RMIT Design Archives actively seeks methods of engaging contemporary design practitioners in contributing to its innovative approaches to collecting and research.
The Romberg Collection documents the practice of eminent Melbourne architect Frederick Romberg.
Frederick Romberg: an architectural survey was a collaborative project that approached the Romberg Collection with the intention of examining not only Romberg’s architectural output, but the many ways in which the Collection might be seen to work and have implications for contemporary discourse on design.
This exhibition comprised a film by Keith Deverell and a collection of posters that can be read separately or together. The film and posters were developed from the scrapbooks, photograph albums, correspondence, plans, office records and personal papers that form the Romberg Collection.
Collectively, the five poster set acts as a special issue of the RMIT Design Journal (published twice a year) and contains essays drawn from Romberg’s own account of his life and work and his travel scholarship paper, ’Australian Journey 1938’, which addresses his early life as an architecture student in Zurich, his passage to Australia from Europe, early architectural practice in Melbourne, and, an impression of his new home - Australia. The essays are accompanied by detailed three-dimensional examinations of selected buildings.
The artefacts produced by this project were accessioned by the RMIT Design Archives, constituting a collection within a collection.
Videos
Watch videos on Vimeo by Keith Deverell:
- Study: Fredrick Romberg 1913–1992: An Architectural History
- Journey: Fredrick Romberg 1913–1992: An Architectural History
Life and practice
Acknowledgements
Project members
- Kaye Ashton: project management
- Stephen Banham: graphic identity
- Keith Deverell: film
- Harriet Edquist: architectural historian
- Michael Spooner: architectural visualisation and essays
- Letó Melanie Tsolakis: architectural visualisation
Funding
Frederick Romberg: an architectural survey forms part of the RMIT Design Archives: Disseminating Victoria’s Design Heritage project which is supported through funding from the Australian Government’s Your Community Heritage Program.