Invaluable information about the professional lives, careers and works of some of South Australia's most important architects - from settlement to the present day - can now be found in one, user-friendly online space.
The Architects of South Australia online database, launched last month by UniSA's Architecture Museum and the SA Department for Environment and Heritage (DEH), will preserve important information about the State's architectural history for future generations.
It has been developed with a variety of potential academic, industry and community end-users in mind, including heritage consultants, academics, students, professional and family historians and the general public.
Architects of South Australia was appropriately launched with the click of a mouse by Adrian Evans, director of JPE, whose practice is linked to the colony's earliest architects.
Dr Christine Garnaut, Director of UniSA's Architecture Museum and project leader, said the database was an important milestone in the development of research infrastructure to support scholarly study of South Australian and Australian architectural history.
"The online database is a `living' research tool that can be updated as new information becomes available on the professional lives and contributions of South Australian architects," she said.
Currently represented are 77 architects, such as Edmund Wright and Thomas Frost from the colonial era, through to 20th century figures such as F. Kenneth Milne and Jack McConnell. The number of entries is expected to grow to approximately 100 by mid-2009.
"Each of the individual entries provides biographical information about architects' professional backgrounds and contributions as well as their key buildings in South Australia and includes a list of sources that offers a scholarly starting point for further research," Dr Garnaut said.
"The entries not only help our understanding of individual contributions but also add to our knowledge of buildings that are part of our everyday lives, our State's history and built environment heritage."
Ms Raina Nechvoglod, manager of DEH's Heritage Branch, said the tool was an important part of preserving South Australia's built heritage.
"This sort of research helps to build a bank of knowledge that we can draw on to better understand our unique heritage places, which in turn reminds and encourages us to keep them safe," she said.
The Architects of South Australia database is the key outcome of the South Australian Architects and their Works, 1836-2006 project, funded by the DEH.
The Department also funds the SA Built Heritage Research Fellowship, which over the past two years has produced reports and monographs on architects Russell S Ellis and Brian Claridge.
The database can be found at www.architectsdatabase.unisa.edu.au
