (1975) *San Giorgio's Restaurant, Carlton (1972-1986) emolished*Eastern Beach Townhouses, 64-66 Eastern Beach Road, Geelong (1978) *Parliament House, Canberra ompetition entry(1979) *Lygon Court Shopping Centre, Carlton (1980) ltered*Office building, 568 Collins Street, Melbourne (1981) *Vaccari (now San Carlo) Home for the Aged, Plenty Road, South Morang (1983) lteredand San Carlo Chapel (1984) *'Miramare', Punchbowl Road, Cape Woolamai, San Remo (mid 1980s) *Melrose Melbourne Reception Centre, Melrose Drive, Tullamarine (1983) *Office building, 555 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne (1988) for Hooker Projects *'Clock Tower' development, Drummond Street and Lygon Street, Carlton (1992)


Awards, exhibitions, critical reception

Smrekar was a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects (1973), and was awarded the Cavaliere dell' Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana in 1973 and the Cavaliere Ufficiale dell' Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana in 1983 for Services to Architecture. He also presented a Personal Architectural Exhibition in Trieste in 1990. Smrekar's work divided opinion during the 1970s, though in the late 1970s he was championed by architect and critic
Norman Day Dr Norman Kingwell Day (born 25 March 1947, in Melbourne, Australia) is an architect, educator, and writer. Architecture After graduating, in the late 60s Norman Day worked in the office of Romberg & Boyd, with noted architect and critic Robi ...
as a "concerned and talented individualist." It was not until the late 2000s that his work was again came to attention and was celebrated, especially by architects. Six of his works are listed as possibly of State heritage significance in the 2007 ''Survey of Post-War Built Heritage in Victoria'', and his entry in the ''Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture'' (2011) notes that his designs "have been celebrated by architects because they inspired new references for a modern Australian architectural language."