Royal Exhibition Building
|
|
|
|
|
(last modified 16/01/2008 4:11 PM)
Royal Exhibition Building
The Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens were inscribed on the World Heritage List at the 28th session of the World Heritage Committee held in Suzhou, China in July 2004.
Reasons for the World Heritage Listing
The Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens are included in the World Heritage List because they are the last remnant Palace of Industry from a nineteenth-century world fair on its original site. Its significance is increased, in its uniqueness through still being used as an exhibition venue.
The Royal Exhibition Building was designed by Joseph Reed and features the typical architectural characteristics that made these events so dramatic and effective. These include a cruciform planned Great Hall with a dome, giant axial entrances, fan light windows and clerestory lighting. The beautiful pleasure gardens in the 'Gardenesque' style which surrounded the building were designed by William Sangster and Joseph Reed.
What is the World Heritage inscription for the Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens?
On 1 July 2004 at the World Heritage Committee meeting in Suzhou, China the Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens were inscribed in the World Heritage List. The justification for the inscription is: The Royal Exhibition Building and the surrounding Carlton Gardens, as the main extant survivors of a Palace of Industry and its setting, together reflect the global influence of the international exhibition movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement showcased technological innovation and hange, which helped promote a rapid increase in industrialisation and international trade through the exchange of knowledge and ideas.
What was the International Exhibition Movement?
The International Exhibition movement played a critical role in the development of the modern global society.
The International Exhibition Movement is seen to have started with the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, London (The Crystal Palace). It was sponsored by Prince Albert, and opened by Queen Victoria in 1851. Following the British Exhibition the French raced to have an International Exhibition in Paris in 1855.
Over the next 60 years countries eagerly sought to exhibit at international exhibitions or host them. To host an exhibition was to declare that you were a major economic player in the new international economy of the nineteenth century.
Countries participated to both promote their countries and products, and seek further investment and to compete for economic dominance. In the competitive period of the late nineteenth century when major empires were being consolidated and issues of nationalisation were being played out both in Europe and internationally the Exhibition movement served as a platform to assert political and nationalistic arguments without resorting to war.
How many International Exhibitions were there?
Between 1851 and 1915 over seventy international exhibitions were held around the world. However, of those 70 the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) which organises the modern Expos or World Fairs recognises as major exhibitions only twenty. The Melbourne International Exhibition of 1880 is considered to be one. Source www.bie-paris.org
The BIE was a strong supporter of the World Heritage listing and not only provided the Australian Government with a supporting statement but actively lobbied all their member countries to support the nomination. Below is an extract from their press release:
"The submission for nomination by the Government of Australia in the World Heritage List of the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne is considered by the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) a long needed and significant step … in the preservation of the remaining heritage of the Melbourne International Exhibitions and the great Exhibitions of the period 1851-1930 as a whole....Therefore the BIE and its Member States considered it to be of vital importance that the Melbourne building be listed on the World Heritage List. ….To further show the support of the BIE and its Member States, a resolution was passed in support of the nomination at the 135th Session of the BIE General Assembly on the 23rd June 2004."
What role did Victoria play in the International Exhibition Movement?
Victoria participated in most of the major international exhibitions. The Victorian Exhibition Commissioner was Sir Redmond Barry and he was an active participant in the exhibition movement. Victoria exhibited at the following exhibitions.
* London 1851 (a consignment of "Port Phillip wool")
* Paris 1855
* London 1862
* Dublin 1865
* Dunedin 1865
* Paris 1867
* Vienna 1873
* London 1871-74 annual international exhibitions
* Philadelphia 1876
* Paris 1878
* Sydney 1879-80 Related information:
|
|
|
|
|
|