Uploaded December 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
From the exhibition 'Lust for lifestyle : modern Adelaide homes 1950-1965' at the State Library of South Australia 3 December 2021 - 31 May 2022
In 1952 Langdon Badger returned to Adelaide from East Sydney Technical College with a Diploma in Art, Design and Crafts and held an exhibition at his family home in Dulwich. Soon after, Badger launched Langdon Badger Furnishings, the only location in Adelaide that offered select imported and local modern furniture, fabrics and accessories. With imported Danish and Italian furniture and homewares his shop radiated exclusivity and splendour.
With a keen sense of publicity, Badger was aware of the public recognition that building a glass house would bring him. Designed ‘without any assistance from an architect’, the rectangular steel framed Badger House created a stir having only one solid wall with all the others made of turquoise-tinted glass imported from Germany. After he married Genevieve ‘Genny’ Lord the couple moved into the ‘ultra-modern’ home with its flat roof, built in 1957/58 on a site at Cross Road, Unley Park, dotted with ancient gums and established willow trees, overlooking Brownhill Creek.
The ‘luxury single storey house in which the whole house tends to become a showcase with its interior on display’ (Houses around Adelaide, 1964). The house contained furniture by Harry Bertoia, Grant Featherstone and Antonio Bonet, as well as Juan Kurchan and Jorge Ferrari Hardoy’s (BKF) butterfly chairs, parquetry and carpeted floors, blue Italian mosaic glass tiles in the kitchen, a marble dining table and a teak drinks cabinet. The dining ‘room’ merged with the living area and a white marble dining tabletop was able to be raised and lowered with guests sitting on a step surrounding the area.
Langdon and Genny held gatherings on the lawn at the glass house socialising with, amongst others, the Michells and Bonythons. Langdon raced his Triumph TR and his interest in light aircraft led him to the full restoration of a WWII Supermarine Spitfire salvaged from a New Guinea airfield. The plane is now held at the South Australian Aviation Museum at Port Adelaide.
Camera Paul Moses, Direction Sam Jozeps
State Library of South Australia : the stories that make us https://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/events/lust-for-lifestyle-modern-adelaide-homes-1950-1965
From the exhibition 'Lust for lifestyle : modern Adelaide homes 1950-1965' at the State Library of South Australia 3 December 2021 - 31 May 2022
In 1952 Langdon Badger returned to Adelaide from East Sydney Technical College with a Diploma in Art, Design and Crafts and held an exhibition at his family home in Dulwich. Soon after, Badger launched Langdon Badger Furnishings, the only location in Adelaide that offered select imported and local modern furniture, fabrics and accessories. With imported Danish and Italian furniture and homewares his shop radiated exclusivity and splendour.
With a keen sense of publicity, Badger was aware of the public recognition that building a glass house would bring him. Designed ‘without any assistance from an architect’, the rectangular steel framed Badger House created a stir having only one solid wall with all the others made of turquoise-tinted glass imported from Germany. After he married Genevieve ‘Genny’ Lord the couple moved into the ‘ultra-modern’ home with its flat roof, built in 1957/58 on a site at Cross Road, Unley Park, dotted with ancient gums and established willow trees, overlooking Brownhill Creek.
The ‘luxury single storey house in which the whole house tends to become a showcase with its interior on display’ (Houses around Adelaide, 1964). The house contained furniture by Harry Bertoia, Grant Featherstone and Antonio Bonet, as well as Juan Kurchan and Jorge Ferrari Hardoy’s (BKF) butterfly chairs, parquetry and carpeted floors, blue Italian mosaic glass tiles in the kitchen, a marble dining table and a teak drinks cabinet. The dining ‘room’ merged with the living area and a white marble dining tabletop was able to be raised and lowered with guests sitting on a step surrounding the area.
Langdon and Genny held gatherings on the lawn at the glass house socialising with, amongst others, the Michells and Bonythons. Langdon raced his Triumph TR and his interest in light aircraft led him to the full restoration of a WWII Supermarine Spitfire salvaged from a New Guinea airfield. The plane is now held at the South Australian Aviation Museum at Port Adelaide.
Camera Paul Moses, Direction Sam Jozeps
State Library of South Australia : the stories that make us https://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/events/lust-for-lifestyle-modern-adelaide-homes-1950-1965
