The structure underpinning the (settler colonial) structure: Nathan Etherington, ‘The Architecture of Territory: The Lands Building and State Expansion in New South Wales’, Fabrications: The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand, 2023 | settler colonial studies blog

The structure underpinning the (settler colonial) structure: Nathan Etherington, ‘The Architecture of Territory: The Lands Building and State Expansion in New South Wales’, Fabrications: The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand, 2023

28Feb23

Abstract: The New South Wales colonial project was a land-centred enterprise that became dependent on the surveying and sale of land. The process of land alienation was a significant factor in the configuration of the colonial territory as well as the development, distribution and typologies of architecture. This article considers a building that was central to this project: the Lands Building in Sydney that housed the Lands Department, the bureaucracy responsible for implementing the governmental instruments relating to Crown land. An analysis of the building suggests that systems of governance were deeply entwined in its form, planning and use. Of particular concern is the integration of symbols and technologies of surveying and land recording that are integrated into the design of the building and its subsequent adaptation. These include the configuration and expression of the façade, the organisation of the plan, a domed observatory and measuring instruments. At stake is the reframing of the architecture of the State as a technology of governance with territorial reach.

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