Hundreds of students pass by, and through, the Library building at
James Cook University’s Douglas campus every day during semester, but many
would have little idea of the building’s significance, other than for its obvious
function as a library and central meeting place. Designed by architect James
Birrell, and opened in 1968, it is arguably one of Townsville’s most architecturally
significant buildings.
Stage 1 of James Cook University Library, c. 1970. Designed by architect James Birrell. Source: James Cook University Library Special Collections. |
The undisputed focal point of the campus, Birrell designed a
three-storey rectangular, off-form concrete building, with an oversized
steel-framed copper roof. Described as having a “sculptural form with sloping
exterior walls”, Birrell’s library is an outstanding example of 1960s Brutalist
architecture.
Descended from the Modernist architectural movement, Brutalism (which
was in vogue in Australia from the 1950s to the 1970s) has been described as
one of the most polarising architectural movements of the twentieth century.
People either love Brutalist buildings, or they hate them. There’s no middle
ground.
James Cook University Library under construction, June 1968. Note the "floating" copper roof. Source: James Cook University Library Special Collections. |
Considered by many to be aesthetically displeasing, even ugly, because
of the style’s use of exaggerated scale and unrelieved use of raw, undressed
concrete, Brutalist buildings are common on university campuses built
throughout Australia during the post-war years. The name Brutalism itself does
the movement no favours - evoking as it does images of something savage, harsh,
or unpleasant - although the term is in fact derived from the French “béton
brut”, and means “raw concrete”.
Brutalist architecture in Australia had wide-ranging international influences
and Birrell’s library design was a beneficiary of these. Those influences
included the Hungarian-born architect Marcel Bruer, who designed the Whitney
Museum of American Art in New York; English architects Jane Drew and Maxwell
Fry; and Swiss-born French architect Le Corbusier, who designed and planned the
city of Chandigarh, in northern India. Le Corbusier’s 1950s Brutalist Capitol
Complex in Chandigarh comprises three buildings - the Secretariat, the Legislative
Assembly, and the High Court - which were recently collectively listed as a
World Heritage site. The two latter buildings inspired JCU Library’s monumental
roof.
Legislative Assembly, Chandigarh, India, designed by Le Corbusier By duncid (KIF_4646_Pano) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons |
Not unsurprisingly, Birrell was also influenced by his lecturer at
Melbourne University, Roy Grounds, a leading Victorian architect of the Modern
movement. Grounds’ National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne (the first stage
of which was completed in 1968) shares similar features to Birrell’s JCU
Library. Both buildings employ the use of reinforced concrete (though Grounds’
gallery is clad in bluestone), and both have a “floating roof” with oriental design
influences; and similar arched entrances. Grounds’ gallery is surrounded by a
water-filled moat, while dry, stone-filled drains, designed to carry away storm
water runoff from the roof, surround Birrell’s JCU Library.
National Gallery of Victoria, designed by Roy Grounds. By Robert Merkel at English Wikipedia [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons |
Although the ground level of the JCU Library has since been enclosed,
Birrell designed it so that, “the lowest
level was mostly open as a great undercroft where the university population
could meet and relax.”
“The concrete walls of the exterior slope slightly as they rise and at
the level of the meeting place were pierced with circular openings, random in
size and location,” he said.
“I felt this important to the atmosphere of relaxation and a counterpoint
to the intensity of study.”
Together with Gordon Stephenson, Birrell also designed the overall
master plan of the university’s layout. In his design, Birrell was influenced
by Walter Burley Griffin’s design for the city of Canberra, particularly in
relation to integrating the architecture into the landscape. Buildings were
sited along broad axial lines that referenced Mount Stuart and Magnetic Island,
with academic services to be situated inside the “ring road”, and other
facilities, including residential colleges, to be located outside the ring.
Architect James Birrell sited JCU's library in such a way that it would have "an affinity with the mountain backdrop".
Photo: James Cook University Library Special Collections
|
Although it has been added to and altered considerably since the first
stage was built, Birrell’s JCU Library is perhaps one of the most unique
buildings in Townsville, and the only one that can truly be described as
“Brutalist”.
The "Brutalist-inspired" Townsville City Council Civic Centre. Source: City Libraries Townsville Local History Collection. |
This is the seventh in the JCU
Library Special Collections’ series of eight articles written by Trisha Fielding which utilise the
Collections’ varied resources to explore the historical themes for its
“Townsville Past & Present” T150 project.
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