“The Gold Medal is the highest honour the RAIA can bestow, recognising architects who have produced buildings of high merit, who have produced work of great distinction resulting in the advancement of architecture, or who have endowed the profession of architecture in a distinguished manner.
Enrico Taglietti’s architecture is highly significant in Australian architecture, both for its individual character and for its regional base in Canberra – away from the large coastal cities of mainstream Australia.
Taglietti’s work over the second half of the 20th Century has consistently pursued an Australian architectural vision as seen through Italian eyes. Arriving in Australia, his first impression was of “the sort of emptiness which was very conducive to creation”.
His work demonstrates the architectural story of an immigrant – seeing a new country with clear vision – and he continues an important tradition of successful immigrant architects, including Harry Seidler, Frederick Romberg and, more recently, Romaldo Giurgola.
Having come to Australia as a young graduate in the late 1950s, Taglietti settled in Canberra, then an intimate city of 40,000 inhabitants. At the same time, the National Capital Development Commission (NCDC) emerged and engaged the country’s prominent architectural talent to undertake the major projects
required to implement the capital’s growth.
In a period when Canberra practices were usually branch offices of Melbourne and Sydney, Taglietti’s succeeded as the first Canberra-based practice of note. Today he is regarded as one of the national
capital’s active “elder statesmen” of architecture. His work has been critically acclaimed in Australia and internationally in numerous publications.
Taglietti’s influences come from the philosophies and work of Frank Lloyd Wright rather than the international modernity of the Bauhaus. The links and lineage between Wright, the Griffins and Canberra has been significant to Taglietti’s thinking and work, particularly the idea that meaning in architecture is developed from an organic relationship between architecture and landscape. This empathy with the landscape has made him a natural advocate for the Griffins’ vision for Canberra.
The design of his buildings is based on what he has describes as a “calligraphy” of elements – long, horizontal flat roofs and balconies, sloping fascias and balustrades, and battered walls – and often incorporates sloping window reveals and unpainted surfaces for texture and minimal maintenance.
Both his domestic work and large-scale public commissions gave him the opportunity to explore the free use of concrete. Concrete also enabled his houses to work into their bush settings. Prominent weathered timber fascias and boarding added to the fusion of his buildings with the landscape.
Enrico Taglietti was born in Milan in 1926 and completed his architectural studies at the Milan Polytechnic, studying under such luminaries as Gio Ponti, Franco Albini, Bruno Zevi and Pier Luigi Nervi. His work led him to Australia in 1955, and his practice has continued in Canberra through to the first decade of the 21st Century. His practice has had a long commitment to domestic architecture, but it has also built many public buildings including schools, churches and major commercial buildings.
Notable projects include the McKeown House (1965), the Church of St Anthony (1965) and the Embassy of
Italy Chancellery (1974). Notable public buildings include the St Kilda Library in Melbourne (1972), Giralang Primary School and Preschool (1975) and the Australian War Memorial Annex (1979) in Canberra.
Working outside the architectural mainstream, Enrico Taglietti’s influence on Canberra architecture has been to stimulate the intellect and eyes of those who know and admire his work. The philosophic, aesthetic and formal qualities of his creations are remarkable. He is an outstanding architect of national significance, who has made a major contribution to the growth of the national capital.”
RAIA Gold Medal Jury 2007: RAIA National President Carey Lyon (Chair), RAIA Immediate Past President Bob Nation, RAIA 2006 Gold Medallist Kerry Hill, Kerstin Thompson and Robert Morris-Nunn.
The RAIA Gold Medal Tour is proudly sponsored by Armstrong.
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