Interior Design Association of Australia
Around 1948 a group of students attending the Interior Decoration course at the Melbourne Technical College (now RMIT) approached the then Head of Architecture, Harry Winbush, suggesting that the course become known as Interior Design. It was established under a capable teacher, Frederick Sterne who changed the three year Decorator course into a four year diploma Interior Design course. In the same year the students decided to form an organisation which they called the Interior Design Association of Australia. The Association held monthly meetings with Jack Crow as its first president and Ron Opie as treasurer. Based on information drawn from an interview with Joan Stewart, 10 November 2010, she states that they wrote letters to schools promoting the new discipline. Early members of the IDAA included Keera and Bill Lelievre, D. H. Bill, J. L. Delbridge, W. Hardacre, and Joan Stewart.[ Jack was a member of both SDI and IDAA. He comments “By this time (1952) the organisation had grown in strength and we leased our own meeting rooms in the heart of town. We gave lectures to the public on aspects of Interior Design. During the Arts Festival associated with the Olympic Games we held an exhibition of our members’ work, which was visited by a number of overseas visitors.]
During an SDI dinner, in 1958, to which several members of the IDAA were invited, it was suggested that they might care to join the SDI as its members were considering the possibility of developing an Institute. Following the incorporation of the Institute on the 15 August 1958, Bill and Keera Le Lievre, Ron Opie, Harry Sprintz, D.H. Bill, D. Zoureff, Wal Hardacre, Bruce Hyett and J.L. Delbridge became members of the IDIA in October of that year. Jack states in his notes that, “in later years, more members of the IDAA joined the IDIA which after 1958 became the dominant design organisation in Australia.” In the first year of its establishment, the IDIA gained a membership of some 32 members: 24 from Vic., 3 from NSW, 3 from the ACT and 2 from SA. [ <"The Establishment of the Society of Designers for Industry and its Development into the Industrial Design Institute of Australia." Prepared by Ron Rosenfeldt LFDIA
First written July 1997
Published version March 1999. www.dia.org.au/index.cfm?id=204 11 Nov 2010>]
- Writers:
-
Michael Bogle
- Date written:
- 2012
- Last updated:
- 2012
