Ian Athfiled Tribute
Architecture Foundation Convener Lindsay Johnston introducing the event - on the screen, Ian Athfield with Imelda Marcos after he was winner of the 1977 international competition for low cost housing in the Philippines - never realised. Photo : Sydney Architecture Festival
Our dear friend
and colleague Ian Athfield - ‘Ath' as he has been generally known - died
unexpectedly on 16 January 2015, only a few weeks after receiving a knighthood
in the New Years Honours.
What a loss,
what a talent, what a character.
Richard
Leplastrier, Peter Stutchbury and Lindsay Johnston had the great privilege to
spend quality time with Ath on several Master Classes at his wonderful holiday
retreat at Awaroa, in the Abel Tasman National Park, top left of the South
Island of New Zealand, the last one in September 2014.
A tribute - a
celebration – was held on Sunday 4 October as part of the 2015 Sydney
Architecture Festival in the Museum of Sydney.
Two wonderful
documentaries about Ath were screened.
+ ‘Athfield
Architect’ made during the 1970’s by the, now famous, Sam Neill at the time
that Ath and colleagues won an international competition for social housing in
the Phillipines.
+
‘Architect of Dreams’, made in 2008, by Geoffrey Cawthorn, Richard Riddiford,
Messenger Films, which tracks Ath’s incredible life and work with his
wife Clare.
Tributes were
presented by Richard Leplastrier, Lindsay Johnston, and Professor Xing Ruan
(Director of Architecture,UNSW, who worked with 'Ath') each spoke about both
the serious side and the hilarious side of Ath’s fantastic career.
For those who
did not know of Ath and his work, this was an opportunity to undo a great
oversight. For those who had the privilege of knowing him, it was a chance to
be reminded and to rejoice.
See the obituary
by Lindsay Johnston, published in Architecture AU –
http://architectureau.com/articles/vale-ian-athfield-1940-2015/
To view a
powerpoint looped at the event - originally prepared by John Walsh of NZIA for the memorial service in
Wellington, edited and expanded by Lindsay Johnston for the Sydney tribute
– see
The event was
presented by the Architecture Foundation Australia and was supported by the
University of Newcastle.