Travel à la Mode: Australian Architects and the Changing Nature of the International Tour

Abstract

ABSTRACT For Australian architects of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the pull to centres of architectural culture was significant. Travel to further one’s architectural education and experience was out of reach for many Antipodean architects because of geographical distance and costs. For others, particular circumstances enabled a period of international travel, having a transformative effect on their subsequent architectural outputs and careers. Not all architectural travel is the same: it has different modes and outcomes, and can be instigated through means as diverse as a reward for years of practice to enlisting in military service. This paper examines the changing role of travel for Australian architects prior to the Second World War. Six distinct modes of travel emerge: the grand tour; the commercial enterprise; the roaming adventure; accidental tourismthat Kilburn took through the United States saw him directly influenced; educational imperative; and finally, as a rite of passage. While the impetus differed, all modes allowed architects to experience places and structures first-hand: to see architecture differently. This increasing role of travel in the careers of architects vastly truncated the distance between the United Kingdom, Europe, North America, and Australia, building educational and professional engagement and networks. These opportunities brought multi-valent benefit to individual architects, as well as new ideas that transformed Australian architecture.