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The public face of elementary education in New South Wales
Citation
Orr, K, The public face of elementary education in New South Wales, Audience: proceedings of the XXVIIIth International Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand, 07-10 July 2011, Brisbane, Australia, pp. 1-16. ISBN 9780646558264 (2011) [Refereed Conference Paper]
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Abstract
The New South Wales Public Instruction Act (1880) revolutionised the
Colony’s elementary education, making it free, compulsory and secular and
led to the appointment of William Edmund Kemp as Architect for Public
Schools (1880-1896). Influenced by the doctrine of utilitarianism, Kemp
prioritised the needs of his school audience by planning schools that
facilitated effective teaching under the English pupil-teacher system and
provided the necessary space, light, ventilation and sanitation. His European
ethnocentric heritage inclined him towards the principles of civic decorum that
he had practised with James Barnet and an Italianate style suitable for the
Australian climate. He wished his schools to communicate their purpose as
beacons of education, reform and progress and endowed them with a
dignified character that enabled them to sit alongside the other public
buildings as important theatres of community life. Kemp broke away from the
medieval revival styles of Victorian England and their ecclesiastical
associations, popularised in the Colony at the hands of Edmund Blacket and
George A. Mansfield. It was because of his departure from the Gothic style
that he later had cause to lament, "I have been told that the buildings I have
erected during my tenure of the Office of Architect for Schools are not like
schools, and that they are not picturesque." His colonial audience, imbued
with ideals of Empire and Englishness and cherishing visions of steep roofs
and pointed arches, were disappointed. This paper will consider Kemp’s
schools at Young (1884) and Pyrmont (1884) designed for very different
communities, each at the "ragged edge of empire". Young was a thriving rural
town that had grown rapidly after the discovery of alluvial gold while Pyrmont
comprised a working-class population of an industrial inner-Sydney suburb.
Pyrmont School was applauded a decade later for its "Doric feeling" and for
its representation of emerging Australian architectural values.
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Conference Paper |
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Keywords: | elementary education, New South Wales, William Edmund Kemp |
Research Division: | Built Environment and Design |
Research Group: | Architecture |
Research Field: | Architectural history, theory and criticism |
Objective Division: | Culture and Society |
Objective Group: | Understanding past societies |
Objective Field: | Understanding Australia's past |
UTAS Author: | Orr, K (Professor Kirsten Orr) |
ID Code: | 107627 |
Year Published: | 2011 |
Deposited By: | Architecture |
Deposited On: | 2016-03-21 |
Last Modified: | 2016-04-27 |
Downloads: | 0 |
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