Architecture & design

Hand painted title showing the middle section of reclining figure in landscape

A global design story

Their original owner and use remain a mystery, but these striking tiles hold an intriguing connection to a significant international design story

Deck and Harry Seidler mural at Rose Seidler House.

A new way of living

Once word spread about the newly built Rose Seidler House in 1950, it was the ‘most talked about house in Sydney’. Seventy years on, it's impossible to deny the strength and daring of Seidler's vision

Large 2 storey building with deep verandahs, steps leading to lower verandah and bushes and driveway in the foreground.
Museum stories

A rum deal

When Lachlan Macquarie began his term as governor of NSW in 1810, Sydney was in desperate need of a new hospital

A straight edge and a semicircle

Architect Harry Seidler & artist Frank Stella collaborated on just one project - Grosvenor Place. But the influence of Stella’s work is evident in the geometric plans of many towers & civic centres designed by Seidler

Watercolour of trellised verandah and house from garden.

A taste for the ornate

Traces of long-lost decorative features at Elizabeth Farm provide insights into changing fashions in 19th‑century architecture and design

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An environment for living: Rose Seidler House

From the curtains to the coffee table and the cutlery, every object and fitting in the house Harry Seidler designed for his parents was of a functional and flexible design that reflected the modern lifestyle

Archives behind the scenes - buildings plans

In this episode we look at some public buildings in the Government Architect plans

Image looking up at the corner of a concrete building against a blue sky

At home with Penelope Seidler

The Harry and Penelope Seidler Killara House was designed by Harry and Penelope as their family home

Burdekin House - St Malo columns

If the fluted timber columns made for Burdekin House now look a little battered and perhaps not as elegant as they were in the mid-19th century, it is hardly surprising after surviving two house demolitions