PROJECT #:

98-079

PROJECT NAME:

Parliament House, Canberra

LOCATION:

Australian Capital Territory, AUSTRALIA

COMPLETION DATE:

March, 1989

ARCHITECT:

Romaldo Giurgola, FAIA FRAIA
Mitchell/Giurgola & Thorp Architects
P.O. Box 3634
Manuka A.C.T. 2603 AUSTRALIA

NARRATIVE DESCRIPTION:

The fundamental significance of Australia’s new Parliament House lies within its concept of making a national place for a young nation on a vast sub-continent. It was intended by the Architect as a place which functions simultaneously both as a "working" building for the Parliament as well as a symbol of national unity and broad commitment to democratic process.

The Functional Brief required a building which would last a minimum of two hundred years with all materials to be Australian in origin, wherever possible. Among over 4500 rooms, the Brief specifically included the House and Senate Chambers, office suites for Members and Senators, accommodation for the Executive Government, and functional support spaces for the Parliamentary Departments. All were to be designed to permit large numbers of visitors to witness the workings of Australian democracy without compromising the building’s security.

The siting of the building on Capital Hill at the apex of Griffin’s 1912 Plan for Canberra’s centre and the Parliamentary Triangle inherently required close consideration of the surrounding landscape and urban environment within the design process. The building’s exterior form follows the natural profile of th Hill and its curved walls reach to encompass the radial avenues established by th Griffin Plan as the primary axes of the city, as well as defining secure, open internal courtyards containing a more formal Australian landscape. The architecture’s resulting general character conveys the sense of a balanced, horizontal "nestling" of built forms within a natural setting.

Commissioned works of art and craft from Australian artists working in close collaboration with the Architect intentionally create a subtle symbolic sequence of content and meaning throughout the public and Parliamentary areas of the building. This sequence, which quietly "layers" references to the history of Aboriginal and European occupation, cultural diversity, development, and aspirations of the national within the building’s spaces, is an essential and inseparable element of the Parliament’s design and its capacity to "speak" with conviction to its occupants and visitors.