Climate Discourse and the Architectural Style Debates on Adelaide’s Nineteenth-Century Public Buildings

Climate was frequently invoked as a rationale for architectural design during the nineteenth century. This article examines the way climate discourse was used in architectural debates about appropriate styles for public buildings in the South Australian colony. In Adelaide the climate was defined as Mediterranean and consequently that region was looked to for architectural precedents. It will be demonstrated that architects in Adelaide used this Mediterranean climate to speak about their use of Classical over other styles when it was expedient for them to do so. However, the emulation of styles which occurred in Adelaide had as much to do with creating an identity for the city based on British town form as it did with climate.This article has been peer reviewed

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Architectural style · Art · Identity (music · Mediterranean climate · Sociology · Style (visual arts · Architecture and Cultural Influences · Historical Architecture and Urbanism · History · Urban Planning and Landscape Design · Architecture