Alexander Stewart Jolly

Alexander Stewart Jolly (1887–1957) was a Sydney-based architect, published poet and children's author in the early 20th century.

His architectural work was strongly influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright’s School in Chicago, as well as the Arts and Crafts movement of the time.

On a trip to Perthshire, Scotland in his late teens, Jolly encountered craggy stone inglenooks that would later be a strong feature in his buildings.

He built mostly houses from 1918 until 1923, most on the North Shore of Sydney and influenced by the Californian Bungalow style that became popular in Australia after the Federation period.

At one point, to prove to his family he had ended his problems with alcohol, Jolly cut off part of a finger.

[2] He began writing poems and short stories, mostly for children, two books of which, Adrift at Sea and Spirit of the Bush, were published in 1932.

Jolly's work contrasted with the stark modernism of the time, by focussing on the appreciation of organic forms and materials.

Jolly studied the landscape and the shapes inspired by nature, such as timber, stone, wrought iron and brick, and was opposed to the glass, concrete and steel that were popular at the time.

[4] When designing Nebraska (Gordon, New South Wales, 1921), Jolly broke away from the traditional bungalow form of thick exterior pillars, and replaced these with rough stone piles supporting pillars made from large tree trunks and branches that became beams and supports.

[5] Noonee in Balmoral, New South Wales, built in 1918-1919, explored the American hunting lodge, which was a requirement of the client.

Jolly also designed the interior, with built-in stone benches and a large tree trunk as a table.

He renamed it Hy Brasil after a mythical island said to have existed in the Atlantic Ocean, west of Ireland.