Alistair 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.

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. In 1944 he joined the Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve serving on HMAS Martindale, in the waters off Papua New Guinea until the end of World War II. Following his discharge he returned to the bank, and in 1946 began to study building construction at Melbourne Technical College; during his studies, he started building two houses near Eaglemont. Post-war shortages of building materials led Knox to consider using mudbrick, and in 1947 he built a mudbrick house in Montmorency.

He later actively campaigned for banks to lend capital for earth-built housing projects, and as a result he helped popularise and legitimise mudbrick buildings in mainstream society.

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. These ideals were formed by the strictures of the immediate post-WWII period, as well as his circle of friends in the artistic community, and an independent view of the world.

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