The Victorian Palace of Science

‘What constituted scientific knowledge was not just a question of what was “true” and who was “right”, but rather, what was credible and who could be trusted’ (p. 2). The core premise of Edward Gillin’s detailed study of the building of the Houses of Parliament demonstrates the centrality of science to both its design and construction, and unravels the manner in which the emergent findings of different scientific disciplines came to inform those processes. In pursuit of this, Gillin skilfully weaves together the histories of science, construction, architecture and politics. The design process behind the Palace of Westminster is presented as a prism through which contemporaneous interactions between government and specialist knowledge may be viewed. The issue of trust in science and scientists is interrogated, its fluctuations demonstrated as a driving force behind the order of design considerations. The narrative that emerges is not a straightforward transfer of knowledge between disciplines, nor even an overt expression of scientific knowledge through architecture. It is a nuanced exploration of process where the balance of authority between scientist and architect is at times contested, where science and architecture each lend traction to the other, and where architecture and science in combination are ideologically demonstrative in the service of politics

Parliament · Political science · Politics · Australian Indigenous Culture and History · Diverse Historical and Scientific Studies · History · History of Science and Medicine · Law