Architectural Histories (Feb 2022)
From IB74 to US Patent 4438616: The (re)making of a profession
Abstract
In 1971, John Maxwell Freeland, an Australian architectural historian, published 'The Making of a Profession: A History of Growth and Work of the Architectural Institutes in Australia'. Commissioned by the Council of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects, Freeland’s book detailed the history of the architecture profession in the country from British settlement to 1970, which he summarized as follows: From the grudging hands of unwilling convicts Australia’s building passed to opportunistic but unlettered craftsmen, thence to ambitious trades-contractor-architects and eventually to the smooth hands of the professional gentlemen. The gentleman-architect became the artist-architect, who in turn became, in response to bewildering imperatives in a rapidly changing word, the technologist-businessman-architect. And much of the colour and the fun and the adventure was squeezed out of architecture as it became a serious business. Freeland’s ‘technologist-businessman-architect’ is a figure that by the 1970s had appeared in many places across the globe. By then, as economics, management and scientific methods had gained currency, the personal service of an individual architect had become the corporate service of an architectural firm, while the practice of architecture had become less a profession and more and more a business. Furthermore, from the 1970s, to counter the ravages of developers and package-dealers, architects and architectural firms also increasingly widened the range of the services that they offered. Many began working with developers, while others became developers themselves, or ventured into the building industry. In addition to expanding their professional services, some also expanded their geographic scope, and became global entrepreneurs. Although today, this narrative is well-known, little scholarship exists that examines precisely how such changes occurred on the ground – certainly in Australia. Freeland’s history of the architecture profession concludes in 1970, and while several publications have appeared that document the country’s architecture post-1970, these focus predominantly on its aesthetics rather than its professional mechanics. This paper seeks to take a first step towards addressing this dearth by examining the career and work of Edwin Codd (1939-), an Australian architect, educator, businessman and global entrepreneur, who saw it as his mission to transform the way in which architecture was taught, procured and produced. Commencing in the late 1960s and extending to the early 2000s, Codd’s career paralleled and propelled the aforementioned changes in the profession of architecture in Australia, from technologist-businessman-architect to global entrepreneur. The paper draws on interviews with Codd and his (former) collaborators, and on archival research and a literature review of contemporary periodicals. These primary sources have been complemented with a reading of secondary sources on the history of architecture in Australia following the 1960s.
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