The flourishing cultural precinct of Geelong, a port city in the southern Australian state of Victoria, is home to the Geelong Library & Heritage Centre, although it is better known as The Dome, an apt description for this much-loved local architectural development.
Spread across over 6,000 sq. m, the library has five floors for public use and numerous recreation spaces arranged in an unplugged modern style. Welcoming about 9,500 visitors a week, the library has books, multimedia collections and plenty of computers and other electronic devices for public use.
Inside, tiles were chosen for the floor and wall cladding, with Mapei adhesives used for laying them because the company’s products are not easily deformable and guarantee lasting adhesion. More specifically, the high-performance, fast-setting Keraquick S1 cementitious adhesive was chosen for gluing the tiles to the cement, partly because of its no-slip performance. This is a particularly versatile product that can be used on existing floors and plaster, both indoors and outdoors. Mapemastic Easy (only for the Australian market) and Keraflex Maxi S1
were also used for the tiling on the walls and floors, respectively. These adhesive pastes are sold ready-to-use but are extremely high performance, and smooth and easy to trowel, making them excellent for large-format tiles. Finally, the sound absorbing panels were glued with Ultrabond Eco V4 SP, a universal adhesive for laying resilient and carpet flooring and covering.