[1] While practicing as a full-time architect, Lucas also worked as a part-time lecturer at the School of Architecture of the University of New South Wales for a decade.
[1] He then moved to New Zealand where he worked with Hugh Grierson Architects[1] There, he designed his first home with his brother, Neville at Gymea Bay, Sydney.
[2] Between 1955 and 1957 he worked with Neville Gruzman, Tony Moore and Ruth Harvey where they submitted a competition entry for the Sydney Opera House.
A second characteristic she noted, "was a deliberate attempt to blend with and hide amongst the existing[natural landscape] environment," with a preference for "brick and tile architecture, spatially complex interiors, strong surfaces and masses, disciplined plan."
In Harry Margalit's view, the house was a "seminal building" that had a "cleansing simplicity" and asked the question: "how minimally might one live in the Sydney climate, with its temperate compass of seasons and abundance of fine days...Every aspect is informed by clear intentions, from the site preservation to the lack of applied finishes to the radical transparency.
Leaving Walter Burley Griffin's Castlecrag for Paddington, came as a deliberate decision that saw Lucas increasingly interested and involved in issues of in urban design and heritage matters, and.
[1] At this time, Lucas supervised students from UNSW, University of Sydney and the New South Wales Institute of Technology who were working on projects for R. Buckminster Fuller's World Design Science Decade.