Italian-born Canberra architect Enrico Taglietti has been awarded Australia’s most prestigious architecture prize—the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA) Gold Medal for Architecture.

In presenting the Gold Medal at the Australian National University in Canberra on 15 March, RAIA President Carey Lyon said the Award Jury found “Enrico Taglietti’s work is highly significant in Australian architecture, both for its individual character and for its regional base in Canberra—away from the large coastal cities of mainstream Australia”.

In a career stretching back over fifty years, Taglietti is responsible for the creation of a large range of residential projects in Canberra, as well as public and commercial works ranging from schools, ambassadorial buildings and motels. His work can also be found in Melbourne and Sydney. His trademark buildings feature long horizontal flat roofs and balconies, sloping fascias and balustrades, battered walls, often incorporating sloping window reveals, unpainted surfaces and the dramatic use of concrete.

One news report indicates that Taglietti plans to use the award to add weight to his campaign against over-development in Canberra. Of particular concern to Taglietti is the National Capital Authority’s Griffin Legacy plan:

I am very concerned mostly with the city hill development between London Circuit and Vernon Circle where that will in actual fact completely destroy the heart of the city.

— Enrico Taglietti

Further reading:

• Gold Medal page at www.architecture.com.au
• Report in The Australian
• ABC News announcement
• More about Taglietti on this site

The Mijuscovic House at 61 Sullivan Crescent, Wanniassa, was designed by Enrico Taglietti in the late 1970s. The house was given planning approval in 1980, virtually completed by its owner-builder in 1983 and nominated for an architecture award in 1987. The house is in excellent condition.

It is one of Taglietti’s later houses and contrasts with his earlier houses profiled on this site in Watson, Hughes and Aranda.

The house is situated high above the Tuggeranong valley. It has a steel-framed structure sitting over the natural sloping terrain, allowing surface water to be channelled underneath the dwelling. A steeply-pitched roof rises from an adjacent flat roof.

Entry is through a lush garden, then across a narrow, Japanese-like entry court. In the vestibule a mirror wall opposite the front door provides the first surprise, along with the height of the space lit from above. The space flows into the study, where an extremely high glass wall allows the view of the valley and the Brindabella Mountains across the Murrumbidgee to be taken in.

The client had been a wartime RAF pilot, and he must surely have likened this prospect to aerial vistas. Steps lead up from the vestibule to the bedrooms and down to the living space.

The bedrooms look into the front garden to the east, while the living space has a long glazed wall and verandah to take in the panoramic view. The initial design problem of the view being to the south-west has been beautifully solved.

The house displays Taglietti’s trademark deep, banded fascias for horizontal emphasis and is an excellent example of the late twentieth century organic style of architecture with free massing and a design taking advantage of the site terrain.

Source

• K Charlton, B Jones and P Favaro, The Contribution of Enrico Taglietti to Canberra’s Architecture, RAIA, 2007
• Short biography of Enrico Taglietti
• The late twentieth century organic style of architecture

The Apostolic Nunciature at 2 Vancouver Street, Red Hill was designed by Enrico Taglietti in 1977. The Apostolic Nunciature is the headquarters of the Pope’s representative in Australia and is a large building located in the residential area of Red Hill.

The building is an excellent example of Taglietti’s unique sculptural, organic style of architecture and was awarded the RAIA Certificate of Merit in 1978 and 1980.

While Taglietti’s earlier buildings were characterised by deep, spreading roof overhangs with banded fascias, the Apostolic Nunciature achieves a pronounced horizontality courtesy of of massed, red-tile roofs which appear to float over the building form. This horizontal emphasis is punctuated by a cantilevered porte-cochere with a large cross displayed on the building. The spreading, massed roofs produce an effect similar to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie Houses.

Taglietti comments on his design brief for the Apostolic Nunciature:

In designing this building I was confronted with requirements which were not stated in the brief but nevertheless paramount in the mind of the client’s representatives. Questions arose such as…Was the required dining room a dining room or the apostles’ table? Was the reception room a pastoral room of assembly? Were the studies and bedrooms places of meditation? Was the presence of the building a shelter or a reminder? Only to a few elements of the composition a clear methodology could be applied—the chapel, the convent and the offices, for the rest I had only a guide. I designed a Roof and a Chapel, large enough to shelter the inhabitants and visible enough to give to all the message of universal embraces and ‘Non Datur Actio in Distans’

— Enrico Taglietti

A feature of Taglietti’s work is the integration of building and site by the use of hard landscape elements such as retaining walls and fences. By using the same materials as the building, it has the effect of extending the composition of the building beyond its own boundaries.

Sources and further reading

• K Charlton, B Jones and P Favaro, The Contribution of Enrico Taglietti to Canberra’s Architecture, RAIA, 2007
• Andrew Metcalf, Canberra Architecture, Watermark Press, 2003
• Jennifer Taylor, Australian Architecture Since 1960, 2nd Edition, Canberra, 1990
• Short biography of Enrico Taglietti
• The late twentieth century organic style of architecture

The Paterson House at 7 Juad Place, Aranda was designed by Enrico Taglietti in 1970. The house is still occupied by the original owners and is in excellent condition.

It is one of Taglietti’s ‘fortress’ houses and shows his experimentation with visual and spatial effects in residential architecture. Another example of his ‘fortress’ houses is the Evans House at 62 Skinner Street, Cook (1971).

The Paterson House displays Taglietti’s trademark flat roof and deep, banded fascias for horizontal emphasis and is an excellent example of his unique sculptural, organic style of architecture.

The house is one of Taglietti’s most private, with a windowless street facade of grey brick and a stained timber fascia. The inside of the house is a series of intricate, connected spaces with each room having views of the surrounding bushland.

The House is listed on the ACT Chapter of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA) Register of Significant Twentieth Century Architecture. The house is an excellent example of internationally renowned architect Enrico Taglietti’s unique sculptural organic style.

Sources and further reading

• K Charlton, B Jones and P Favaro, The Contribution of Enrico Taglietti to Canberra’s Architecture, RAIA, 2007
• Andrew Metcalf, Canberra Architecture, Watermark Press, 2003
• Jennifer Taylor, Australian Architecture Since 1960, 2nd Edition, Canberra, 1990
• Short biography of Enrico Taglietti
• The late twentieth century organic style of architecture

A pair of houses designed by Anthony Pegrum of Scollay, Bischoff and Pegrum, completed in 1967. Both houses are listed on the ACT Chapter of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA) Register of Significant Twentieth Century Architecture. The houses won the C.S. Daley medal for houses of outstanding architectural merit in 1969.

Number 15 was designed for the client as a two bedroom house with an attached one bedroom unit for visitors. Entrance to both is through carports and courtyards facing the street. Conventional materials are used throughout, with exterior walls being of grey brick or painted white.

The roof was originally a flat metal tray with brown-grey fascia. Rectangular hollow section steel posts support the carport and conceal the downpipes. There is a three foot overhang on all outside areas not solidly walled, with full height glazing to the north, which looks out to the adjacent golf course.

13 Furphy Place is still occupied by the original owner and is in excellent condition.

Additions

15 Furphy Place (pictured above) was extensively modified to a design by Enrico Taglietti in 2000.

Sources

• Royal Australian Institute of Architects RSTCA
• ‘Two Houses Under One Roof’ by Anne Whitelaw, Canberra Times, 2 April 1968, page 18