VOSON Lab: last week in the Haydon Allen building
The ANU School of Sociology is moving from the Haydon-Allen building to the brand new RSSS building. The main objective of the new building is to bring RSSS together into one physical space, in order to build collaboration and multidisciplinarity.
Since 1996, the Haydon Allen building hosted the School of Sociology. Its modernist architecture and retro furniture express the concept of 'analogue' academia.
Rob Ackland's office was once, Manning Clark's office, space where the renowned historian might have written (or at least conceived) the six-volume A History of Australia.
Soon, we will be posting some photos of the new location.
Brief Historical Overview of the building (Tanner, 2017 p.64)
The construction began in 1959, with the erection of the Haydon-Allen Building (22), designed by Bunning and Madden architects and built by AV Jennings. The foundation stone for this building was laid (for the Canberra University College (CUC) Arts Building) by Prime Minister RG Menzies on October 12 1959, and opened by the Governor General, First Viscount Dunrossil (William Morrison) on September 14, 1960. It was named in the honour of the first fulltime members of the CUC academic staff, Professor Jeffrey Haydon (1882-1967), Senior Lecturer in Modern Languages, and Doctor Leslie Allen (1879-1964), Senior Lecturer in English and Latin, who began at the CUC in 1931.
The Haydon-Allen Building (22) was the first permanent building constructed for the CUC in 1959-1960, and was one of the first four permanent buildings constructed on campus, and the first building to house the Faculty of Arts (School of General Studies). By 1996, it had become the Faculty of Arts, History, Political Science and Sociology. It currently houses the School of Social Sciences, including the Schools of History, International Relations, Political Science, Sociology, and the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics.
The following year the Haydon-Allen Lecture Theatre (23), or ‘The Tank’, was completed and opened. Designed by Bunning and Madden, the construction was completed by Kennedy and Bird builders. A National Capital Development Commission (NCDC) design presented first was met with opposition from ANU. It was the first purpose-built lecture theatre to be constructed on campus.