Touch This Earth Lightly

by Glenn Murcutt

I1 875989 98 6

$33.00

Publication date:June 2001

Australia has produced one architect with an international reputation: Glenn Murcutt.He is famous for producing ÔvernacularÕ, distinctly Australian buildings which match their environment Ð hence the title of this book, taken from an Aboriginal saying.

This is a memoir, as told to Philip Drew, in which Murcutt for the first time talks about his life and influences. It complements Leaves of Iron, the earlier book Drew wrote, which was about MurcuttÕs buildings. (And has sold over 20,000 copies.)

Murcutt grew up in New Guinea. His father owned a gold mine. The corrugated iron for which MurcuttÕs buildings are famous was inspired not, as many people think, by Australian water tanks, but by the Junkers aircraft widely used to fly around New Guinea.

Today Murcutt is considered an eccentric and a genius. He is Professor of Architecture at Virginia University in America, and continues to design for Australia.