Mr. LAURIE VIRR, ARCHITECT
Mr. Laurie Virr, Architect
17 Meredith Circuit
Kambah, A.C.T. 2902, Australia
(02) 6231 2480
http://www.users.bigpond.com/hillside2/
A
BRIEF OUTLINE OF THE CAREER OF LAURIE VIRR ARCHITECT
From
1950 thru 1961 he was employed, and gained formal qualifications, in Civil Engineering. Works with which he was associated included
bridges, water storage reservoirs, major storm water drainage works, high rise buildings
and turbine installations.
From
1962 thru 1966 he studied Architecture, graduating from the University of Melbourne with
Honors in Design. This time included a
period, 1963-64, in the studio of Malcolm Wells, Architect, then domiciled in Cherry Hill,
New Jersey, United States of America.
In
January 1967 he established his own practice at Canberra, Australian Capital Territory,
where he has remained since that date. His
practice has been based, by choice, on commissions for
custom residences, altho it has also extended into the design of workshops for light
industrial processes. The majority of
the residences have been at rural sites, and all of them have been either solar houses in
cool temperate climates, or of low mass, as is required in tropical locations. Spasmodically, he has been involved in the
planning and design of a scheme for the establishment of solar precincts in areas of
cities and towns subject to urban renewal. This
work has attracted the attention of local authorities in New South Wales, and of a private
developer in Massachusetts, U.S.A. In
addition to this work he has also received numerous commissions for the design of
furniture, and a few for jewelry.
In
1972 an example of his work was chosen for display as part of the Australian Exhibition at
the Commonwealth Institute in London. Another
work was selected as part of the Australian Exhibit at the 1982 Paris Biennale.
Thru’out
his career he has been invited to conduct, as a guest of the Faculty, classes in
Architectural Design and the Theory of Architecture, at a number of universities. Such invitations continue to arrive in his
mailbox. As a consequence of a paper he gave,
by invitation, at the University of Canberra, on 24 October 1991, the University did him
the honor of printing and distributing a copy to each of the students in the Department of
Architecture.
He
has been a guest lecturer at universities in Australia, at the Frank Lloyd Wright School
of Architecture, Spring Green, Wisconsin, United States of America,. and at the College of
Architecture, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, United States of America. The house, at Kambah, A.C.T., in which he
lives, and which was constructed substantially with his own hands, has been published on
three continents, and visited by more than 1600 people from around the world. It has achieved a minimum temperature at
night, in winter, without artificial heating, of 12° Celsius. This, when the minimum temperature outdoors
was -9° Celsius.
Laurie
Virr belongs to no clubs, plays no golf, and has never gone in search of a commission in
his life. He would not know how to go
about it.. In all matters of design he
feels strongly that the client should find the person to do for him or her, what they, in
their wisdom, know they cannot do for themselves.
Nevertheless, during a period of 50 years he has been involved in the design of
many things, and at many scales, from a pair of cuff links to a suspension bridge.