van Zyl, D. W.Marais, A. H.Roodt, Leon2025-01-082025-01-081987http://hdl.handle.net/11660/12950Thesis (Ph.D.(Urban and Regional Planning))--University of the Free State, 1987Considerations of the circumstances prevailing within the Orange Free State during the latter half of the nineteenth century have been so largely dominated by events of political or military significance that the extensive body of building executed during that period has been accorded only sporadic attention by historians.¹ To more fully comprehend the nature of the architectural legacy the Department of Architecture of the University of the OF S fielded a team of 150 students to make a comprehensive field-survey in 1977. By its extent and coverage it covered a terrain which would have lain beyond the resources of any one person. In addition to these studies the author presents in more detail a number of case histories with which he was personally involved. The principal aims of the work can be summarised as follows: To analyse the complex nature of the underlying cultural and environmental determinants at work in shap­ing the architectural image of a 𝘥𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘰 State in a remote hinterland, and in particular to demonstrate how the ascendency of Victorian influence occurred concurrently with the decline of the Cape Dutch phenomenon; secondly to show that a neoclassical impetus stemming from Holland, Belgium and Germany played a vital role in important civic buildings toward the end of the Republican era, and finally to emphasize that while clearly discernable rural vernacular developments led to interesting and unique in­digenous tectonic expressions, they could never fully escape the pervasive and modifying influence of external cultural impacts. Arising from these general aims and from the analysis of the available material it was possible to formulate the principal hypothesis namely that the architectural matrix of the Orange Free State was unique, in ­as much as the complex nature of the cultural determinants and environmental factors yielded, in the in­credibly short space of 50 years, tectonic expressions which, by mid-century, departed transitionally from African precepts, gradually assimilating the pervasive influences of Europe and finally guardedly accepting the dictates of Neo-Gothicism and neoclassicism even as it subtly modified them eclectically into buildings expressive of the concept of a Model Republic. To structure the analysis it was decided to isolate five salient periods, defining them as: Disputed advent, Modest beginnings, Eventful growth, Brief flowering and Untimely extinction. In each of these periods five entrepreneurial functions are identified namely, Private homebuilding, Commerce and industry, Buildings for the Community, Local Authority and Central Government.² The five periods are delineated in five chapters. These chapters are preceded by an Introduction which provides the setting for the subse­quent events. A final section collates the conclusions arrived at and examines the validity of the hypothesis.enThesisUniversity of the Free State