Alistair Samuel Knox

Alistair Samuel Knox (8 April 1912 – 30 July 1986) was an Australian designer, builder and landscape architect who used recycled materials and mudbrick in his constructions and is considered to be a pioneer of modern mudbrick building, having designed more than 1,000 houses throughout the Nillumbik region of Victoria as well as in other parts of Australia.

Career Born in the Melbourne suburb of Middle Park, Knox attended Scotch College before leaving, aged 15, to work as a bank clerk in the State Savings Bank of Victoria.

From June 1942, he devoted spare time to the Volunteer Defence Corps, transferring to the Naval Auxiliary Patrol in 1943.

Largely self-taught, Knox believed that houses should be built using available resources and by working in harmony with the environment. He pioneered an 'Australian' architectural look characterised by a lower, flatter roof line, often with a clerestory to introduce light to the centre of the house and large windows to the living areas to bring the 'outside in'. Second-hand bricks, large eaves, verandahs, natural materials and finishes, adobe walls, timber linings and large beams, brick and slate floors became a feature.

Knox was a founding member and fellow (1983) of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects.

Legacy The Alistair Knox Park in Eltham is named after him and many of Knox’s buildings are heritage listed and can be visited during the annual Eltham mudbrick tours.

Publications Living in the Environment, Mullaya Publications, 1975. We Are What We Stand On: A personal history of the Eltham community, Adobe Press, 1980. Alternative Housing: Building with the head, the heart and the hand, Albatross Book, 1980. Mud and Man: A history of earth building in Australasia, Earthbuild Publications, 1992. Chapter 8, Victoria - the mud brick state.