Canberra bound? Pack a blueprint to its architectural triumphs.
Unlike other Australian cities that grew haphazardly, Canberra was planned from the outset. This fact rarely inspires pride in Australians, who tend to regard it as something of an embarrassment: “Sorry for the lack of chaos.” However, admiration for the national capital’s designer cred is growing. Our Canberra archi-tour explains why.
American design duo Walter Burley Griffin and his belatedly recognised wife and fellow architect Marion met as colleagues working under Frank Lloyd Wright. News that the Australian government had launched a competition to design the new capital in Canberra interrupted their honeymoon. They entered and won in 1912. The best place to appreciate their master plan is from a lookout – either leafy Mount Ainslie or Black Mountain Tower – where you can enjoy a bird’s-eye view of the urban design. Cynics have likened it to crop circles and drawn analogies between the city’s many traffic roundabouts and the political process. Put these to the back of your mind and instead consider how the Griffins’ design interacts with the natural environment.
Canberra is sometimes referred to as the “bush capital” and this provides a clue to the Griffins’ approach. Coming from Chicago, which was undergoing a period of rampant development, the Griffins wanted to create a city that would apply the lessons learned from America’s mistakes. They were nature lovers and influenced by the Garden City design school, so for them, development and conservation went hand in hand.
Consequently, the design complements the site’s topographic features – Black Mountain, Mount Ainslie, Capitol Hill and Molonglo River (now Lake Burley Griffin), with the snow-capped Brindabellas providing a scenic background. The Griffins regarded these elements not “as obstacles to be wiped out of existence, but as opportunities to be made the most of”. Politics ultimately sidelined the Griffins in 1920, but their blueprint has endured to this day.
University Precinct
The construction of Canberra coincided with the art deco period (1910-1939). The Griffins envisaged a university precinct at the base of Black Mountain and within the grounds you’ll find the now National Film and Sound Archive (1930). As elsewhere, Australian art deco took a bowerbird approach, incorporating diverse elements such as Native American totems and African masks, but rarely Australian motifs. The building is the exception, with its stained glass platypus skylight and elegant courtyard featuring Australiana such as koalas, goannas and waratahs. Other striking examples of Canberra art deco include the Australian War Memorial (1941) in Campbell and the now Hyatt Hotel (1924) in Yarralumla.
Just nearby, and still within the university, is the Australian Academy of Science building (1959). Also likened to an igloo, it was the first major commission for Sir Roy Grounds, who also designed the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne. At the time, it symbolised the ethos of a modern Canberra, but as local writer Guy Freeland quips it also “closely approximates everyone’s image of a flying saucer”. From here it’s a short stroll to the University House hotel. A modernist design integrating landscape, building and furnishings, it was opened in 1954 to house tweedy professors. Staying there is like being in a time warp – it retains a faculty clubhouse feel and the Cellar Bar is still a popular spot for academic drinks. Fast forward through time to 2007. Nearby to the left is the contemporary John Curtin School of Medical Research. Designed by Melbourne firm Lyons, the facade references the DNA helix. To the right is the post-modern cacophony of the National Museum of Australia, designed by architects Ashton Raggatt McDougall (2001).
Lakeside
The Griffins’ design gave birth to the “Parliamentary Triangle”. Today, the seat of power, 20-year-old Parliament House on Capital Hill, connects to Knowledge, Justice and the Arts, which are represented respectively by the National Library, the High Court and the National Gallery of Australia. Bordering the lake is the fine National Library of Australia (1968), which turns 40 this year. Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies had unfortunately taken an active interest in the project and asked for “something with columns”. Seeking to turn a negative into a plus, architect Walter Bunning built a contemporary classical edifice that pays homage to the Pantheon of Ancient Rome. The main reading room overlooks the lake.
The library is a close to the National Gallery of Australia by Sydney architect Colin Madigan. The design is based on the geometric formula of tessellation or repetition of non-overlapping planes, in this case, triangles and hexagons. Sadly, a consultant from Houston Museum of Fine Arts advocated that the design not have windows that might distract visitors from the art with wonderful views. Visitors should not miss Fujiko Nakaya’s Fog Sculpture (1976), which, like Canberra, combines the beauty of natural elements with that of human design.
Inner South
Canberra’s stringent planning resulted in little crossover between residential and industrial zones. Canberra Glassworks is one of the city’s only instances of a re-purposed industrial space. Designed by Tanner Architects in Sydney and opened last year, the museum retains the industrial scale and relics, such as the boiler room, of the original Powerhouse (1915). A viewing area enables visitors to observe local glass artists creating work from a huge furnace.
The inner suburbs of Forrest, Deakin, Yarralumla and Red Hill offer rich pickings for fans of modernist design. The Canberra House website offers a useful walking tour of modernist houses including the home of influential Australian historian Manning Clark, designed by esteemed architect Robin Boyd in 1952. Also take a drive along moneyed Mugga Way, where you’ll see Canberra’s most coveted addresses. However, Calthorpes’ House (1927), at 24 Mugga Way, is the only one you can enter.
Canberra hosts some 80 diplomatic missions, and you can wrap up your architectural explorations with a stroll around Yarralumla. The US was the first to open a purpose-built embassy – in the style of a Georgian manor (1941), thus beginning a trend in “ethnic architecture”. Other embassies followed and the overall effect – from Javanese pavilions to PNG spirit houses – is that of a somewhat kitsch architectural theme park. Don’t miss the steel and glass, naval-inspired Finnish Embassy (2002) in Darwin Avenue.
Stay
Hyatt Hotel
Commonwealth Avenue, Yarralumla.
+61 2 6281 5998.
University House
1 Balmain Crescent, Acton.
+61 2 6125 5211.
Source: Qantas The Australian Way August 2008