ROBIN BOYD AND THE POST-WAR ‘JAPANIZATION OF WESTERN IDEAS’

Abstract

The interest shown by Western architects in post-1945 Japanese architecture was a colonising act, one of authentic intent but more especially need, at a time when the fortunes of International Modernism were failing. Australian architect Robin Boyd was drawn into that process of appropriation and became part of the Western promulgation of contemporary Japanese architecture. This paper will describe Boyd's role in that process and the perpetuation of Western eyes, in search of a palliative, looking to the East for inspiration. It will also gauge the reverse, the ‘japanization of Western ideas’ and its subsequent and unpredictable effect on Boyd.