Enrico Taglietti is recognised as an important architect and a leading practitioner of the late twentieth century organic style. His unique sculptural style draws upon Italian free form construction and post-war Japanese architecture. Taglietti has designed many houses, schools, churches and commercial buildings in Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne and his projects have won numerous RAIA awards. In March 2007 Taglietti was awarded Australia’s most prestigious architecture prize—the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA) Gold Medal for Architecture.

Arrival in Australia

Taglietti came to Australia from Italy in the mid 1950s to design an Italian promotional display for a Sydney department store. He was then invited by the Italian Government to design their embassy in Canberra, the first of his major concrete buildings. Other works quickly followed, including houses at 13 Scarborough Street, Red Hill (1963) and 19 Downes Place, Hughes (1965).

Designed in 1964, the Dickson Library was his most important early work. The library is a symmetrical building, outlined by Taglietti’s trademark deep, banded, upswept fascias. A central mezzanine and corner gardens add variation to the plan. Taglietti designed a companion building for the library in 1981, the Dickson Health Centre.

Experimentation with concrete forms

Taglietti experimented with concrete as a material to create striking visual and spatial effects in houses such as the Smith House, Sydney (1965) and the Paterson House at 7 Juad Place, Aranda (1970). Also a feature of Taglietti’s work is the union of building and site through the use of retaining walls and fences, often in the same material. This has the effect of extending the composition of the building into the landscape. Through the 1970s he continued to use the creation of forms and spaces to add adventure and visual interest to structures. The Giralang Primary School (1977) and the Australian War Memorial Store (1979) are good examples.

Taglietti continues to design and his Sea Residence at Lilli Pilli, NSW won an RAIA award in 1996.

Houses profiled on this site

• McKeown Houses, 109 Irvine Street, Watson, 1965 and 1994
• 19 Downes Place, Hughes, 1965
• 7 Juad Place, Aranda, 1970
• Apostolic Nunciature, 2 Vancouver Street, Red Hill, 1977
• 61 Sullivan Crescent, Wanniassa, 1980

Other works in Canberra

• Gibson House, 12 Scarborough Street, Red Hill, 1965
• Dickson Library, Antill Street, Dickson, 1964
• Center Cinema, Bunda Street, Civic, 1966
• Italian Embassy, National Circuit, Deakin, 1967
• Killen House, 311 Majura Road, 1970
• Evans House, 62 Skinner Street, Cook, 1971
• Townhouses, Mockridge Crescent, Holt, 1974
• Giralang Primary School, Canopus Crescent, Giralang, 1977
• Australian War Memorial Store, Callan Street, Mitchell, 1979
• Dickson Health Centre, Antill Street, Dickson, 1981

Other works

• Church of St Anthony’s, Marsfield, NSW, 1968
• St Kilda Library, 150 Carlisle Street, St Kilda, VIC, 1969
• Sea Residence, Lilli Pilli, NSW, 1996

Source

• Jennifer Taylor, Australian Architecture Since 1960, RAIA, 1990