Thermal Nationalism: the Climate and House Design Program in Australia (1944-1960)

Abstract

Uncovering how the mitigation of heat came to dominate discussions on the thermal performance of buildings in Australia provides an entry into how climate and comfort became politicized, scientized and instrumentalized in the middle of the twentieth century. The paper examines research on Climate and House Design in Australia at the end of World War Two and looks at how research connected with the problem of heat in homes served Australia’s interests both at home and abroad. Concentrating on the efforts of DHK Lee, the Commonwealth Housing Commission and Commonwealth Experimental Building Station, the article examines tensions between ideas of nation, region, and climate and how attempts to rationalize material choice according to physiological and thermal criteria served to create a range of hybrid forms of construction and house designs. This hybridity can also be seen in how Australian building research at this time helped straddle discourses on tropical and bioclimatic architecture.

Keywords

• tropical architecture
• construction history
• Australian architecture
• thermal comfort
• building science