From Australia’s Jewish past

Eva Buhrich – a champion of modern design and a prominent architectural commentator

Last week’s story of Hugh Buhrich is followed this week by that of his wife, Eva.

Eva was born Eva Bernard in April 1915 in Nuremberg, Germany, one of two children of liberal Jewish parents.

Her father was a cloth merchant, and her mother was involved in pacifist politics. Her parents supported her education as an architect, which she commenced in 1933 at a nearby technical university in Munich.  She met Hugh, who, as we know, was also studying architecture.  Eva encountered increasing difficulties associated with being Jewish, and the couple moved to Berlin, where they studied under Hans Poelzig.  Eva then went to Switzerland, where she completed her diploma in architecture at the Zurich Technical University in July 1937.   After graduating, Eva and Hugh met up again in The Hague, and Hugh, unable to work there, moved to London.  Eva followed later, and the couple were married in 1938.  Although Eva had been awarded a scholarship to do postgraduate research on schools and education, Hugh insisted that with the threat of an approaching war, they must emigrate to a distant part of the world: “We had to get out. There was no time!”   However, as told in Hugh’s story, through the loan of £200 for landing fees, from their architectural friends in BIBA, they applied to Australia.  They were, however, accepted first by New Zealand and were guaranteed jobs from an architectural firm in Christchurch.   They chose Australia over New Zealand and arrived in Sydney in 1939, which was somewhat accidental, if not fortuitous for Australia.  Unfortunately, neither of their degrees was recognised for registration as architects in NSW.  Through an introduction to Professor Alfred Hook, Foundation Professor of the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Sydney, they were able to work in Canberra for six months with Helen Sutherland and Malcolm Moir, highly respected architects.

In 1940, Eva gave birth to twin sons, Neil, who became an architect and Clive, a psychiatrist.  Professor Hook played a key role in helping Eva and Hugh settle in Australia and possibly encouraged them with their connections via RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects).  So much so that Eva, who worked full-time, had difficulties in organising childcare, and was fortunate to have an architect friend lend her £100, plus another £100 acquired when the RIBA secretary Edward Carter “put the hat around” at an Institute meeting.  When Eva paid the money back after three months, she received a letter of thanks from Mr Carter stating that he was going to put the money towards a fund for other people in similar situations.  This did, in fact, happen in January 1939, when the Institute set up a special committee to deal with the increasing number of requests for assistance from architects who had been in Nazi-occupied central Europe.

Eva never registered or joined the Royal Australian Institute of Architects.  She went on to build her career as a freelance writer on architectural issues in the popular press and trade journals.  She was a draftsperson for General Motors at Homebush, then worked with the Commonwealth Experimental Building Station for two years.  She next spent a year in practice with Hugh.  Although a native German speaker, Eva’s English writing style was fluent and thoughtful, and she became a prominent commentator on architecture and building in Sydney.  She was probably the first woman to write on these subjects.  She later worked for J Walter Thompson as a public relations writer.   Between the 1940s and 1950s, her writing appeared in The Australian Women’s Weekly, Woman, Walkabout and House and Garden, among other publications, at times under assumed (male) names.  Notably, Eva penned a most popular column, Project Home Series, in the Sydney Morning Herald from 1957 to the late 1960s and published the book Patios and Outdoor Living Areas in 1973.  She then moved to become the editor for Building Ideas and Furniture Trends.  It is interesting to note that there are few references to any women architects in Eva’s writing.

Hugh could not recall any of Eva’s architectural designs having been constructed. It is understood that she did not collaborate on either of the two superb modernist houses they built for themselves in Castlecrag – 315 and 375 Edinburgh Road.  Eva died from cancer in March 1976.

Professor James Weirick, former Director of the Master of Urban Development and Design Program at the University of New South Wales, in an interview, indicated that both Eva and Hugh’s educations brought them into contact with leading figures of the Modern Movement.  They represented a direct line of continuity with the mainstream of German “neues Bauen” (architecture movement in Europe).  He went on to describe an essay written by Eva on Walter Burley Griffin in a 1970s booklet published by the Castlecrag Infants School, as a ‘’particularly handsome work of graphic design and layout”.  This booklet was a collaborative effort with well-known Sydney-based sculptor, printmaker, and painter Bim Hilder.

Hugh felt that Eva could have been more aggressive and initiated more debate, but that her preferred approach was to “even things out”.  However, an examination of the family’s collection of Eva’s newspaper clippings showed that she consistently championed modernist design and was known to take on contentious issues, including backing causes against influential people.

Amongst the hundreds of news clippings in the couple’s scrap-book, there was just one article commenting about Eva herself as a writer and working mother. Published in Queensland’s Sunday Mail in 1957, the article contrasted her appearance, “a dainty little five-footer” against her achievements, “a busy woman (wife, mother of twins) in a man-size job”. But it also reported her professional opinions about the need to control noise, before noting some of her “interesting comments on working mothers”: “Keep a job and keep a house too? Well, of course it can be done! Footnote: When Mrs Buhrich…writes her do-it-yourself hints, she always omits the “Mrs”. “Men don’t like to be told how to do these jobs by a woman”, she said (Sunday Mail 8/9/1957).  This is one of the few comments that hints at Eva having made efforts to adjust to carrying the double load of being a working mother, probably exacerbated by working in a male-dominated industry. Eva deserves further recognition, particularly for her role in advocating modern architecture to a mass audience and publicising the cultural contributions of non-English-speaking migrants to the Australian built environment.

The AJHS acknowledges the following references in the preparation of this story:

Wikipedia; The Dictionary of Sydney – Bronwyn Hanna; Design & Art Australia Online; Women Architects in Australia 1900-1950. Canberra: RAIA.

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