{"id":920219,"date":"2026-10-08T04:32:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T04:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/920219\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T04:32:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T04:32:18","slug":"vale-roger-pegrum-1938-2026-architectureau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/920219\/","title":{"rendered":"Vale Roger Pegrum 1938\u20132026 | ArchitectureAu"},"content":{"rendered":"

Roger Pegrum, architect, planner, academic and author, died in Canberra on 7 August. In a career spanning more than six decades, Roger made a significant contribution to Australian architecture, community appreciation of design, professional discourse and the legacy of Canberra\u2019s built environment. News of his death has deeply touched the many who knew him as a man of quality and grace and as one of the national capital\u2019s most influential architects.<\/p>\n

In 1983, Roger wrote The Bush Capital: How Australia Chose Canberra as its Federal City, and a second edition followed in 2008. It is a book of insight, humour and original illustrations that did more than perhaps any other to shape public understanding of why, when, by whom and how Canberra came to be. Nugroho Utomo, the current president of the ACT chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects, said of the book that \u201cthis, perhaps more than anything else in Canberra\u2019s history, popularised a phrase [\u201cbush capital\u201d] that has now become synonymous with the city, and affected how Canberrans think about their relationship with the built and natural environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thirty-five years after the first release of The Bush Capital, he published A Very Great City One Day (2018), a critical late work warning against \u201canonymous traffic tunnels\u201d and \u201cdull skylines,\u201d and arguing that Canberra should draw people to it because it is a fine city, not because it is, or might become, a big one.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

View gallery<\/p>\n

Roger and his twin brother Anthony (Tony) were born on 29 August 1938 in Johor Bahru, Malaya, where their father served as a civil and structural engineer with the British Admiralty. The family returned to England at the outbreak of war and in 1948 migrated to Canberra, where their father took a prominent role as an engineer in building the city. Canberra was then a town of about 15,000 people, its public buildings sparsely scattered across the emerging capital plan by Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin, and the Molonglo River still 16 years from becoming a lake. Roger would live to see Canberra grow into a city of close to half a million, and few architects did more to shape its fabric and the public\u2019s appreciation of it. As Roger himself put it, \u201cI have watched Canberra grow up \u2026 It has been an exhilarating journey \u2026 At every point it has been clear that it is not an ordinary city.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a cadetship from the Commonwealth Department of Works, Roger studied architecture at the University of Sydney, where he lived at St Andrew\u2019s College, made many lifelong connections and represented the university at hockey, earning a Blue. He would later complete a Bachelor of Arts at the Australian National University (ANU) in 1968, and a Master of Town and Country Planning at the University of Sydney in 1978.<\/p>\n

Roger returned to Canberra from Sydney in 1961 to begin work in the Commonwealth Department of Works, where he would earn attention as a rare talent. At just 22 years of age, he designed the original visitor centre at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve (destroyed in the 2003 bushfires), a public project remarkable for its time. His design for the Garran Primary School became a prototype for others in the new town of Woden, and he was charged with the design of the simple portico to Old Parliament House, which would become famous for its association with Gough Whitlam\u2019s dismissal in 1975.<\/p>\n

In 1963, Roger was seconded to the newly formed National Capital Development Commission, where he worked alongside Sir William Holford on Anzac Parade, part of the ceremonial heart of the Griffins\u2019 original plan. He designed the avenue\u2019s original street lighting, likened to a string of pearls, which gave it a unique character by night and day, and is echoed in the new lights now gracing the avenue. At Holford\u2019s invitation, he would later move to England, where he honed his design skills and adventured in Europe.<\/p>\n

\"Working<\/p>\n

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In 1968, together with his brother Tony, Roger started what would become an iconic Canberra private practice. It designed nearly 40 houses in the following six years, centred in Canberra\u2019s growing suburbs, including Aranda, Garran, Farrer, Cook and Campbell, where the natural environment dominated the streetscape. Modernist and built in a restrained palette of natural materials, his houses exemplified passive design and responded to Canberra\u2019s inland climate and distinctive bush setting, an influence still visible and admired across the city today. Across his career, Roger\u2019s houses, including his own home in the historic suburb of Reid, for which he received the 2006 Canberra Medallion, remain a testament to his attentiveness to place, context and the people he designed for.<\/p>\n

