Norman Eaton

Norman Musgrave Eaton RIBA (11 October 1902 – 19 July 1966) was a South African architect, best known for his design of bank buildings, schools and houses. He was heavily influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright but is known for moving away from the lack of identity of the International Style and instigating the Regionalist approach to modern architecture in South Africa, known as 'Pretoria Regionalism'.^[2][3]. The artist Alexis Preller noted that Eaton's design bywords were "simple, delicate, sensitive, individual" and "African quality", and that "his outstanding use of simple brick is legendary".^[4]

Norman Eaton was born on the farm Drooge Vlei, near Durbanville, Western Cape, on ll October, 1902, the youngest of three children of Henry (Harry) Reginald Rainier Eaton and his wife, Maria Brand; Harry died in 1918, when Norman was 16. Norman was from a prominent family; his paternal grandfather was the British general and colonial administrator Sir Benjamin D'Urban, after whom the city of Durban is named. His mother was from the influential Cloete family, and was the great-niece of the statesman Sir Christoffel Brand and of Sir Johannes Brand, 4th president of the Orange Free State.^[1] Harry Eaton was the Commissioner of Customs for the Union Government, and a second-generation farmer. He built Drooge Vlei into a self-supporting village; it had 140 resident employees and contained its own blacksmith, shoemaker, haberdasher, grocer, butcher, baker, carpenter's shed, wheelwright, machine maker, brickfield, school and chapel.^[5]

Eaton was sent to boarding school at an early age; first at Pretoria and then, from 1915 to 1921, at the Diocesan College in Cape Town. In 1922, he began studying architecture at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg where, in his first year, he won a student competition for the design of a Byzantine chapel. This caught the attention of the architect Gordon Leith, who offered him an apprenticeship, and training in the strict classical tradition. Eaton worked for Leith during the day and attended classes at night and, when Leith won the contract to build the Pretoria Technical College in 1926, he put Eaton in charge. In 1929, Eaton won the prestigious Baker Travelling Scholarship and graduated with a Diploma in Architecture in 1930, when he left Leith's employ. Sir Herbert Baker also signed Eaton's nomination papers for associate membership in the Royal Institute of British Architects. He then spent nine months at the British School at Rome, then toured Europe and, after a long period in Britain, returned to South Africa in 1933.^[4]

Eaton settled in Pretoria and established his own firm. He specialized in unpainted brick houses with African elements, including motifs reminiscent of Great Zimbabwe. Later designs also incorporated aspects of ancient Egyptian architecture. He also designed furniture, shops, office interiors, light industrial buildings, fountains, brasswork, and memorial stones.^[6] His houses emphasized Regionalism through the use of local material and forms, including small windows, awnings, and eaves, traditional wooden shutters, enclosed gardens, and large patches of earth-tone paved stone.^[7]

In 1940, he earned his first major commercial commission, the Land Bank in Potchefstroom. That same year, he entered a partnership with Alan Fair that continued until 1945. In 1945, he traveled to the United States, Argentina, and Brazil as well as parts of southern and central Africa. On his return, he was invited to restore the Reinet House in Graaff-Reinet.^[4] Among his best-known works are the Greenwood House, the Nedbank building on Church Street, Polley's Arcade, and the Little Theatre Unisa^[8] (all in Pretoria) as well as the Nedbank Building on Smith Street in Durban. His other designs for Landbank buildings include those in Potchefstroom, Pietermaritzburg, and Kroonstad.^[4]

Eaton had a tendency to be reclusive, perhaps because he was homosexual and homosexuality was illegal at the time. He was also politically left-wing, and that may have been something he wanted to hide from prospective clients. He was a friend of South African Communist Party leader Bram Fischer; the house he designed for Fischer in 1938 would become a symbol for the struggle against Apartheid.

In 1953, Eaton established his own vineyard in Garsfontein, which he designed himself.^[9] He owned a significant collection of paintings by contemporary South African artists and was a member of the South African Society of Artists, as well as the Pretoria Music Society, the Simon van der Stel Foundation (now Heritage South Africa), the Pretoria Country Club and the Old Pretoria Society.

Eaton died in a car crash in 1966. At his memorial service, tributes from fellow artists, architects and others accompanied a slide-show of his works with a commentary about his work and his interest in music, history and art. The proceeding was published by the South African Architectural Record.^[10]

Eaton was a member of the South African Institute of Architects, the Royal Institute of British Architects, and the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns, receiving its Gold Medal Award for services to Architecture in South Africa from 1957 to 1960. In 1968, the South African Institute of Architects posthumously awarded him its Gold Medal.^[4]