In 1978 Diamond Valley Shire recognised the need for a new public hall in Diamond Creek. Council considered the Bini shell form of construction which was in operation overseas and in use in New South Wales as libraries, gymnasiums, sports centres and multi-purpose centres. The Council gave the go-ahead. A site was chosen opposite the Hotel and close to the railway line. One day in - the following year, in 1979, activity stood still in Diamond Creek as school children and other excited spectators watched the one-hour inflation of the Bini Shell. This unusual method of construction was invented by Italian industrial designer and architect Dante Bini. The construction pneumatically raises a level of reinforced concrete from ground level which has not been set, using an internal balloon. The inner membrane inflates and compresses the mesh and concrete against the outer membrane. A net of flexible steel rods was laid on the building’s circular base, on the top of a fabric bladder. 300 tonnes of reinforced concrete were poured onto the mesh and a sealed cover laid over the concrete making a sandwich of cover, bladder and mesh. Compressed air was pumped into the bladder and the sandwich slowly began to rise and become a massive self-supporting dome. After inflation and removal of the outer membrane workmen filled in any holes. It was some days before pneumatic drills pecked out the first opening. The ceiling of the concrete dome was lined with fluffy insulating material. The dome was 36 metres in diameter at the base and 12 metres high in the centre with a usable floor space of 670 square metres. An opening night dinner was held to celebrate the new facility on March 12, 1980. Shire President Ron Pata made a speech and unveiled a plaque. It was the first public building in Victoria to be erected using the Bini Shell design method of construction The facility could cater for up to 400 people and in 1980 a fee for use was $100 for up to 200 people, $150 for up to 300 people and $200 for up to 400 people. For the next ten years or so, locals attended the hall for marital arts classes, basketball and netball games and school discoes and various other activities. After pieces of concrete fell off a Bini shell interstate due to a construction fault, the Council closed the centre. Demotion took place during the Diamond Creek Town Fair in 1991, as part of the annual Town Fair’s program. Research by L.P. Jan 2022This was the first public building in Victoria to be erected using the Bini Shell design method of construction.Colour photograph1991, diamond creek, bini shell, demolition, oval

In 1978 Diamond Valley Shire recognised the need for a new public hall in Diamond Creek. Council considered the Bini shell form of construction which was in operation overseas and in use in New South Wales as libraries, gymnasiums, sports centres and multi-purpose centres. The Council gave the go-ahead. A site was chosen opposite the Hotel and close to the railway line. One day in - the following year, in 1979, activity stood still in Diamond Creek as school children and other excited spectators watched the one-hour inflation of the Bini Shell. This unusual method of construction was invented by Italian industrial designer and architect Dante Bini. The construction pneumatically raises a level of reinforced concrete from ground level which has not been set, using an internal balloon. The inner membrane inflates and compresses the mesh and concrete against the outer membrane. A net of flexible steel rods was laid on the building’s circular base, on the top of a fabric bladder. 300 tonnes of reinforced concrete were poured onto the mesh and a sealed cover laid over the concrete making a sandwich of cover, bladder and mesh. Compressed air was pumped into the bladder and the sandwich slowly began to rise and become a massive self-supporting dome. After inflation and removal of the outer membrane workmen filled in any holes. It was some days before pneumatic drills pecked out the first opening. The ceiling of the concrete dome was lined with fluffy insulating material. The dome was 36 metres in diameter at the base and 12 metres high in the centre with a usable floor space of 670 square metres. An opening night dinner was held to celebrate the new facility on March 12, 1980. Shire President Ron Pata made a speech and unveiled a plaque. It was the first public building in Victoria to be erected using the Bini Shell design method of construction The facility could cater for up to 400 people and in 1980 a fee for use was $100 for up to 200 people, $150 for up to 300 people and $200 for up to 400 people. For the next ten years or so, locals attended the hall for marital arts classes, basketball and netball games and school discoes and various other activities. After pieces of concrete fell off a Bini shell interstate due to a construction fault, the Council closed the centre. Demotion took place during the Diamond Creek Town Fair in 1991, as part of the annual Town Fair’s program. Research by LP January 2022This was the first public building in Victoria to be erected using the Bini Shell design method of construction.Digital copy of colour photographfred mitchell collection, 1983, bini shell, diamond creek

This Japanese journal features a photographic article on Boyd's Walsh Street home. It was written by a Japanese architecture student who visited Walsh Street with a group of 6 such students in 1961. A translation of the text follows. ________________________________________________________ "An Architect’s House in Melbourne, Australia Author: Tamon Okubo This house was built by architect Robin Boyd as an experimental work. Although in a residential area of Melbourne, the site is a 40 x 126 ft rectangle in a corner of a former park with high rise buildings on either side. Due to its location, the design focuses on protecting the privacy of the house from the outside and on the composition of the interior space, creating a somehow introverted plan. However, the interior is not completely closed from the outside; it is cleverly designed to provide both views of the rooves of nearby houses as well as the mountains in the distance. Firstly, the couple’s room and the children’s rooms are in separate buildings. These two independent structures are connected by a courtyard. The ceiling of the courtyard is partly open, so one can look out from the second-floor terrace of the couple’s room. The walls on both sides of the courtyard are of opaque glass to ensure privacy from outside. In both buildings brick walls with three-inch steel pipe inserted into the brick cavities form the structure and separate each room. The roof is connected to pairs of 3/4-inch thick cables, spaced four feet apart, attached to the brick walls of both buildings and supported by wooden posts that separate the glass panels in the rooms. The cables are not tightly strung together but are loosely suspended from the front structure, where the entrance is, to the rear one. The upper cable in the courtyard is covered with vine. The materials used are insulation board for the roof, raw timber for the structural materials, native jarrah for the timber sections of the interior walls and white eucalyptus for the joints. Robin Boyd – A Brief Personal History 1919 Born in Melbourne, Australia 1947 As an architect, was the first director of the Small Homes Service, a public housing research institute established to provide homes for needy Australians. 1960 Wins the American Institute Architects Prize (the Japanese architect, Kenzo Tange, was awarded the same prize in 1959). In the same year he was elected an honorary member of the Institute. Mr Robin Boyd is currently writing a book on the history of Australian architecture, The Walls Around Us, as well as a book on Kenzo Tange. He is a frequent visitor to Japan to exchange ideas with Japanese architects and is quite a Japanophile. " This is a photocopy of the article from Japan Interior Design No 17. Pages 4-5 are glued together, and pages 6-7 are glued together, p8 p9, p10 are separate. There is writing on it (not Robin Boyd's hand). Geoffrey Serle, Robin Boyd's biographer, may have given it to Patricia Boyd.walsh st library

The Sydney Myer Music Bowl comes alight with the 3KZ Carols by Candlelight concert, date unknown. On the stage it musicians and a choir seated in a Calvary Cross arrangement that rises towards the ceiling of the Bowl.B/W photograph of Carols by Candlelight stageKZ2031carols by candlelight, royal victorian institute for the blind