From 1974 to 1986, Roger pursued academia at his alma mater, the University of Sydney, as a lecturer and later associate professor. During this period, he published the first volume of Details in Australian Architecture in 1984; a second volume followed in 1987. The books inspired many students and professionals to appreciate that good architectural design depends on and is reflected in construction detail.<\/p>\n

\"Pegrum\u2019s<\/p>\n

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At this time he also began to publish widely in journals and magazines on design matters, a passion he would continue for the rest of his life. He was a prolific writer. Few architects have been as vocal on so many aspects of design as Roger, with more than 75 publications to his name. His writing did not adhere to conventional narrow subjects for specialist readers, but addressed a large public audience on many subjects, bringing architecture to the wider community and provoking public discussion on urban design, planning and the built environment. His 1977 essay The Job for a Genius questioned the proposed procurement for a new Parliament House and argued for a design competition \u2013 Australia got one.<\/p>\n

Roger once again returned to Canberra in 1986 to take up the prominent position of Commonwealth director of architecture (what would now be known as government architect), the last person to hold the position, as history would have it. He steered the creation of the 1988 bicentenary publication Australian Government Architects as its editor, and used the role to promote the value of excellence in planning and design within government.<\/p>\n

Roger returned to private practice shortly afterwards, initially as a Canberra director of Jackson Teece Chesterman Willis (JTCW) (1989\u201391), and in his own firms Pegrum\/Ciolek Architects (1992\u201395; with Tomasz Ciolek) and Pegrum and Associates (1995 onwards).<\/p>\n

Roger believed in design competitions (open and invited) and would enter and win many with his firms, including first prize in the design competitions for City Hill in Canberra (1989), the Sydney Showground (1989), the University of Sydney Faculty of Education (1991), the Faculty of Asian Studies at the ANU (1993), the prestigious Chancery at Government House, Yarralumla (1994), and others. Quietly confident in presentation and meticulously detailed, the Chancery received the Sir Roy Grounds Award for Enduring Architecture at the Australian Institute of Architects\u2019 2023 ACT Architecture Awards. It is the project Roger referred to as his \u201cmost important building, a building that is and will be superbly looked after.\u201d Other significant Pegrum\/Ciolek commissions included St Clare\u2019s College Gymnasium and Dance Studio (1992), Gordon Primary and Infants School (1993). Pegrum and Associates\u2019 projects, many award-winning, include the Belconnen Soccer Club (2003), the Calvary Hospital Specialist Medical Clinic (2001), and the refurbishment and adaptive reuse for West Row of the iconic Melbourne Building (2001), along with private residences and apartments, and townhouses that would now be regarded as \u201cmissing middle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Alongside<\/p>\n

View gallery<\/p>\n

Beyond his built work, Roger\u2019s lasting influence lay in his gift for speaking to both the public and the profession through lectures, articles, interviews, and participation in countless Institute awards juries (chapter, state and national), committees, panels and boards, including the Old Parliament House Governing Council.<\/p>\n

His long association with the Australian Institute of Architects was recognised when he was named a life fellow in 2009. The citation noted his \u201cdistinguished record in practice, architecture education and policy, publication and promotion of architecture, professional service and community contribution,\u201d and described him as \u201ctruly one of the founding architects of Canberra.\u201d The citation continued, \u201cFew architects in Australia have made such a continuous, diverse and meaningful contribution to the advancement of architecture over such a long period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Away from architecture, Roger was social and engaged in a number of different pursuits over his lifetime (few were aware of his skills as a magician!). He was a keen golfer and enjoyed sport generally, including coaching a primary school and Old Canberrans Hockey Club teams. He was a natural storyteller with an eye for the amusing and had a confident presence on the dance floor.<\/p>\n

Those who knew him, in private and in public life, remember him consistently as a true gentleman: thoughtful, kind, principled and quick-witted. He is survived by his wife Annabelle, also an architect, and children and grandchildren from their loving blended families, who feel his loss deeply.<\/p>\n

Prepared with the assistance of Elisabeth Judd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roger Pegrum, architect, planner, academic and author, died in Canberra on 7 August. In a career spanning more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":920220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,460,134],"class_list":["post-920219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=920219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/920220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=920219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=920219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=920219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}