Take a tour of some of Sydney’s most important architectural developments with the Australian Architecture Association (AAA).

Walk through time
Starting in Australia’s oldest public precinct at Hyde Park Barracks, this tour delivers a 200-year journey through time in a two-hour walk. Meet Sydney’s first architect; hear about his passage to Australia in chains and his skills in designing finely detailed brick buildings. Learn about the difference between Beaux Artes and Art Deco, why Martin Place was closed to cars, when communications determined the location of most bank buildings and how ideas for modern architecture were developed.
9 and 16 August, 2.00pm
Meet: Hyde Park Barracks, Macquarie Street in front of main gate
Cost: $25.00, AAA members free

Sydney skyscrapers
Take a close look at Sydney’s modern skyscrapers. This walk reveals the architect of Sydney’s tallest skyscraper, what a curtain wall building is, why Australia Square is round, when fire regulations changed to allow buildings higher than 13 storeys and where the highest garden in Sydney is located.
9, 16 and 23 August, 10.30am
Meet: Customs House, 31 Alfred Street, Circular Quay
Cost: $25.00, AAA members free

Harry Seidler’s towers with Gevork Hartoonian
One of Australia’s leading architectural scholars leads a tour of Harry Seidler’s towers. The tour begins in the Cove Apartment building with what is considered to be the finest public foyer in Sydney. Hartoonian, who has studied Seidler’s life and work closely, discusses what makes these towers particularly appropriate to Sydney’s conditions, how weight is transferred to elegant columns to reduce the mass of a building and the role of Italian engineer Nervi in the construction of Seidler’s first towers in Sydney.
10 August, 10.30am and 2.00pm
Meet: The Cove Apartments, 129 Harrington Street, The Rocks
Cost: $25.00, AAA members free

Other walks
Castlecrag tour with Ben Gerstel, 14 August; The Sculpture of City Architecture, 9 August; City Bar Tour, 13 August; Newcastle ‘Hill Residential’ tour, 10 August; Northern Suburbs Residential Bus tour, 16 August.

Go to architecture.org.au or call (02) 8297 7283