| History | Rolf Jensen (1912–1994) had 40 years of widely varied experience in architecture and town planning, working in private practice and for governments in Britain, South East Asia and Australia, and in universities.
Visits to cathedrals with his photographer father combined with the encouragement of an enlightened headmaster convinced Jensen to study architecture. He gained a Bachelor of Architecture (Hons) from Liverpool University in 1933 and degrees in Town Planning from the London School of Planning and in Engineering from the University of Adelaide (1957). Between 1934 and 1938 he was in private practice in London and in the English provinces as well as collaborating with architects who advocated the modern movement. He then worked for the Admiralty in London and on the naval base in Singapore. Following World War Two, when he served with the Royal Engineers in the India–Burma theatre, he was appointed Director of Housing and Borough Architect for North Westminster in London.
In 1956 Jensen was recruited to the University of Adelaide as Foundation Professor of the School of Architecture and Planning. He oversaw the introduction of a full-time five-year course devoted solely to architecture, introduced in 1958; he was then appointed Dean of the new Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning. While at the university he was involved with a number of studies related to city planning and renewal, housing, and traffic. In April 1959 he published a series of articles in the evening paper, the News, on the state of Adelaide’s main highways and how they could be modernised. He roundly criticised the Metropolitan Adelaide Transportation Study (MATS) released in 1968 because its proposed expressways threatened to tear apart some of Adelaide’s suburbs. He also opposed plans to build the satellite city of Monarto, calling it ‘a fundamental blunder’ and argued against a proposed petro-chemical plant at Redcliffs. These public comments had made him a controversial figure by the time he retired in January 1976.
During his career Jensen travelled widely and studied city planning at first hand in many cities and was a planning consultant to governments and large development corporations. As well, he lectured and wrote extensively on aspects of architecture and planning. He had a particular interest in planning for cities and in addition to numerous papers, he published High Density Living (1966), Cities of Vision (1974) and (with his wife Elfrida) Colonial Architecture in South Australia (1980).
The University of Adelaide Special Collections holds papers of Rolf Jensen: http://www.adelaide.edu.au/library/special/mss/jensen/
Rolf Arthur Jensen, 1912-94. Papers 1957-97. MSS 0086.
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