Dorrit Black Building
Creatively purpose-built
There
is no mistaking the purpose of the Dorrit Black Building. Home to the
technical workshops of the South Australian School of Art and the
Louis Laybourne-Smith School of Architecture and Design, this building
makes a robust statement struck from rough grey concrete and relieved by
bold stainless steel finishes and large sheets of glass.
John Wardle Architects in association with Hassell Pty Ltd have created a bare-bones industrial feel for this building. The building's services are exposed, revealing its no-nonsense workshop intent, and floor to ceiling windows line the street facade, offering passers-by a chance to view creative acts in progress.
The building houses ceramic kilns and glass blowing equipment, printmaking and jewellery apparatus, state-of-the-art photography darkrooms, textile, painting and drawing studios and all the machinery required to make furniture or models or work with metal. There are ‘no-touch’ sensor taps for clean-up areas in the ceramics wing and the jewellery and printmaking workshops have acid resistant flooring.
Dorrit Black (1891-1951).
The
firstborn child of an architect/surveyor, Dorrit Black showed early signs of
talent in the expressive arts, excelling in writing, drawing and painting
throughout her school years in Adelaide.
She went on to study at the former South Australian School of Arts and Crafts in the early part of the 20th century and then, at the age of 23, moved to Sydney to continue her exploration of the arts and painting, eventually teaching part-time.
Dorrit Black spent several years in London and Paris studying with some of Europe’s esteemed modernist artists before moving back to Sydney in 1929. It was at this time she began promoting linocut art in Australia and the prints she produced are considered to be the most accomplished of any Australian artists of that era.
Returning to Adelaide in 1934, Dorrit Black taught at the School of Art where she influenced a whole generation of students during the 1940s before her life was tragically cut short at age 59.