Story of its construction

The Dome: The story of its construction

Some say it escaped from the X-Files; others think it draws its architectural inspiration from an early model Holden motor car. Many Canberrans refer to it as the 'Martian Embassy'! Completed in 1959 and reflecting some of the more adventurous architectural ideas of that time, the Shine Dome (previously known as Becker House) remains one of the most unusual buildings in Australia.

Walking across the curved bridge over the water-filled moat, you get the feeling you are approaching something not entirely of this Earth. The way the great dome – which is roof, walls and structure combined – dives down beneath the still water gives a sense that it is floating; even silently hovering, perhaps preparing to return to the far reaches of the galaxy, whence it came. From the walkway between the moat and the inner walls, the great 'scallops' or arches provide a 360° panoramic sequence of 16 views of the capital city. Framed as the views are, it is like walking around a gallery of virtual reality booths.

A dome for a home

The Shine Dome was conceived before Canberra's Lake Burley Griffin existed, before microchips, and before manned space travel. It was created in the visionary scientific era of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.

The Dome came about because the Australian Academy of Science needed a home. Once the Academy had found a suitable site, the next step was to select an architect. Six architects were invited to submit plans, and on 1 December 1956 the Academy's Building Design Committee met in Adelaide to look at them.

Much has been said about the compromising tendency of committees, but the Academy's Building Design Committee wanted anything but a compromise. They wanted a building that would be of a very high order aesthetically, judged from a non-traditional standpoint.

After much discussion the most radical design – the now familiar dome – was chosen. The committee's main worry was that the Academy's Council might think that the design by architectural firm Grounds, Romberg and Boyd was too different, too avant-garde. As it turned out, the supposedly conservative Council members unanimously adopted the design.

The architects

Grounds, Romberg and Boyd were in partnership from 1953 to 1961. The three had all started practising just when modern architecture began to emerge in Australia. They were seen as the most influential Australian architects of their time.

Roy Grounds was the sole architect on the Academy's building. It was his design that won the commission and the rest of the firm was brought in during the documentation process.

It can't be done

The radically different building created radically different problems for the architects and engineers involved. Some doubted it could be built. Nobody knew how to calculate the stresses created by a 45-ton concrete dome perched on 16 slender supports. This was vital, because if they got it wrong the whole dome might collapse when the building supports were taken away. In the end they grappled with the problem by building a one-fortieth scale model to see if it would work. Even then there were those who doubted that the real dome would behave like the model (which was made of fibre-glass and resin – not concrete).

But those who trusted the model were proved right. When they built the massive concrete dome and tentatively removed the forest of wooden formwork and supports, the top of the dome dropped less than a centimetre as it took its own weight. It was a triumph for those who worked on the calculations and the model, and a wonderful reward for those who had had the vision to see the project through.

A rumbling from within

But getting the 'roof' on was only half the battle. In the centre of the dome was a conference room for 150 people – and the big concrete umbrella did some strange things to sound. Again, the problems were new ones, and it took a great deal of work by acoustic engineers to get the sound right. The solution was to use a complex series of acoustic baffles to control the sound. Some were suspended from the ceiling and others built as part of long wooden panels on the walls. After much trial and error, the sound problem was solved.

But just when they thought they'd got it right, a whole new and totally unexpected problem emerged. The elegant eucalyptus sound baffles gracing the walls did something very odd to the audience. By creating a form of optical interference, they made about half of the people in the conference room feel ill. It took quite a while to find a solution to this one, but finally one of the Fellows, Dr Victor McFarlane, who worked at the John Curtin School of Medicine at the ANU, came up with the idea of filling in the visually offending gaps with strings. This fixed the optical problem without spoiling the acoustics – to the everlasting gratitude of those who, by attending Academy meetings in the past, had suffered for science.

Weather-averaging dome

The concrete roof of the dome is sheathed in copper – and under the copper is a layer of vermiculite which partly insulates the interior from outside temperatures. This provides a degree of thermal inertia and the temperature of the dome's underside is roughly an average of the outdoor temperature of the previous 24 hours. It can become unpleasantly hot after a February heatwave or chilly after an August cold spell. However, a natural gas heating system helps keep the building warm in winter. In the summer the sloping roof shields the windows from direct sunlight. Cooling was added in 2000 as a part of a major renovation.

Self-supporting

In the same way that the dome is self supporting – none of the internal walls actually hold up the roof – the building was built from private and corporate donations. In the early 1950s, under the Presidency of (Sir) Mark Oliphant, the Academy and its 64 Fellows set about finding funds to create a building of its own. The Academy, which had been using offices in the Australian National University, recruited some eminent industrialists to its cause and received its first cheque (for £25,000) from BHP.

Thus encouraged, they put pressure on their Fellows not only to provide funds, but to encourage their business associates to do the same. The dome, which cost a total of £260,000 to build, was completed in 1959. But by 1961 only £165,000 had been raised. Then £100,000 was donated by J. E. Becker. The major renovation carried out in 2000 was supported by a donation of one million dollars from Professor John Shine, FAA, and a grant of $525,000 from the National Council for the Centenary of Federation. The building is now named The Shine Dome.

A capital landmark

For many years the Dome was a symbol of the national capital. It featured in news backdrops, on posters and even as a souvenir fridge magnet. Eclipsed now by more recent high-tech wonders (such as the Telstra Tower and New Parliament House), The Shine Dome continues to fascinate visitors to Canberra.

Statistics

Cost of building: £200,000
Area of building: 24,175 square feet
Volume of building: 398,865 cubic feet
Cost per square foot: £8
Cost per cubic foot: 10 shillings
Total cost, including furniture, equipment, landscaping and professional fees: £260,000

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