Kenneth Frank Charles Woolley , (29 May 1933 – 25 November 2015) was an Australian architect. In a career spanning 60 years, he is best known for his contributions to project housing with Pettit and Sevitt, as well as for being a four-time winner of the Wilkinson Award, including three times for his own house (the first being the 1962 Woolley House in Mosman), and his longstanding partnership with Sydney Ancher and Bryce Mortlock. He is regarded as being a prominent figure in the development of the Sydney School movement and in Australian vernacular building.Ancher/Mortlock/Woolley website Retrieved 2010-04-14.
Architectural career
Ken Woolley was born in Sydney on 29 May 1933. He attended Sydney Boys High School and studied architecture at the University of Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning, graduating in 1955. On graduation, he worked in the Government Architects Branch of the New South Wales Public Works Department. During this time he was the design architect for the Fisher Library at the University of Sydney and the State Office Block on Macquarie Street (now demolished). He joined Ancher Mortlock Murray & Woolley in 1964, just prior to Ancher's retirement. This practice has received all the major architectural awards and created numerous outstanding buildings which include the Australian Embassy in Bangkok, Town Hall House Sydney, the Park Hyatt at Campbell's Cove, the ABC Radio and Orchestra Centre at Ultimo, the Victorian State Library, the Control Tower at Sydney Airport, the Olympics and RAS Dome Exhibition and Indoor Sports Halls, the Olympic Hockey Stadium, the Sydney Convention Centre, Darling Harbour and the refurbishment of the Queen Victoria Building. The most recent recognition was to the State Library of Victoria with the 2006 Lachlan Macquarie Award for Heritage Architecture.
Notable projects
Woolley took on a growing number of outside projects while still working with the Government Architect. He generated a reputation in the field of housing, winning a low cost competition for an exhibition house with Michael Dysart, in 1958. Consequently, both architects were invited to submit designs for a display village of model project houses in Carlingford, in 1961, proving to be a successful event that signalled the architect designed project house to be a welcome alternative to the individually designed and standard range houses of the time.
He began a working relationship with the project housing company, Pettit and Sevitt, the same year, creating house types of high quality design and construction.Australian Architects: Ken Woolley, Royal Australian Institute of Architects, 1985. pp. 15 "Split Level", "Lowline" and other early forms incorporated design principles through simple lines, natural features and an emphasis on functionalism. They were widely affordable due to the standardised usage of materials: brick veneer construction, Gyprock plasterboard interior wall cladding, Monier concrete tiles and Stegbar aluminium windows. They often used basic grids, rectangular planes, and flat roofs, and were always firmly grounded with room to be easily adapted to various sites and terrains.Archive relating to Pettit & Sevitt project homes, 1962–1977 Retrieved 2010-04-14. These sophisticated types underwent various levels of modifications as they were marketed through display villages and later sold to individual buyers, who had a consultation with the architect to discuss the interior and exterior details, as a part of the service. Through these modifications based on the clients' needs and clever marketing, these houses gained an unprecedented popularity with prominent architects worldwide.
At the completion of his own home, the Woolley House in Mosman in 1962, a work he would become most famous for, Ken Woolley emerged as a leading figure in a regional romantic movement often referred to as Sydney School. This evolving movement combined the influence of organic architecture, brutalism and the Arts and Crafts movement together with elements of the International Style, and came to embody the harmonious relationships between man and nature as intimate domestic spaces in the Australian bushland. The basis of the Woolley House design was derived from a series of garden terraces, most of which were covered by sections of timber roof sloping parallel to the land. A geometric order was applied to the plan as a series of 12-foot square units that combine to make up the main central space. Natural materials were exploited, with neutral colour schemes of dark tiles, western red cedar boarding and panelling, and painted bricks, creating a feeling of warmth in the house. The open plan living spaces were connected with volumes containing variations of ceiling height and changes in direction, enabling floor areas to be narrow but for the feeling of space to still be maximised. The house won RAIA’s Wilkinson Award the same year it was completed. The house was gifted to the University of NSW in 2016 by the Hesketh family.
Woolley joined the existing partnership of Sydney Ancher, Bryce Mortlock and Stuart Murray in 1964, and with Murray leaving the practice in 1975, as Ancher Mortlock & Woolley, the team went on to establish a reputation in the design of special purpose buildings. Notable examples are the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Ultimo Centre, the RAS Dome and Exhibition Hall and the Olympic Hockey Stadium at Homebush.
In addition, Ken Woolley worked on notable concrete buildings (Newcastle University Union building and Macquarie University Union building), multi-housing projects (The Penthouses, Darling Point 1967) and buildings of structure and technology (Town Hall House and the Guided Missile Launching System Repair Facility), with many of them picking up various esteemed awards over the following two decades.Australian Architects: Ken Woolley, Royal Australian Institute of Architects, 1985. pp. 17 Among his many notable buildings in Sydney are the headquarters of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Ultimo, the Garvan Institute of Medical Research building in Darlinghurst (featuring an iconic DNA-inspired helical staircase), University of Sydney's Fisher Library, the Park Hyatt Sydney, the former State Office Block, Sydney Airport Air Traffic Control Tower and buildings at Sydney Olympic Park. He also worked on stages of State Library Victoria and the Australian Embassy in Bangkok.
Woolley was awarded the highest architectural honour in Australia when he received the RAIA Gold Medal in 1993.
