Peter Muller

Peter Neil Muller (3 July 1927 – 17 February 2023) was an Australian architect with works in Sydney, New South Wales, Victoria, Adelaide, Bali, and Lombok.

Early life and education Muller was born in the suburb of Leabrook, Adelaide on 3 July 1927. He was educated at St Peter's College from 1942 to 1944. He studied at the University of Adelaide graduating with Bachelor of Engineering degree together with the South Australian School of Mines and Industries graduating with a Fellowship in Architecture in 1948. Muller won the Board of Architectural Education and Royal Australian Institute of Architects travelling scholarship in 1947. He won a Fulbright Scholarship and was awarded a Graduate Tuition Scholarship at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia in 1950 and 1951, where he obtained a Master of Architecture degree. Muller became an Associate of the Royal British Institute of Architects.

Career After completing study in the United States Muller began private practice in Sydney in 1952, based in Whale Beach on the Northern Beaches. Muller took an alternative design approach to the then-contemporary modern movement. He travelled and lived in many places around the world which included France, London, Bali, South Australia and Sydney. In Sydney 1953, Muller worked in his own architectural practice called 'The Office of Peter Muller'. He avoided synthetic finishes and instead used natural materials, as he felt strongly about the Australian landscape. This is reflected in many of his Sydney contemporaries. ’ in 1976.

Personal life and death In 1953, Muller married Rosemary Winn Patrick. They had three children named Peter, Suzy, and James. In 1964, they divorced and he married Carole Margaret Mason, whom he also divorced in 1991. He remarried, but three years after the death of his third wife, Helen Hayes, in 2001, he returned to Sydney and reunited with Carole.

Muller died on 17 February 2023, at the age of 95.

Notable projects Richardson House, 1956 949 Barrenjoey Road, Palm Beach, Sydney, Australia

Like many of Peter Muller’s designs, the Richardson House began with extensive research of the site. Muller designed this house to sit on the edge of a cliff face, seven metres below the adjoining road and fifteen metres above the water. One design key was the use of circles as the primary motif. This motif came from the form of a large rock already on the site. Twenty-nine hollow cylinders, made of curved concrete blocks and of a natural grey and green appearance, made up the main support system. Muller was a designer of organic architecture and all of the interior spaces of this design are connected and freely flowing.

Hoyts Cinema Centre, 1966 134-144 Bourke Street, Melbourne, Australia

The Hoyts Cinema Centre, designed in 1966 and completed in 1969, is considered unique due to the shape of the building, taking similar traits to an upside down oriental pagoda was seen to be of considerable interest in the local area. In fact the design was based on a structural idea of bracketing each floor out similar to the way in which very wide eave overhangs were created in Chinese and Japanese roofs. This particular building is the largest built project by Peter Muller and was the first 'cinema centre' of its kind in Australia; housing three screens in the complex.

Complete list of works

1995 addition by Glenn Murcutt and Wendy Lewin, 2022 addition by Peter Stutchbury.

For Walter & Joan McGrath. Added to NSW State Heritage Registry in May 2025.

Client: H. C. Coombs. Substantially modified street frontage. Original mural by Byram Mansell 'Bilinga and the Fig Tree' still insitu.

For Pauline Ward. Demolished 2015. One of only two houses designed by Muller in Victoria, and the only one in the Melbourne metropolitan area.

Clients: Mr Dennis O'Neill and Mr & Mrs Walter McGrath. Substantially modified in 2008 and 'disowned' by Muller. DA submitted with further design changes in May 2019 (DA 7926).

Built on 4300m2 site adjacent to houses by Ian McKay and Bruce Rickard. Placed on interim Heritage Order in 2015.

For Mr & Mrs Gordon Barton. Highly altered interior and exterior. Roof tiles replaced and sandstock bricks rendered, extended to rear.

Owned by Peter Muller. 1830s colonial mansion on 990 hectares with Hereford cattle. Sold in 1984 for $1.6m. Muller later published a book about the property in 2010.

For Sam & Di Walder. Acquired by Kerry Packer and demolished to expand his garden.

Established Australian Parliament House design competition terms of reference.

Publications

Publications by Peter Muller

The Esoteric Nature of Griffin's Design for Canberra, Canberra 1976 The New and Permanent Parliament House, with others, Canberra 1977 Canberra and the New Parliament House, with others, Dee Why West, New South Wales 1983 Glenrock, Marulan, Sydney, New South Wales, Walsh Bay Press, 2014

Publications about Peter Muller

Books An Australian identity: houses for Sydney, 1953-63 by Jennifer Taylor, Sydney 1972 Fine Houses of Sydney by Robert Irving, John Kinstler and Max Dupain, Sydney 1982 Architecture Bali by Bingham-Hall, Pesaro Publications 2000 Peter Muller by Jacqueline C. Urford (398 pages) 2013

Articles "Molinari House" in Architecture and Arts (Melbourne), July 1954 "Audette House" in Architecture in Australia (Sydney), July/September 1955 Special issue on Peter Muller in Architecture and Arts (Melbourne), December 1955 "Peter Muller House" in Architecture in Australia (Sydney), January/March 1956 "Richardson House" in Architecture and Arts (Melbourne), August 1956 "House by Peter Muller" in La Architettura (Rome), August 1958 "Craftbuilt Houses" in Architecture in Australia (Sydney), September 1961 Article by David Saunders in Art and Architecture (Sydney), June 1971 Numerous illustrated articles in The Australian Home Beautiful, Vogue Australia/ France, Belle, 1955–1999

Theses "Peter Muller Domestic Architecture — The First Ten Years" by J.C.Urford 1984, in 6 Volumes, University of Sydney "The Architecture of Peter Muller " by J.C. Urford 1993 in 9 Volumes, University of Sydney "Discriminating Eyes in Bali, Indonesia" by Vanessa R. Preisler, University of Oregon, U.S.A.