Dinner at Australia Square’s revolving Summit restaurant, sipping cocktails at the Kings Cross Chevron-Hilton, hanging out at a Skyline drive-in: mid-20th-century Sydneysiders embraced leisure like never before. Leisure Space celebrates the architecture and interior design that transformed the city’s hotels, motels, restaurants, bars, shopping centers, drive-ins, and tourism offices, including landmark buildings such as Qantas House and the Wentworth Hotel. With stunning images from Max Dupain, David Moore, and David Mist, Leisure Space explores a dynamic period in Sydney’s history and the dramatic impact of modernism on the city’s built environment.

Paul Hogben is a senior lecturer in architecture in the faculty of built environment at the University of New South Wales. Judith O’Callaghan is a senior lecturer in interior architecture in the faculty of built environment at the University of New South Wales and coauthor of Designer Suburbs: Architects and Affordable Homes in Australia.