The Australian Institute of Architects would like to take the opportunity to send our condolences to the family and friends of the late Michal Lewi.
Michal LEWI (1931-2025 (12/10/25)
Obituary by Hannah Lewi
Michal Lewi was born in Prague in 1931, moved with his family to England as a child where he was educated and received an MA in English literature from Oxford University. He practiced as a solicitor in England and in Singapore where he married Roma Teede in 1959. Michal, Roma and two newborn sons Rupert and Peter emigrated to Perth, Western Australia, in 1961.
Michal practiced law in Perth for over thirty years, including as a senior partner in the firm Jackson McDonald until 1994. He was made a Life Member of the Law Society of WA in 2007 and was convenor of the Francis Burt Legal Education Centre.
However, the law was only one of Michal’s occupations. His contributions to the cultural life of Western Australia ran deep and wide. He was a founding member of the Senate of Murdoch University from 1973; Former Chair (1992-1997 and 2000-2001) and Life Fellow of the National Trust of Western Australia and Margaret Fieldman Medal recipient in 2012; committee member of the Heritage Council of Western Australia and CityVision; and active in the Environmental Defender’s Office of Western Australia. He was Chair of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts at Edith Cowan University and was made a Fellow of the ECU Academy in 1999. In recognition, he was invested as a Member of the Order of Australia for services to heritage and the environment in 1999.
Emile Zola wrote in 1901: ‘In my view you cannot claim to have really ‘seen’ something until you have photographed it.’ It is this intrinsic interest in the careful looking at subjects – predominantly architectural and inhabited places – which always provided the impetus for Michal’s pursuit of photography. He first became interested in taking and printing pictures while living in Singapore between 1956 and 1959. Here he bought his first camera, an Ihagee Exakta, and joined the Singapore Camera Club. After settling in Perth Michal turned his lens to the architecture and botany of Western Australia. Among many other subjects he documented the buildings and streetscapes of the city of Fremantle in the 1970s associated with the Fremantle Society. He worked with conservation architect Robin McKay Campbell photographing Fremantle and New Norcia amongst other sites, and taught summer school courses in architectural photography to undergraduate students at UWA. He made a number of trips with family, and with business leaders and doctors (including the late Michael Kailis), to South-East Asia. These images of Timor, Indonesia, Burma, India, China and Malaysia became a unique resource that documented both places and people. His photographs were reproduced in books and online publications showcasing the architecture and landscapes of Western Australia, including illustrations in the book Sense of Place: a response to an environment, the Swan Coastal Plain, Western Australia (1972) written by his great friend the late George Seddon.
Alongside his interests in historic architecture, Michal was also an enthusiastic advocate of modern design. He and Roma built a house in the early 1960s in Perth on the banks of the Canning River and chose to commission the architect Dennis Silver on the strength of seeing the newly built Athlete’s Village for the Commonwealth Games in 1962. The house remained their family home until 2024. Growing up in this house was a formative influence on their youngest child Hannah who became an architect.
Michal is survived by his wife Roma, sons Rupert and Peter, daughter Hannah and four grandchildren Philippa, Jane, Huw and Leo.
