Join the ACT Chapter in celebrating the Torrens Neighbourhood Centre by Dirk Bolt, 2024 winner of The Sir Roy Grounds Award for Enduring Architecture.
The Enduring Architecture Ceremony will include remarks from the Enduring Architecture Jury, with Minister Steel unveiling a commemorative plaque on the building.
We are also honored to welcome Tonique Bolt, the daughter of architect Dirk Bolt, who will be attending to share in this celebration of her father’s work.
JURY CITATION
The Torrens Shopping Centre was designed by Dirk Bolt FRAIA, a Dutch born architect and town planner. The shopping centre was completed in 1967 and has been in operation since. The complex is also known as the Torrens Neighbourhood Centre. The line of shops runs north south, with the building curving at the southern end, forming a gracious semi-circle of retail and professional tenancies facing to catch the northern sun. Making the most of the sloping block, the shops overlook a lowered courtyard parking area so that, as Bolt described, ‘the cars were placed where they belonged; within reach but at a lower level so that they did not dominate the scene’. A traffic island, planted with now well-established trees, responds to the curve, and is centrally located within the parking area which creates a sensible parking and pedestrian route. The shops are accessed from this courtyard via circular form stairs, an original ramp, and more recent compliant ramps. The curve intentionally follows the contours of the landscape and the nearby roadway, as Bolt explained that the building’s ‘shape related to the main road and its appearance to Mt Taylor behind’. The centre’s construction materiality includes the well-maintained jarrah timber battens under the veranda and the unusual detail of textured clinker bricks which were sourced from Canberra Brickworks in Yarralumla. The high-pitched roof, originally clad with asbestos cement roofing shingles, featured roof rafters extending out to form a striking pergola over the front walkway.
Although these rafters have since been removed, the strength of the shape of the roof form does not appear unduly compromised. The 30/60-degree off-centre roof form is representative of Bolt’s style. The form of the curve and the steep roof slope demonstrates his careful design considerations creating a generous sheltered area that invites shoppers to stop and chat. When we consider that most retail car parking experiences are perfunctory at best, the Torrens precinct demonstrates that what might have been a humble and ordinary trip to the shops, becomes a place that can function to bring a new community together.
VIDEO BY EDDIE GONZALEZ
Local esteemed architect Eddie Gonzalez RAIA created an incredible painting of this year’s winner of the award – the iconic Torrens Neighbourhood Centre. Gonzalez recorded his creation of the artwork and you can watch his process below.
