William Hardy Wilson (1881-1955) - or Hardy Wilson, as he styled himself - is regarded as one of the most significant and visionary Australian architects of the twentieth century. Educated in Sydney, Wilson was articled to the architectural firm Kent & Budden in 1899 and studied at Sydney Technical College, qualifying in 1904. During his time as a student, Wilson also took art lessons from Sydney Long and exhibited with the Royal Art Society of NSW. He lived in England between 1905 and 1910, practising in London, making friends with expatriates Arthur Streeton and George Lambert, and travelling extensively in Europe and the United States. He returned home aiming to develop a greater appreciation of built heritage among Australians, and began to make the elegant drawings of colonial buildings by which he is now popularly known. Wilson's architectural work, which consisted mainly of dwellings and small commercial buildings, was also inspired by his fascination with earlier and international styles - his two best known houses, Eryldene at Gordon, and his own home, Purulia, at Warrawee, were both influenced by colonial bungalows and became prototypes for many houses in Sydney's north shore suburbs. Wilson was a regular contributor to Art in Australia and The Home, and his books, designs and writing ranged across Greek and Chinese architecture, orientalism, creativity and mysticism. Believing that Western society was decadent and materialistic, in the early 1950s he drew plans for a Utopian city to be built at Kurrajong in the lower Blue Mountains. Wilson was described by Sydney Ure Smith as an exceptionally tall man with a 'studious head' and 'quizzical expression' - 'dominant, dogmatic at times, appreciative and enthusiastic about the particular idea he was propounding'. Wilson donated a substantial collection of his drawings, prints, maps and plans to the National Library in the later years of his life.
