Nino Sydney The man behind the iconic Beachcomber home and longtime chief architect of Lend Lease Homes, has died at the age of 89.
Sydney was born in Croatia, arrived in Australia – to the city he shared his name – in 1955, and completed his studies of architecture at the University of Sydney from 1956 to 1958.
After working in architecture practice in Germany and Luxembourg, he was appointed Chief Architect of Lend Lease Homes (Lend Lease Project Homes Division) in 1961, a position he held until 1973.
His first design for the firm was the iconic Beachcomber, a Le Corbusier-inspired loft house that has become synonymous with comfortable and affordable Australian Modernism. About 200 Beachcombers were built during the 1960s, and a website dedicated to home design identified about 40 still standing, along with hundreds of other imitators.
A Sydney biography by Davina Jackson relates that he designed over 50 house styles for Lend Lease, along with a home in Tahiti for Lend Lease founder Dick Dusseldorp. In 1967, he won the NSW RAIA Project House Award for modeling Casa Blanca.
1962 magazine clip about the radical new Beachcomber home.
Sydney’s Beachcomber and Pan-Pacific designs were first built on a property in Carlingford, and were promoted as part of the historic 1962 Carlingford Homes Exposition, which included 19 homes for the project designed by leading architects such as Ken Woolley, Harry Seidler, Clark Gazzard, John Lee, Towell Rippon and Michael Dysart.
Sydney’s son, Mark Sydney, told the Sydney Morning Herald that his father had a passion for “making good things”.
“If you ask him for what he is most proud of, it is that he can develop modern architecture for Australians while keeping it affordable,” he told the newspaper. “He liked Harry Seidler’s work among others, but felt that their homes were often the purview of the wealthy who had the money to pay for them.”
From 1973 to 1997, Sydney ran his own clinic offering custom-built homes – many as tall as Beachcomber. His biography indicates that he was also an ardent athlete, competing in squash and water polo at a high level.
Sydney is survived by his wife Vera of more than 60 years and their children Mark, Maya and Danny.