Robin Boyd is best remembered for his award-winning work as an architect, but he was also a talented communicator. While studying architecture in Melbourne he helped establish the Victorian Architectural Students' Society (VASS) and wrote the editorials for its newsletter Smudges. He also used the newsletter to criticise or praise individual Melbourne buildings, a practice which attracted at least one threat of legal action.
In 1946, after service in PNG during WWII, he became the director of the Small Homes Service, which was set up by the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects in conjunction with Melbourne newspaper, the Age. The service opened in July 1947 and was dedicated to promoting rational house-design. Boyd's intensive involvement included writing weekly articles for the Age which made his ideas on house design widely-known. He continued to write and lecture part-time, wrote for the Sydney Morning Herald, and published Victorian Modern (1947), Australia's Home (1952) and The Australian Ugliness (1960).
In 1956-57 he was Fulbright scholar and visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He gained an international reputation and continued to publish works of architectural theory, wrote scripts for broadcast commentaries and wrote regular articles for the Sunday edition of the Australian. Boyd won numerous awards, including the Royal Australian Institute of Architects gold medal in 1969 and appointment as C. B. E. in 1971. Boyd is known for both his ideas on design and his social comment.
His last work, Great Great Australian Dream, published in 1972 after his death, summed up his views on his profession and the issues facing his generation. Following his sudden death in 1971 the R. A. I. A. read excerpts from his writings in a public tribute.
