Following the launch of my book about Fred Ward in June 2013 I was invited to give a talk at the Vice Chancellor’s Lecture in University House in March 2014 about the role of the ANU Design Unit from 1954 to 1977.
It was an invitation not to be missed – an opportunity to explain the ANUDU’s role and works before the current ANU staff and students, many or most of whom had probably never heard of it or appreciated where the ANU physical environment originated, from the importance of site planning ; of the relationships of buildings and surrounding infrastructure and landscape as useful and yet enjoyable elements of an integrated university structure; the useful comfort of its furnishings that enables a university to function as a research and teaching entity; the functioning of its various rooms and halls to facilitate the transfer of fundamental knowledge from those who discover it to those who wish to know more; to provide a discreet directional system throughout the campus to enable everybody to find their way from here to there as expeditiously as possible – in short, to provide the physical means of enabling a university to work effectively