Light Timber Construction schools
In the 2000s with growing enrolments especially in Melbourne many LTC school buildings were either being demolished and replaced, or refurbished, and so intact original examples are becoming rare.
A report commissioned in 1949 by the new director of the Department of Education, Sir Alan Hollick Ramsay estimated that local high school enrolments would increase by 20,000 students over the next decade.
In 1952-3 Department of Public Works chief architect Percy Everett and his Minister, Samuel Merrifeld developed the "Light Timber Construction" (or LTC) design,[3] and by June 1953 85 of an initial 200 had already been built.
They provide bright, healthy rooms, and they indicate a refreshing break from the obese and overstyled modernism of much recent Government building.
[9] The LTC design was used for more than general classrooms: the 1957 contract for the erection of a trade annex in light timber construction and masonry veneer at Bairnsdale Technical School was for £16,478;[10] in 1962 a modified Domestic Arts wing was built at Mortlake High School in light timber construction with a concrete veneer for £23,713.
Whilst small design variations existed on different sites, and between primary and secondary schools, the overall construction method and aesthetic remained the same.
LTC classrooms were typically furnished in a uniform way, with built-in blackboards and cupboards at the front of the room, fluorescent lighting from above, and venetian blinds on the windows.
Science rooms had a raised demonstration table at the front, benches with Bunsen burners, sinks at the side and some were equipped with a roll down blackboard.
[3] Whilst the LTC design provided government with a cheap and efficient method for rapidly constructing schools, the design meant that buildings were hot in summer and cold in winter due to poor insulation, and were often viewed as being "industrial" and "sterile" fitting a "factory model" of schooling.
[12] The term 'chicken coop' was coined, referring to both the uniformity of the design with rows of high windows, and to the noise created when the bell rang and students changed rooms: a cacophony resembling a 'million clucking hens'.
[14] Owing to their cheap construction, and funding cuts that were made to education in the 1980s and 1990s, many LTC school buildings aged poorly, becoming shabby and run-down,[15] becoming extremely expensive to maintain as they were not intended to last more than 20 years.
[16] In 2006 the Australian Education Union said that the cost simply replacing LTC schools is $1.9 billion, and would take 30 years at the then rates of Government spending.
