10 Facts About Ernest Fooks

Ernest Fooks was born as Ernest Fuchs in 1906 in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, when it was part of Austria-Hungary.

Ernest Fooks's family moved to Vienna in 1908 where he went on to study architecture at the Vienna Technical University, completing a doctorate in Technical Science with a major in Town Planning, and opening his own architectural practice in 1932.

Ernest Fooks was a key proponent of the International Modern Movement in Australian architecture.

Ernest Fooks saw apartment living as a necessity in successful urban planning.

Ernest Fooks was the first to discuss the issue of increasing urban density, well ahead of government legislation acknowledging the same issue more than half a century later.

Ernest Fooks noted that density alone was not responsible for poor urban living conditions, but that the quality of urban living was related to socioeconomic factors, community life and access to quality housing and open spaces for leisure.

Ernest Fooks created houses of architectural significance with individual, and highly creative designs which combined analytical planning with aspects of Scandinavian and European modern design and incorporated principles of traditional Japanese architecture.

Ernest Fooks's Appel House in Caulfield North was a two-storey flat-roofed house with generous windows, and cream brick walls relieved by a broad stone-clad chimney and simple but elegant metal balustrades to the first floor balcony and roof terrace above.

Ernest Fooks designed a house for himself and Noemi at 32 Howitt Road in Caulfield North.

Ernest Fooks designed the National Jewish Memorial Centre and Community Facility in Canberra, which was completed in 1971.