This thesis focuses on eighteen schools designed in a “moderately modern” version of an inter-war functionalist style by Queensland architect, Frank Leo Cullen (1909-91) for the Roman Catholic Church in Queensland (1941-53). Preceding the adoption of modernism for State school architecture, they also differed from the schools the Church had built before. The modern appearance of Cullen’s functionalist schools is linked to the secular education Catholic schools provided - effectively functioning as “billboards” to build public awareness and support for the Church’s ‘claim’ for government funding for their primary and secondary schools, resulting in the dissemination of Modernism/functionalism in Queensland.
Project members
Dr Paul Dielemans