Robin Boyd: 1919—71

Overview

Robin Boyd CBE (1919–71) was a leading architect, writer, cultural commentator and educator in Australia from the late 1940s through the 50s and 60s. Boyd is remembered as a key proponent for modernist design in Australian architecture, contributing most significantly to domestic design. He was awarded the Royal Australian Institute of Architects’ Gold Medal in 1969, received posthumously the Architecture Critics Medal from the American Institute of Architects in 1973, and received an Order of the British Empire in recognition of his service to architecture in 1971, the year of his tragically early death.

Learn more about Robin Boyd and his legacy.

Technical specifications

Issue date: 12-February-2019
Issue withdrawal date: 31-August-2019
Denominations: 1 x $1
Stamp design: Jo Mure, Australia Post Design Studio
Product design: Jo Mure, Australia Post Design Studio
Printer: RA Printing
Paper: gummed: Tullis Russell
Printing process: Offset lithography
Stamp size (mm): 37.5 x 26
Sheetlet size (mm): 101 x 156
Perforations: 13.86 x 14.6
Sheet layout: Module of 50
FDI postmark: South Yarra, Vic 3141
FDI withdrawal date: 13-March-2019

Stamp in this issue

$1 - Boyd House II

Robin Boyd designed the now heritage-listed Walsh Street house, South Yarra, in 1957. Known as Boyd House II, it is now “home” to the Robin Boyd Foundation, established in 2005 to preserve Boyd’s legacy and to continue to foster good design and a broad appreciation of the its social benefits. As well as this, the foundation hosts cultural activities, such as an architectural film program, lectures, intimate musical events and the like.

Built on a small, narrow inner-suburban block, the two pavilions span the block’s width and are separated by a dramatic glass-walled courtyard that is both a light-filled third space and a central focus for this inward-turned building. The spatially flexible, two-storey front pavilion was designed as the adults’ living and entertaining quarters, while the single-storey back pavilion was the children’s quarters. The two are held in a single form by a roofline that drapes in a graceful curve from the double height of one pavilion to the low elevation of the other, with timber-lined ceilings over the pavilions and spaced cabling across the courtyard.