Using the dome, now and then

I first used to come in here as a student when I studied architecture at RMIT. My experience during my time at RMIT was that all the ‘good stuff’ from the 720’s (the architecture section) was stolen or not there at the University libraries, so we’d often come here to cross reference as more books were available here. It must have been more intimidating for people to steal from here than from other places.

Also here I remember an amazing librarian in the map room here, she was an oracle. I think she headed up the map section; she seemed to know everything about everything without even looking it up. I and every other architecture student would start each semester at the map room looking up the Board of Works maps and historic drawings and photos of sites or buildings. It was the same as an architect in practice, but now so much of this is online so we can look it up in our offices; the Board of Works drawings online are fantastic. Sometimes I miss the oracle librarian though as she was so extraordinary, with architectural drawing she would just answer a question with ‘yes that’s available, look up 1970’, and you knew she was always right.

A lot of the institutional buildings in Melbourne are built in such a way that they have their own authority. The lines of the buildings force you to look up as you enter; they demand respect as you approach. The library is like that. In this reading room you can’t help but be both in awe of the space, and intimidated at the same time as it looks down on you, although it’s the scale rather than the lines in here. When you walk in this building the lines draw you up, but here in the dome it’s the sheer scale of the space that’s awe inspiring. This is a genuine public space; it’s very particular feeling of public space that you could never replicate in a domestic space.

It’s an incredible space, and the furnishing itself is incredible, both for now and for its time. The attention to detail, thinking through what you need to read and write in a space, I don’t think you could improve on what they’ve done here. The seats are comfortable and even adjustable, and the desks are genuine leather writing desks, the lighting is amazing.

What Mortlock and Woolley have done is quite amazing, and probably could only have been done by someone who has worked on the building for so long. Looking up at the new circulation systems, looking at the integration of new technology, the integration of old and new has been done so exceptionally here. Looking around you wouldn’t even notice that there’s a modern high-tech lighting system integrated so seamlessly into the old heritage-listed desks.

I remember in the mid 90’s experiencing a concert in the dome. It was an electronic group with puppetry in the podium. The juxtaposition made it so interesting, in this old quiet space. The acoustics were so specific and to do that performance in this octagon was quite amazing. I just really appreciate the interaction of new and old here.