BERYL MANN (1916-1982) (FAILA)

 

Beryl Mann was born in Geelong, Victoria and graduated in architecture from the Gordon Institute of Technology (Geelong).  She was to follow up her architectural training with horticultural studies at Burnley in 1939.  After graduating she entered an Australian Home Beautiful garden design competition for which she was highly commended.  This resulted in the prominent landscape designer, Edna Walling asking her to come and work for her.  She worked as Walling’s assistant for a short period, yet they remained friends for many years as they had much in common.  Mann was to work for a number of architectural practices.  Her initial work with the firm Mockridge, Stahle and Mitchell was mainly concerned with architectural design, combined with a limited amount of landscape architectural work on a small scale.  As well as working for this architect firm she lectured at the University of Melbourne and assessed students’ landscape design work.

Image of Beryl Mann from article which appeared in Landscape Australia 4/1984, p303.

As the Mockridge, Stahle and Mitchell practice expanded with many commissions for universities and schools, in particular in the burgeoning Canberra, Mann was able to demonstrate her skills in large scale site planning and landscape design.  Whilst her design for the Janet Clarke Hall entrance courtyard at the University of Melbourne revealed her ability at a small scale.  Hendry explained that these small spaces “reveal her love for plants, a sensitive awareness of the importance of and blending of colour, linked to a great knowledge of plants’.  (Sanderson 1984, p 305).  .

Her passion for plants began as a schoolgirl – she collected, pressed and identified native orchids from her local area.  This collection was supported by a scrapbook of cuttings on information about Australian orchids.  As a Landscape Architect she was to use both native and exotic species in her planting compositions.

Grace Fraser, a former colleague, says Mann was objective when choosing plants.  She would consider plant availability, site conditions, setting and maintenance regime before making a selection.   While some of her compositions are mainly of exotics, for example the Janet Clarke Hall courtyard at the University of Melbourne, others are composed of only natives species such as the HC Coombs courtyard, Australian National University, Canberra.

In her Dandenong garden in Victoria, daisies and lavender spilled around the house, perhaps influenced by her time spent with Walling.  The remaining one hectare which had been covered in Blackberry was studded with Eucalypts, native shrubs and masses of South African Proteas and Leucospermum.  Sanderson elaborates,

“The house garden was expanded for the planting of persimmons, flowering pears, cherries, crab apples and other delights, with banks of herbaceous perennials, a collection of violets, many clumps of south African bulbs, as well as massed plantings of beautiful old rose species.  The fight against blackberries, the cutting of the grass, had to continue unrelentingly, and Beryl did almost all the work herself.”  (Sanderson 1984, p308).

Along with Mervyn Davis, Mann was one of the founding members of the AILA.  She was elected convenor of the education sub-committee in 1968 and worked hard to develop the profession based on a sound academic education.  In 1972 she wrote the policy for undergraduate education.   Many of these principles were incorporated into the establishment of the undergraduate course in Landscape Architecture at Canberra College of Advanced Education (now University of Canberra).  Mann was invited at the final year presentation of the first group of students to complete the Canberra course.
 
Mann and Grace Fraser organized the first AILA conference in 1969, publishing its papers in Australian Landscape Architect and the Australian Environment the following year.

A survey of Landscape Architects conducted in 1999 indicates that Beryl Mann’s work in Victoria influenced a number of contemporary practicing Landscape Architects. She has been described as a ‘doyenne’ of the profession.  Her influence is highlighted below:

‘The high standard that Beryl set continues.  The significance of her input lies in the structure of the curriculum, which comes from the insights of a visionary teacher.” (Hendry, no date)

Not only did she set high standards for the educational outcomes of the profession but nearly every aspect of her life - whether it be painting the house, preparing a meal or arranging a bouquet of flowers for a friend.  Mann surrounded herself with beautiful things – including plants, music and book and cared for the happiness and well being of those around her (Firth pers comm) .   Her legacy lives on today.

 

>> Projects by Mann

 

Edwina Richardson AILA 2005

 

REFERENCES

Aitken, Richard & Looker, Michael (eds) (2002) The Oxford Companion to Australian Gardens Oxford University Press: Oxford.

Bull, C & Ward, L (2000) ‘In what way influential? The projects, people & events that Landscape Architects consider significant in Australia’ Landscape Australia  2.

Firth, Dianne (2005) Personal communication.

Hardy, Sara (2005) The unusual life of Edna Walling  Allen & Unwin: Sydney.

Hendry, Margaret (no date) ‘Memories of Beryl Mann 1911-1982’ AILA Archives. Unpublished.

Latreille, Anne (1982) ‘Devoted to things that grow’ Melbourne Age  30.7.82.

Sanderson, Ruth (1984) ‘Beryl Mann – her contribution to landscape architecture in Australia’.  Landscape Australia 4/1984, 303-308.