Shine Dome
Roy Grounds · Canberra, Australia · 1959
Roy Grounds’s Shine Dome is a circular concrete building whose shallow domed roof appears to float above a surrounding moat. The geometry creates a highly distinctive auditorium and meeting facility for the Australian Academy of Science while giving the building an almost autonomous sculptural presence within its landscaped site. Curving interior circulation follows the radial plan and reinforces the relationship between structure and space. Completed in 1959, the building is an important example of Australian structural modernism and one of Canberra’s most recognizable post-war architectural landmarks.