Victorian architect, set and costume designer Dr Peter Russell Corrigan passed away on 1 December.
Corrigan was an RMIT Architecture Professor and Royal Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal winning architect who was widely respected and loved by the architecture community.
Corrigan founded his practice, Edmond and Corrigan in 1975 with wife Maggie Edmond, and is responsible for a number of AIA-awarded projects including RMIT Building 8 (below) and Athan House, as well as a large number of stage and set designs for theatres and exhibition centres.
Edmond and Corrigan has received over 25 awards from the AIA and continues to practice with Edmond as principal. Corrigan was a Lecturer in History and Design Instructor at RMIT from 1975 until present and was a mentor for some of Australia’s finest architects.
A Toby Reed-directed documentary called The Architecture of Edmond and Corrigan provides some insight into the late architect’s design philosophy. (See below)
It includes contributions from Maggie Edmond, Rob McBride ,Debbie Ryan, Ian McDougall, Howard Raggatt, Carey Lyon, Leon Van Schaik, Conrad Hamann, Norman Day, John Gollings, Greg Missingham, Geoff Barton, Ivan Rijavec, Philip Goad, Stuart Harrison, Michael Spooner, Michael Kantor, Paul Minifie, Graeme Gunn, Justin Clemens, Paul Morgan, Pamela McGirr, Fleur Watson, Christine Phillips and Philip Hunter.
A great testimony from fellow Victorian architect Peter Raisbeck has been published here.
Vale Peter Corrigan (From the Australian Institute of Architects)
On behalf of the Australian Institute of Architects, National President Professor Ken Maher has expressed great sadness at the passing of 2003 Gold Medallist, Peter Corrigan AM.
“Peter was a stalwart of the architectural community, inspiring through his teachings and his practice. He nurtured an enduring architectural culture in Melbourne that has been influential throughout the country and beyond. Peter will be greatly missed yet his presence will be sustained through a true legacy carried by those who were fortunate to learn from him and work with him throughout his extraordinary career,” Prof Maher said.
In awarding the Institute’s 2003 Gold Medal, the jury noted Corrigan “has challenged the orthodoxy of the architectural establishment in Australia with his provocative ideas, which have encouraged positive debate within the profession. His self-projected images, both larrikin and laid-back, conceal a gentle person with an intensely passionate and intellectual approach to architecture.
“As a teacher Peter Corrigan has presented fresh and invigorating insights, and through instruction and example he has imbued his students with a sense of compassion and involvement. While always done with modest self-effacement, his care for and generosity to the younger generation of architects is legendary.”
In 2008 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia for “service to architecture as an academic, educator and practitioner and to the arts, particularly through theatre production design”.
A Professor of Architecture at RMIT University, Corrigan was awarded the Institute’s Neville Quarry Architectural Education Prize in 2013.
The Neville Quarry Architectural Education Prize jury citation stated “Corrigan has exerted a profound and long lasting influence on the architectural profession in Australia through his practice, writing and commitment to teaching design. As a recipient of a multitude of honours he has built a reputation equal to any living architect in Australia; yet throughout it all he has continued to deliver design studios and lectures in architectural history at RMIT University”.
