290 Walsh Street, South Yarra was designed by Robin Boyd in 1957, and was the architect’s family home throughout the 1960s. The house, an exemplar of Australian modernist design, is also a record of the stories, lives and interests of the Boyd family. Its contents, collectively known as the Walsh Street Archive, include a variety of domestic objects that illustrate Boyd’s connections to Japan and Japanese modernist design. The artworks, furnishings, books and architectural journals presented here speak to the ongoing personal and professional engagement with Japan that can be seen in the architect’s family home.

Collected alongside these objects are stories of visits by two Japanese architects to Walsh Street - Tamon Okubo in 1961 and Tadao Ando in 1985 - these episodes illustrate the esteem for Boyd and his home in the Japanese architectural scene.