List of projects Design Architect, Government Architect's Office 1955 St. Margaret’s Hospital Chapel, Crown Street, Darlinghurst 1956 Chemistry School, University of Sydney, with H.Rembert & P.Webber 1957–1962 Fisher Library, University of Sydney 1960–1965 State Office Block, Macquarie Street, completed 1967 1962 Lidcombe State Hospital Recreation Hall & Chapel
Professional practice with Ancher Mortlock and Woolley 1962 Woolley House, Mosman 1962–1977 3500 Pettit & Sevitt houses 1965–1988 Student Unions at Macquarie, Newcastle and Sydney Universities 1968 The Penthouses, Rushcutters Bay 1971—1977 Town Hall House and Sydney Square collaboration, Kent Street Sydney 1971 National Seventh Day Adventist Church, MacLeay Street & Gould Street, Turner, Canberra 1972 Government Housing, Canberra, 600 houses 1972–1982 1973 New Australian Embassy, Bangkok. Completed 1978 1977 Port Vila, Vanuatu, & Honiara, Solomon Islands, Radio Broadcasting Stations 1979 Institute of Criminology Canberra, (competition winner). Unbuilt 1980 Woolley House, Cooper Street, Paddington 1980–1983 GMLS Assembly and Overhaul Building, Garden Island 1982 Australian Federal Police Headquarters, Canberra. Unbuilt 1983 National Archives Headquarters, Canberra. Unbuilt 1983 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Leura 1984 Commonwealth Law Courts, Parramatta 1984–1986 Woolley House, Palm Beach 1985 Exhibition Glass Houses, The Arc, Royal Botanic Gardens 1985 Sydney Space Theatre, Power House Museum, Sydney. Unbuilt 1986 Hotel at the Opera House, Sydney. Unbuilt 1987 Australia Pavilion, Expo 88 Brisbane 1987 Park Hyatt Hotel at Campbell’s Cove, Circular Quay, Sydney 1988 ABC Radio and Orchestra Centre, Sydney 1988 Walsh Bay Waterfront Redevelopment, Sydney. Unbuilt 1988 Australia Hellenic War Memorial, Canberra 1989 Parliamentary Triangle, Canberra, Urban Design elements 1989 Urban Design Controls Civic, Central area, City Hill, Canberra 1990 Children's Medical Research Institute, Westmead 1991 Exhibition & Sports Halls for Olympics 2000 Bid, Homebush Bay 1992 Medium density tropical housing for South Pacific Forum, Nouméa 1992 Sand River Golf Club original design, Shenzhen, China 1993 Control Tower, Sydney Airport 1994 Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Darlinghurst 1994 Heritage refurbishment and courtyard infill, Education Department, Bridge Street, Sydney 1995 Bloodbank, Parramatta 1995 Woolley House, Stewart Street, Paddington. Alterations and additions 1996 Exhibition Hall Dome & Olympic 2000 Indoor Sports halls, Homebush Bay 1997 Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre: Link Expansion, Darling Harbour 1998 Hockey Stadium, Olympics 2000, Homebush Bay 1999 Burswood International Resort Casino expansion, Perth, Western Australia 2004 Queen Victoria Building, Sydney. Refurbishment 2004 Proposal for a Sydney Music Shell in the Domain 2005 Park Hyatt Hotel, Circular Quay. Rooftop suites extension 2005 Project Housing, model houses for Landcom, Hoxton Park, Sydney 2005 Completion of State Library of Victoria, from 1985 onwards 2007 Revival of Pettit & Sevitt project houses, 3 new designs 2008 Design for Hindley Street Hotel, Adelaide, with John Diekman 2008–2014 Proposal for Large New Opera Theatre at Sydney Opera House 2009 Completion of Queen Victoria. Refurbishment 2011 Northbourne Avenue, Canberra, Sydney Ancher’s 1960 housing. 2011 Refurbishment and intensification 2012 Second Proposal for a Sydney Music Shell in the Domain
Lectures A.S.Hook RAIA Gold Medal Address Sydney 1994 'State of the Art' Walter Burley Griffin Memorial Lecture Canberra 1997 'Give Art a Chance' Address 'A Pitch of Magnificence' Academy of Technological Science & Engineering, 2001
Architecture awards
Sir Zelman Cowen Award for Public Architecture [National Award] 1986, Cadets Mess, ADFA, Canberra Medallion
Robin Boyd Award [National Award] 1987, Woolley House, Palm Beach
Lachlan Macquarie Award for Heritage Architecture [National Award] 2005, State Library of Victoria, Adaptive Reuse & Infill Buildings
National Award for Enduring Architecture 2022, Woolley Hesketh House, Mosman (1962)
New South Wales Enduring Architecture Award 2022, Woolley Hesketh House, Mosman (1962)
Wilkinson Award [NSW State Award] 1962, Woolley Hesketh House, Mosman 1968, The Penthouses, Rushcutters Bay 1982, Woolley House, Paddington 1987, Woolley House, Palm Beach
Sir John Sulman Medal [NSW State Award] 1963, Fisher Library, University of Sydney, whilst Government Design Architect – Government Architect & T.O'Mahony Joint Architects
Blacket Prize for Regional Architecture [NSW State Award] 1967, University of Newcastle Union 1969, Staff House, University of Newcastle 1987, 'The Anchorage', Tweed Heads
Chapter Award [Victoria State Award] 2005, RAIA Victorian Chapter Heritage Award
Civic Design Award 1978, Sydney Square, Sydney
Project House Awards 1967–1977 Pettit & Sevitt, total of 14 awards
Sir Roy Grounds Award for Enduring Architecture [ACT Award] 1997, Seventh Day Adventist Church, Canberra 2002, RAIA Headquarters (AWM), Red Hill, Canberra (1967) 2010, F.C. Pye Field Environment Laboratory CSIRO, Canberra
Merit Awards for Residential, Commercial, Public, Civic or Adaptive Reuse 1972, Wentworth Building, University of Sydney 1976, Public Housing, Macquarie Fields 1979, Sydney Town Hall Complex 1980, Gardens Restaurant, Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney