Distinguished architect Daryl Jackson dies aged 89

Australian architect Daryl Jackson AO has passed away from illness. He was widely regarded as one of the country's most influential architects of the past 50 years, with a legacy that spans his work, writings and teaching.

A graduate of RMIT University and the University of Melbourne, Jackson opened his own firm, Daryl Jackson Evan Walker Architects (later Daryl Jackson Architects and then Jackson Architecture), in the early 1960s. During his early years in practice, Jackson's work adopted a sculptural expression tied to Australia's brutalist architecture. His key projects during this period included the Harold Holt Swimming Pool (1966-69) in Melbourne, designed with Kevin Borland, and the Canberra School of Art (1970-76), which won the Australian Institute of Architects inaugural Sir Zelman Cowan Award for Public Architecture in 1981. Working often with collaborators, Jackson became well-known and awarded for his specialist expertise in education design and master planning.

From the 1980s, Jackson delivered designs for major sporting venues across Australia's East Coast and in Asia, including the Australian Institute of Sport Swimming Pool Centre in Canberra (1981-82), which won the Sir Zelman Cowan Award in 1984. He also designed the Great Southern Stand (1988-91) and later the Northern Stand (2003-05) at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Other city-making Melbourne projects by Jackson include the 120 Collins Street skyscraper (1989-91) and County Court Victoria, with Lyons and SKM Architects (2002), the latter of which won the Institute's 2003 Interior Architecture Award.

In 1987, Jackson was recognised for his significant contribution to Australian architecture with the Institute's Gold Medal. Three years later, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for his services to the profession. The Institute's highest award for educational architecture was named after him in 2015.

Central to Jackson's design approach was the ordering and layering of architecture to achieve a coherent idea. His work has been widely published, including four books of his own. He taught at RMIT University, was a visiting professor at the University of New South Wales in 1982, and wrote a regular column on housing in The Age from the mid-1960s until the turn of the century.

Jackson was also involved in the wider community as chairman of the Australian Film Institute, trustee of the National Gallery of Victoria, member of the Victorian Council of the Arts, chairman of the Heritage Council of Victoria, vice president of the Melbourne Cricket Club, president of Wesley College and director at the Essendon Football Club.