Seabrook and Fildes

Seabrook and Fildes was a Melbourne architecture practice that played a significant role in the introduction of modernist architecture to Victoria in the 1930s. They are most well known for the Dutch modernist inspired Mac.Robertson Girls High School, designed by Norman Seabrook in 1933.

The partnership between Norman Hugh Seabrook (12 January 1906-9 September 1978) and Alan Fildes (1909–1956) was formally established in 1936, and was amongst the few in Victoria to show an influence of European modernism. By applying and adapting European modernist design principles to a broad range of civic, industrial, commercial and residential buildings, Seabrook and Fildes played a primary role in the dissemination of modernist architecture in Victoria. The practice operated as Seabrook, Fildes and Hunt from 1955 up until Fildes death in 1956, carrying on as Seabrook, Hunt and Dale until Norman Seabrook's retirement in 1976.

Norman Hugh Seabrook was born in the Melbourne suburb of Northcote in 1906. He received his education at Brighton College, Wesley, and Hassets Commercial College Prahran, and gained his Architectural articles working for A.R. Barnes in 1924-26. He continued his studies at the University of Melbourne Architecture Atelier from 1927–31, before working for 18 months in Britain and travelling in Europe, possibly gaining first-hand experiences of the Dutch Functionalists and working on projects influenced by them in Britain. On his return to Melbourne in 1933 he won the competition to design the new Mac.Robertson Girls' High school, which he completed with the assistance of Alan Fildes, who he entered into partnership with in 1936. The partnership ended in 1956 with the death of Fildes. Seabrook taught briefly at the University of Melbourne in the 1950s, and continued practicing as Seabrook Hunt and Dale until his retirement in 1976. He died two years later in 1978.

Alan Fildes was born in the Melbourne suburb of Richmond in 1909. He studied modelling, architecture, construction and carpentry at Brighton Technical College. He received his certificate of architectural registration while working for Oakley and Parkes in 1933. By 1936 he had entered into practice with Norman Seabrook, Seabrook as the main designer, Fildes managing the projects and running the office. Alan Fildes died in 1956 at the age of 47.

Amongst the office staff of Seabrook & Fildes was Russian-born architect Anatol Kagan (1913-2009), who worked there in the late 1930s and later became a prominent practitioner in his own right.

Mac.Robertson Girls' High school was constructed in 1933-34 to Norman Seabrook’s competition-winning design. It remains one of the first and best examples of Modernist architecture in Melbourne and was said by Robin Boyd to have signalled ‘the 1934 revolution’ of Victorian architecture. Influenced by Dutch Architect Willem Marinus Dudok’s Hilversum City Hall, the school was arranged in a functionalist manner, breaking the program down into series of intersecting cream-brick volumes according to De Stijl principles, interrupted by large strips of red-framed windows and blue-glazed window sills. The building was a radical departure from school buildings of the time, even including a rooftop classroom, and was the first Willem Marinus Dudok inspired building designed by Seabrook, the principles of which would be repeated and adapted through much of the practices later work.

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