Paul Ritter
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Paul Ritter is an Australian architect, planner, sociologist, artist and author. Ritter was born in Prague in 1925, the son of Carl Ritter and Elsa nee Schnabel. In 1939 he was evacuated to England. He graduated from the University of Liverpool with a Bachelor of Architecture and a Masters in Civic Design. In 1946 he married Jean Finch. In 1965 he moved to Western Australia to become Perth's first City Planner and Architect.
He has seven children and fourteen grandchildren, one of whom is the actor Ian Meadows.
[edit] Publications
He has written multiple books in such diverse areas as child rearing, planning and education. These include:
- The Free Family, Paul and Jean Ritter, Gollancz, 1959
- (Translated into German by Rowholt, 1972 & 1978;
- Dutch by Nelissen and Bloemendaal, 1973;
- Hebrew by Massada, 1973)
- Planning for Man and Motor, Paul Ritter, Pergamon Press, 1964 and 1970
- Educreation, Paul Ritter, Oxford Press, 1966
- The Free Family and Feedback, Paul and Jean Ritter, Gollancz, 1975
- Educreation and Feedback, Pergamon Press, 1979
- Concrete Fit for People, Down To Earth Bookshop Press, 1980
[edit] Other Achievements
In Nottingham and later in Perth, he and Jean Ritter ran several exhibitions called "The Child's Eye View", where everything was built 2.5 times the normal size to show adults what it was like to be a child.
Another of his notable achievements is a housing development designed on Radburn Principles (see Clarence Stein) in Thornlie, Western Australia. In this development every house sits on the edge of a park.
In the Supreme Court Gardens in the centre of Perth his sculpture "The Ore Obelisk" (1972) acts as a reminder that the state's wealth is largely built on mining.
[edit] References
The books listed above plus
- A Fascinating Record: 25 Years 1953-1978, Peer Institute Perth, Paul and Jean Ritter, PEER Institute, 1978.
