CSIRO Division of Building Research [I] (1950 - 1971)

Summary

The Division of Building Research began as the Building Material Research Sector. In 1950 it became a CSIRO Division. The purpose of this Division was to conduct research and development in many aspects of the building industry in order to increase efficiency and effectiveness. In 1988 another change took place, the Division of Building Research changing its name to the Division of Construction and Engineering.

Details

From "CSIRO research for Australia" (1962) pdf pages 38-39:
"A Section was established in 1945 to undertake research into building materials and their use. This work was complementary to that of the Commonwealth Experimental Building Station which was established in 1944 to experiment with new ideas in building construction. The Builidng Materials Research Section became the Division of Building Materails Research in 1950, with Mr Ian Langlands, the founder of the Section, as the first Chief. The laboratory is situated at Highett, a suburb of Melbourne.

The Division has built up a programme of research into the properties and uses of bricks, stone, tiles, concrete, glass, building boards, fibrous plaster, insutlating materials, and organic materials. An architecural physics laboratory concentrates on acoustics and the more basic problems of heating and cooling buildings. Ever since 1945 an information section has been needed to cope with a flood of enquiries (now some six thousand five hundred a year) from building trade and manufacturers of the building trade.

The Division has already achieved some notable successes. It has, for example, discovered that some Australian clays and shales can be processed and then used as aggregates for concrete. The product is much lighter than the sand and stone it replaces, with the result that the concrete is lighter and more useful as a building material. The Division is also seeking to provide the technical background for the manufacture in Australia of aerated concretes and mortars.

Since Australia is extraordinarily rich in gypsum reserves, scientific and technical investigations are being made into the use of gypsum as a building material, particularly in the form of fibrous plaster, an extensively used lining material unique to Australia.

Acoustics research has Jed to the successful design and construction of sound reinforcements systems in large halls and in open spaces, such as the Sidney Myer Music Bowl.

A good deal of the Division's work is investigating the causes of defects in buildings and ways of overcoming them. It has, for example, made a valuable study of the expansion of bricks and has published recommendations for preventing consequent damage to brickwork. Work on bituminous roofing materials has provided the answers to many of the problems which were previously encountered with bituminous flat roofing.

In many different ways the Division helps the builder and manufacturer. Realizing this, the building materials industry is now sponsoring research in the Division by contributing several thousand pounds each year."

Related entries

Timeline

 1945 - 1950 CSIR/O Building Material Research Section
       1950 - 1971 CSIRO Division of Building Research [I]
             1971 - 1987 CSIRO Division of Building Research [II]
                   1988 CSIRO Division of Construction and Engineering
                         1988 - 2002 CSIRO Division of Building, Construction and Engineering

Published resources

Books

• Bock, Geoff, The End was to Build Well: a Half-century of Australian Government Building Research (North Ryde, New South Wales: CSIRO, Division of Building, Construction and Engineering, 1995). Details
• CSIRO, CSIRO research for Australia: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (Canberra: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Organisation, 1962), 64 pp, https://www.eoas.info/bib-pdf/ASBS15940.pdf. Details
• Langlands, Ian, Whither building? : retiring chairman's address to Melbourne Division, Institution of Engineers, Australia, 29th April, 1952 (Melbourne, Vic.: CSIRO, Division of Building Research, 1952), 15 pp. Details
• Schedvin, C.B; Trace, K., Historical Directory of Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, 1926-1976 (Canberra: CSIRO, 1978), 101 pp. https://csiropedia.csiro.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/csiro_historical_directory_1926_1976.pdf. Details

Resources

• Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1471729. Details

Resource Sections

• 'Primary description of agency CA 4534; CSIRO, Division of Building Research [I]. Registration of entity: 1 October 1987', in RecordSearch, National Archives of Australia, 2000, https://RecordSearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/AutoSearch.asp?Number=CA%204534. Details

See also

• Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Technology in Australia 1788-1988, Online edn, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, 3 May 2000, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/index_c.html. Details