Ermin Smrekar

Ermin Smrekar (1931–2016) (FAIA) was an Italian-Australian architect who lived and practiced in Melbourne, Australia from the 1960s to 2007.^[1] He was noted for his modernist designs, which "have been celebrated by architects because they inspired new references for a modern Australian architectural language."^[2]

Early life and training

Originally named 'Erminio',^[3] Smrekar was born in 1931 in the Italian/Slovenian border town of Trieste. He undertook his initial training at the technical institute, and then studied architecture at the University of Trieste. He migrated to Australia in 1956, because of political and economical uncertainty, accompanying his father Carlo (died 1980) and mother Bruna (1913-2015). The family lived in Moonee Ponds, in Melbourne's northern suburbs and Smrekar continued his education at the University of Melbourne Design Atelier (1960 – 1962) and the Melbourne Institute of Technology in Architecture,^[4] completing supplementary exams to qualify to work as an Architect in Australia.^[5]

Ermin began his architectural practice in 1964 and established Smrekar Architects in 1969. The firm operated up to 2007 when it amalgamated with BGA Architects of Bendigo to form e+ architecture, continuing to operate from the same Melbourne Office and retaining senior key personnel from Smrekar Architects. Smrekar had previously worked with Terry Mitton for 12 years before the latter joined BGA as a director in 1998.^[6]

Works

Smrekar's earliest known surviving design is the Mirabella House, 38 Henry Street Keilor East Melbourne from 1966.^[7] Other buildings include:

• Additions to factory for Carmel Shoes Pty Ltd, Fishers Lane, Fitzroy (1964)^[8]
• Additions to factory for Florimont Printing Co, Burwood Road, Hawthorn^[8]
• Lygon Lodge motel, Carlton (1967)^[3]
• Residence for Paolo Mirrabella, Avondale Heights (1968)^[8]
• St Mel's Roman Catholic Church, Shepparton (1969)^[9]
• Old Melbourne Hotel, North Melbourne (1970)^[8]
• Residence 14 Carn Avenue IVANHOE (1969)^[10]
• Block of flats, Parkville (1970)^[8]
• Eureka Stockade Restaurant, 287 Bourke Street, Melbourne (1971) [demolished]
• Fishermen's Pier Restaurant in Geelong (1972)^[8]
• Veneto Club, Bulleen (1972),^[3][11]
• Lygon Court Shopping Centre, Carlton (1972)^[3]
• Lenna Hotel extension, Runnymede St Hobart (1973)^[12]
• San Giorgio's Restaurant, Carlton (1972-1986)^[3]
• Eastern Beach Townhouses, Geelong (1978)^[8]
• Vaccari Home for the Aged, Plenty Road, South Morang (1978)^[8]
• Parliament House, Canberra [competition entry; not built to Smrekar's design] (1979)^[8]
• Office building, 568 Collins Street, Melbourne [demolished] (1981)^[13]
• Office Building, Collins Street, Melbourne (1982)^[8]
• 'Clock Tower' development Drummond Street and Lygon Street, Carlton
• House Punchbowl Road, Cape Woolamai, San Remo (1983)^[14]
• Melrose Melbourne Reception Centre, Melrose Drive, Tullamarine (1983)
• San Carlo Chapel Plenty Road South Morang (1984)^[2]
• Office conversion for self, 35 Dryburgh Street, West Melbourne (1986) [demolished]
• Office building, 555 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne (1988) for Hooker Projects
• Office building, 1279 Nepean Hwy, Cheltenham, (1988) for Hooker Projects

Influences and legacy

Smrekar's work has be compared to that of Luigi Moretti and Marcello D'Olivo in Italy and other Australian emigre architects such as Enrico Taglietti and Czech emigre, Alex Jelinek. Much of his work has been involved in projects connected to the Italian community in Melburne, and in particular Triest emigrees, such as remoddling a factory in Essendon for the Triestine's community San Giusto Alabarda Club, while he is also credited with designing a ...variety of large homes in the suburb of Bulleen which were designed with a distinct 'Mediterranean feel' for an Italian clientele.^[3] His Lygon Court Shopping Centre, which involved partial demolition of the Historic Holdsworth Building on Lygon Street, and loss of The Pram Factory theatre at the rear.^[15][16]

A more recent project is the cliff-top residence at San Remo Victoria, built in 1990, and which employs dramatic triangular forms.^[17] His Miramar house at Somers, Victoria, has been described as having ...a starkness to this Ermin Smrekar-designed house perched on the cliffs outside San Remo. Pale-pink intersecting triangles will always struggle to find their best expression in such a singular environment and yet, here, somehow, there is a kind of discordant splendor.^[18]

His design of the Old Melbourne Motor Inn^[19] for prominent Melbourne entrepreneur George Frew, who had developed the Commodore Motel chain, and the San Giorgio Restaurant in Carlton earned him the nickname "The King of Kitsch".^[20] The Old Melbourne was subject to a scathing review when it opened in mid-1971 by Robin Boyd, although another view suggests that ironically, towards the end of his life, Boyd began to embrace as Post-Modernist, such pastiche historicism as the Old Melbourne Motor Inn, North Melbourne. Delight, as experienced at Surrey Court, is as valid an expectation of architectural experience, as either commodity or firmness.^[21]

Awards and exhibitions

Smrekar was a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects (1973),^[8] and was awarded the Cavaliere dell' Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana in 1973 and the Cavaliere Ufficiale dell' Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana in 1983 for Services to Architecture. He also presented a Personal Architectural Exhibition in Trieste in 1990.^[4]

Smrekar died on 25 June 2016.^[22][23]

References

Biographical sources

• Biographical cuttings on Ermin Smrekar, architect, containing one or more cuttings from newspapers or journals